Plus, read the 7.7 album review from Pitchfork
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On August 28th, 2015, Monk Parker releases his debut solo record on the Bronze Rat label (London/Berlin). How The Spark Loves The Tinder was written during the breakup of Parker’s band The Low Lows & his relocation from New York City back home to Texas. There, over the following three years, hundreds of hours of music were recorded with over 30 musicians (including members of Okkervil River and The Polyphonic Spree), largely in the welding shed of the family farm outside Austin.
Here Parker serves up a funereal but majestic altAmericana, in which stately, dreamlike waltzes build to explosive, gospeltinged climaxes. Revolving around a slew of steel guitars, vintage organs and brass, the intricately orchestrated songs evoke Stax/Volt balladry and a woozy Phosphorescent-style country narcosis. Alternating with a cacophony of buried noise melodies, this is the bed on which his damning, redemptive stories of carnality & affection lie.
“For all of this life-affirming beauty, the album’s operative emotional state is resignation. Parker’s songs find solace in the ability to accept defeat-lost love, unfulfilled potential-and present this ability as a form of wisdom. This is the sort of mind state achieved only from age and experience. Far from depressing, the exquisite dejection of How the Spark Loves the Tinder is almost celebratory. After all, you can’t fight the changing seasons.” – Pitchfork
TOUR DATES:
8/27 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
8/28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Satellite
8/30 – San Francisco, CA – Hotel Utah
9/03 – Seattle, WA – The Lofi
9/4 – Spokane, WA – The Bartlett
9/5 – Portland, OR – Bunk Bar
9/6 – Eugene, OR – Sam’s Bond Garage
Monk Parker
How The Spark Loves The Tinder
(Bronze Rat)
Street Date: Aug. 28, 2015
MONK PARKER LINKS: