Parenthetical Girls
The Scottish Play

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What their label says...

- "When I do die I shall be glad to get away from loud pop music." - Ivor Cutler.

*  Ivor Cutler was an author, humorist, poet, absurdist, public school teacher, and criminally marginalized figure in the field of popular music.

*  He released ten albums of songs and not songs-all characterized by his droll, thick, Scottish brogue-between 1961 and 1997 on some of Britain’s most influential labels (Virgin, Rough Trade, Creation), back when people still cared about such things. He recorded an album with George Martin, and appeared in The Magical Mystery Tour film. He was dry and humble and charming and we miss him dearly. Ivor Cutler passed away in 2006 at the tender age of 83.

*  Parenthetical Girls are a marginal pop group from Portland, Oregon. They have released a handful of records, most notably last year’s celebrated and sprawling orchestral pop opus Entanglements.

*  Over the past several years, Parenthetical Girls have developed a collective obsession with the life and works of Mr. Cutler- so much so that they decided to devote two full sides (an astonishing eleven-and-a-half minutes!) of a ten-inch LP to pay tribute to his gentle genius.

*  Packaged in a silk-screened sleeve designed by renowned illustrator (and fellow Glaswegian) David Shrigley, this extremely limited release (150 only for UK!) features Parenthetical adaptations of four songs and four prose poems from across the dense Cutler discography. These sparse, meditative recordings are a far cry from the chamber pop bombast of Parenthetical Girls’ recent output, as the group continues to skirt sonic expectations with yet another creative 180. Which means we’re back to where we started. As good a place as any for this to end, I suppose.

*  Tracklist: Sit Down, Whale , Badge, Doughnut, A Nuance, Over You Go Going, In A Field,  The Best Thing Everybody Got