Have a Go with the Parcels, The Parcels (Download)
Work has been miserable lately. The weather has been miserable lately. Everything has felt, to some small degree, miserable lately. It's not surprising that things might feel this way in the dead of winter. February is always the worst. (In this case, "the worst" may or may not be compounded by the fact that I can't afford to attend the fabulous Slumberland Records shows taking place on the west coast this March.)
The good news: such a bleak and seemingly endless time of year is the perfect opportunity to rediscover lost favorites. Have a Go with the Parcels is a gem of an album that I loved in high school & according to iTunes, haven't listened to since 2007 (my middle college years).
I found out about the Parcels through Light Rotation, a website that I used to scour for music reviews that also featured a database of Go Sailor and Heavenly lyrics that happened to be run by Parcels drummer AJ Naito. AJ still has a small webpage dedicated to the Parcels that you can view here, but aside from that, information about the band is a bit scarce.
So, today I've uploaded the band's now out of print full-length, Have a Go with the Parcels. It's roughly 25 minutes of cutesy pop about dinosaurs, witches, hippie girls and lobster kids. My favorite song on the album is, by far, the slightly (and by slightly I do mean slightly) more serious "Minor Disturbance Grrrl," a heartfelt response to riot grrrl that, at 14 years old, I totally connected with. (For those keeping score, I've name-dropped this song at least once before on this blog). To be honest, I'm still a bit bummed that the idea of minor disturbance grrrls never really caught on. I know that I still very much identify as one.
If "Minor Disturbance Grrrl" hasn't sold you on downloading this, maybe I should mention "Jessica Pancakes," an ode to a pancake loving girl set to the tune of "Windy" by the Association.
Fun Fact: The zine that I've published somewhat regularly for the last 7 or 8 years takes its name from a line in the Parcels' "Measure Me Sky."
Have a Go with the Parcels, The Parcels (Download)
2 comments:
Hey hey,
This is AJ, a good friend of mine sent me the link to your blog post the other day so I thought I'd say hi. Thanks for spreading the word about Have a Go!
The crazy coincidence about the timing of this post is that on the same day I uploaded old video clips of the band. One of them is us featured on a Japanese tv show and the other is our set from Kindercore Expo 2000 in Athens. They're up on the webpage right now if you want to check them out.
Hope your weather and work gets better!
-aj
Hi AJ,
Thanks for the comment! Have a Go has been a favorite album of mine for a long time.
That's funny about the timing! Those videos are great, though, thanks for letting me know about them.
K.
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