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Parenthetical Girls show us the dark, dirty and beautiful spaces in between

by Michael Byrne of the Willamette Week

[PRETTY, UNCOMFORTABLE] (((GRRRLS))) has been lurking in vinyl form for two years now, having about the same effect on the Northwest music scene as any other private breakup. In that time, it seems, Zac Pennington, Parenthetical Girls' sole permanent member and a former Portland Mercury music, took his album's final line, "Some things are best left unsaid," to heart and left these songs in comfortable obscurity. What a goddamn shame. But, as Pennington might say (with a nudge), "Better late than never." We now have it in digital rerelease.

Self-conscious cliches aside, (((GRRRLS))) is a pretty yet uncomfortable 20-minute album, ripe with honesty that is as often ugly as it is shimmering. The music consists of bare xylophone and piano melodies suspended above a heavy bass undertow, exposing the influence of the album's partial mixer and Xiu Xiu lead man Jamie Stewart. The sound works to push this point home: The thing said and its shadow are inseparable. The track "C-86 Is Killing My Life" begins with a summery "sha-la-la-la" chorus that is pummeled seconds later by a massive bass drop and Pennington's intensely human (read: untrained, imperfect) vocals singing, "So please fight the tears/ For they never looked so insincere." On opener "Of Collateral Damage," a musically delicate and sweet song, he begins by singing, "I only meant half the things I said," and ends with the regretful refrain "you'll be alright," repeated over and over. Musically and lyrically, the album takes place in a confusing area where a tense field of pain mingles with its own beauty.

It's a horrific thought that if we didn't treat each other like shit, we'd never have that strange space. But we should be grateful for that, even if the only result is this line that's been stuck in my brain since (((GRRRLS))) first made its way to my headphones: "So take my lip between your teeth/ And taste me/ By devouring." It's uncomfortable and it reminds me that some things are best left unsaid, but you really don't know that until you hear them. And by then, you're hooked.

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