Authenticity matters more in today’s ‘workingman’s punk’ than in a lot of other scenes/genres. The stories that are told & emotions that are conveyed need that authenticity to give the gravel gravitas to the mix of gritty country & hardscrabble punk. So Canada’s Parkas more than upped the ante by releasing the new You Should Have Killed Us When You Had The Chance after calling it quits.
Their third record, after eight years together (including Austin Chronicle calling them the ‘sleeper hit’ of SXSW… 2005), isn’t an overly dreary & dark affair. In fact, stand outs "Isolation Pay" and "The Gang’s All Gone" are rollicking, ‘don’t go quietly into that good night’ anthems. Indeed, the more upbeat tracks like those two, the wry "Muscle Memory", and up-rock procession "Blood Brothers" are, on average, more enjoyable than the downbeat ones, whose twang on closers "Goodnight, Nemesis" & "Night and Morning" can get a little overwrought. Better is the loss/rock mixes to early numbers "Waxwing" & "Les Fleurs Du Mal" – and the real closer is the alt-workingman’s procession hidden track (getting to hidden tracks like that, with the official final song not ending but playing on in silence, forcing the listener to fast forward, are an unfortunate holdover from the nineties heyday of CDs, but we’ll forgive the Parkas this one…).
It’s supposed to be easier for a band up in Canada, thanks to the Factor Program (artist grants from the government), universal health care, and the massive nearby U.S. market. At least that’s the myth perpetuated on the southern side of the indie-rock border, akin to an American hippie’s belief that there’s free-flowing weed in The Netherlands. But the world’s as real up there as it is down here, welfare state or no, giving Parkas that extra bit of a grit – and making you sadder that you didn’t get to know them When You Had The Chance.
MP3 Stream: "The Gang’s All Gone"
