While Brooklyn indie-rock has been embracing lo-fi and garage-rock a lot lately, it’s been for two tried & true reasons: easy/cheap to play, and easy/cheap to record. Those were the same reasons behind late seventies punk, early nineties grunge, and a lot of other alternative-rock movements, and they aren’t bad reasons – we live in tough times, people, even worse than the early nineties recession or late seventies stagflation. But most Brooklyn hipster-rockers try to make up for their economic straights by making up a ‘scene’, or taking their economically enforced styles to weird directions. So that’s why it is so refreshing to hear someone who just enjoys this sound, like Parallelo, the sixth record by the borough’s own Phil Radiotes, a.k.a. Phil & The Osophers.
Well, not so ‘a.k.a.’ anymore, as Radiotes has expanded his band from a solo act to include actual ‘Osophers’, first with roommate Kevin Estrada on drums for their last record (QRO interview with Estrada & Radiotes), Toward Conquering the Invisible North, and now with other roommate Gus Iverson on bass for Parallelo (though, in some weird symmetry, since joining the band, Iverson has moved out of the Osopher house…). However, Phil & The Osophers remains primarily a vehicle for Radiotes (who taught Estrada & Iverson how to play their instruments), though you can hear Estrada’s drumming remarkably improving, and bass is a very useful backbeat for the band’s up-down walking-garage sound.
While other Brooklyn acts either try to go artsy with their lo-fi, or wild in their garage-rock, Phil & The Osophers aren’t trying to make a statement. Their up-down walking-garage isn’t 100% original, but what is? And it’s not like you’ve been inundated with it; you’ve only heard it just enough over the years that Parallelo tracks like "We Have All Summer", "Mayan Calendar", and "Cheap Livin’" easily make you smile. The sound is so easy to enjoy that, faced with low-tech recording (all done in the Osopher house), one could easily feel, "I couldn’t care less…" – the standout line from the standout "Pineapple".
Parallelo does dip into the darker, haunting side of garage with back-to-back songs "Creators" and "Milestones". The former, "about God in the time of slavery" (QRO video), is an interesting and strong change that Parallelo could actually use more of – just not right after that track. "Milestones" would have been better placed anywhere else on the record, breaking up some of the tracks that do sound somewhat similar, and the record’s low-tech recording does start to limit and inhibit what Phil & The Osophers are trying to do there. And after the excellent "Pineapple" (which includes a Radiotes harmonica solo – when live, he uses a headset, Dylan-style), Parallelo does sag a bit with its final two tracks, the scattered "Propeller Jet" and unfocused, over-extended "Well Being".
But you don’t look to Phil & The Osophers for perfection – however, neither do you look to (now) them for sloppy-for-the-sake-of-sloppy good times. Instead, just appreciate their cheap livin’ – the band even sells honest-to-god cassettes at shows – and enjoy the summery Parallelo while you can still stare at the sun.
MP3 Stream: "Pineapple"
