Graham Parker
Graham Parker
Rock and Roll is about a lot of things: looks, attitude, girls, rebellion, love, hate, and girls. At the end of the day, the week, the year, the decade, though, what makes it memorable, what pile drives it into your DNA, is THE HOOK. The Hook grabs your brain and your feet and your gut and will not let go. It is timeless and fond of showing itself at times both perfect and distinctly inappropriate. Few have been better over the past 30 years at crafting truly irresistible hooks than Graham Parker, and his latest CD has more good ones than a Sugar Ray Leonard fight.
Songs of No Consequence continues GP’s run as one of Rock and Roll’s legendary figures. His pen is as sharp as ever (long known as one of the most literate, biting writers ever to ply the trade), as is his effortless coupling of punk’s energy and American R&B and soul’s swagger. Joining him on this go round are The Figgs, who last recorded with him on the live LP The Last Rock and Roll Tour and bring a solid eight-ball-in-the-hip-pocket barroom strut to GP’s consummate songcraft.
GP has been threatening to use The Figgs on a studio record for some time, and, finally, some songs that have been waiting around for the right situation to present themselves found kindred spirits in the bands’ talents. The whole enchilada was whipped out in nine panicky days, a testimony to their no-nonsense hard work ethic and under-appreciated skills as musicians and arrangers. When asked to proffer an opinion of their collective efforts, GP was heard to say "this record rocks like safari park chimp."
We couldn’t agree more.
Graham Parker first came on the Rock and Roll Radar with his band The Rumour (with whom he has TWO albums in Rolling Stone’s "Top 100 Albums of All Time"). Along with such contemporaries as Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, and Dave Edmunds, GP was among the first wave to give the staid 70’s rock establishment a swift kick in the nethers and re-invigorate music with his ear for indelible hooks and barroom brawler’s energy.
Since then, GP’s body of work remains one of the sharpest and most original knives in the drawer of Rock and Roll history and shows no sign of dulling.
Give Angie Mead (angie@bloodshotrecords.com)
a jingle at 773-604-5300 for any press needs.
For tour coverage, contact our new gal, JP (jp@bloodshotrecords.com)
BLOODSHOT RECORDS // 3039 W. IRVING PARK ROAD // CHICAGO IL 60618
Phone: 773-604-5300 // Fax: 773-604-5019 // Website: www.bloodshotrecords.com
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