Biography
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Years Active
2002 – 2013 (11 years)
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Founded In
Everett, Snohomish County, Washington, United States
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Members
- Rachael Jensen (2006 – 2011)
Parenthetical Girls was an experimental rock band which formed in 2002 in Everett, Washington, United States and disbanded in 2013.
The last line-up consisted of multi-instrumentalists Zac Pennington, Rachael Jensen, Eddy Crichton and Matt Carlson. Pennington is the only original member remaining in the band.
Begun as Swastika Girls, the home recording project of former childhood friends in the failed mill town of Everett, Washington, the membership of the band — in mutual disinterest and indifference — quietly chipped away at itself until only one particularly under-qualified member, singer and relative non-musician Zac Pennington, remained.
As long on ambition as he was short on musical aptitude, Pennington willed what was little more than a particularly arduous band name into a recording partnership with some of his especially capable acquaintances — namely The Dead Science’s Jherek Bischoff and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart. That partnership became a record called (((GRRRLS))) (2004), released on Pennington’s newly-christened vanity label, Slender Means Society.
Soon after Pennington moved to Portland, Parenthetical Girls became something of an actual band, though mostly in the non-committal sense: comprised first of (a much-indebted) Pennington, Bischoff, and Bischoff’s Dead Science-mate Sam Mickens, and eventually just Pennington and Mickens. This core trio would ultimately produce Safe As Houses (2006), a record that would go on to some critical acclaim.
Following the release of Safe As Houses, the band fatefully settled on a more stable line-up, adding to its ranks several recent Portland imports in Matt Carlson, Rachael Jensen, and Eddy Crichton — multi-instrumentalists each — whose full-time membership would eventually help to shape Parenthetical Girls in their own respective images. After several lengthy tours in the U.S. and Europe in support of Safe As Houses, the four piece convened with producer Bischoff to begin preparations for their third LP, Entanglements, which was released on September 9th, 2008.
LPs Discography:
- (((GRRRLS))) (2004)
- Safe As Houses (2006)
- Entanglements (2008)
- Privilege* (2013)
EPs Discography:
- A Parenthetical Girls Family Christmas (EP, 2006)
- Addendum EP (EP, 2007)
- Aagoo Records Presents: A David Horvitz Picture Disc With Parenthetical Girls (EP, 2008)
- A Song For Ellie Greenwich (EP, 2008)
- The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (If Occasionally Misguided) Tribute To the Works of Ivor Cutler (Mini-LP, 2008)
- Untanglements (Alternative Versions, 2010)
- Covers. (Covers LP, 2010)
- Christmas. (EP, 2010)
- Careful Who You Dance With (Remixes EP, 2011)
- Demos For The Dreaming (Kate Bush Covers, 2011)
- Parenthetical Girls Save Christmas (EP, 2011)
- Good Christian Men Rejoice, It's Parenthetical Girls (EP, 2012)
Privilege EPs:
- Privilege, pt. I: On Death & Endearments (2010)
- Privilege Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect (2010)
- Privilege, Pt. III: Mend & Make Do (2011)
- Privilege, Pt. IV: Sympathy For Spastics (2011)
- Privilege, Pt. V: Portrait of a Reputation (2012)
- Privilege (Compilation, 2012)
Singles Discography:
- Twenty Bees 7" (Single, 2006)
- Jackie's Strength / On Your Shore (Single, 2007)
- I Am Hated For Loving / Handsome Devil (Single, 2009)
- The Christmas Creep (Single, 2009)
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