PREMIERE | Parker Longbough releases edgy lo-fi music, 'Infinite Zinn'
'Infinite Zinn' exudes a cool proto-punk essence
Parker Longbough premieres "Infinite Zinn" today on Popdust. The song is from Left on Tri, his latest album, slated to drop April 20. "Infinite Zinn" is a homogenized tribute to Howard Zinn and David Foster Wallace.
Parker Longbough is the musical project of Matthew Witthoeft, who hails from Anchorage, Alaska. Prior to performing as Parker Longbough, Witthoeft played with the band Uncle Jesse. After Uncle Jesse dissolved, Witthoeft started performing with various musicians as Parker Longbough. In 2006, he released his first LP, Commander Comatose, followed by Bridges to Nowhere/Delirium in Lo-Fi.
With a sound merging guitar-pop flavors and rootsy indie rock, Parker Longbough's music brims with contagious lo-fi ambiance, rough and ready tones, and elementary resonance. In other words, it's unprocessed and vibrant.
"Infinite Zinn" kicks off with crunching drums, followed by spluttering synth harmonics augmented by potently dirty guitars. The raw, splashy feel of the music reeks of cool lo-fi proto-punk essences, providing a sharp metallic stridency to the sound. Essentially, it's industrial punk-pop with beau coup sonic heft. When the brass accents jump in, riding over the roiling guitars and synths, the music takes on a delicious eccentric zest.
Witthoeft's distorted vocals hit just the right note of low-fidelity rasp and scratch infusing a gut-wrenching dynamic, like an out-of-joint desperate rictus, as if his vocal chords are being tightened from within.
"Infinite Zinn" comes across with wild, ferocious energy, akin to a slo-mo atomic tornado full of knotted, dense, and de-rezzed momentum. The lo-fi distorted harmonics introduce an almost exotic gravitational force both rudimentary and seductive.Parker Longbough absolutely has it going on.
Follow Parker Longbough on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.
Randy Radic is a Left Coast author and writer. Author of numerous true crime books written under the pen-name of John Lee Brook. Former music contributor at Huff Post.