Parsnip

Reviews

Parsnip Adding Up EP

Ah, for some levity! These are sunshine people and the garden gourds are growing. I know that a PARSNIP is not a gourd, but bands like this do not grow alone! This great pop group has flourished since 2016 amongst the mulchy multi-member goodness of other Melbourne groups like BANANAGUN and SCHOOL DAMAGE and wow yes, significant others. Deep roots in acid-laced soil aided by budget fertiliser, their cutest single yet does further deep dipping into a psychy landscape that we already got a sample of on their last LP. Their reworking of “Treacle Toffee World” by FIRE is especially resplendent. PARSNIP’s cheery bounce doesn’t jar in this seemingly endless crisis time because it feels grounded, smiling but still ready to call out the “Crossword Cheater,” because what’s the point if you can’t play fair? Like the friend that really gets it, but still invites you to ride a brighter wave.

Parsnip When the Tree Bears Fruit LP

When I heard this band for the first time I almost got evangelical! Their first EP is a perfect meetup of the PANDORAS and MELODY DOG that I had no idea was possible, a true and total dream… Cool Australian mod girls making sounds that seem like something K would have put out in 1985 or 1993! This LP is definitely more towards that dreamy MELODY DOG meets raucous SWELL MAPS style though, so if you want the feeling of the first PANDORAS 45 played from memory from another room go straight to “Rip It Off.” What a song! So yes, this is twee. if you don’t have a dubbed copy of DOLLY MIXTURE Demonstration Tapes, you might not be able to swing to a full-length of this sound. To my ears, it’s true utopian possibility though; scrappy and playful like those Messthetics comps and Rupert Preaching at a Picnic. A record that creates its own world.

Parsnip Feeling Small / Winter 7″

The first PARSNIP 45 was a total moment of mind loss for me: a true and total encapsulation of C86/TVP, ’60s and ’80s Mod Girl Dreams, umm, DOLLY MIXTURE if they were way punker…and here with the second we have more of the same! The first song is a perfect DAN TREACY meets DOLLY MIXTURE dreamscape! My mind was a plastic bag before the song was over!!! It sounds almost like the song is sort of writing itself as it goes along in a totally pop freedom manner, like listening to a SWELL MAPS 7″ you dreamed of. Flip the disc over and there’s this fucking perfect BANGS/PANDORAS pop garage song about the tyranny and delights of winter, what more would you want out of a 7’?! PARSNIP are a true and total delight, and I want fifty more 45s like this immediately, OK punkers?