[xrr rating=3.75/5]Parenthetical Girls’ new album, Privilege (Abridged), is a collection of works that had been incrementally released as a series of mail order only 12” EPs, five in all. The Girls – namely Zac Pennington and Jherek Bischoff (“girls,” “boys” – Pennington plays with the distinction) – self-release their material through their own label, Slender Means Society, which affords them …

[xrr rating=4.25/5]It sounds like the daydream of Music Comp majors everywhere: write a chamber arrangement that sounds like a Technicolor set piece number Bing Crosby might’ve sang to Rosemary Clooney back in the day and have… who should it be?… David Byrne (perfect!) perform the vocals on it. Dream something else, folks, because Jherek Bischoff just did it. Though the …

Anyone who has caught a Parenthetical Girls concert knows that the band’s frontman Zac Pennington handles the stage like some magical combination of Oscar Wilde and Cillian Murphy, all sharp cheekbones and an even sharper wit. But in person he has a warm, comfortable personality, making him incredibly easy to talk to, whether the subject is the benefits of Portland …