Parker Street Cinema, Parker Street Cinema

[Ed. Note: Just so nobody thinks we’re being shifty or anything, we should note that this band includes sometime SCR contributor Ken Mahru on drums. The guy writing the review, however, has never met Ken and has no clue who he is, so take that for what it’s worth…]

Parker Street Cinema is a three-piece instrumental ensemble from San Francisco; pretty straightforward, but instead of using a guitar, like a standard three-piece, the third person instead rocks out on keyboard. Keyboard player Brian Glover really does rock out, too — he plays lots of pounding chords in a way that sounds similar to punk rock guitar. The bass player, Kevin Dick, also sounds a lot like a guitar player; he contributes a lot of melodies throughout the record and he deploys the distortion pedal whenever a guitar player would. Bassist Dick is their secret weapon — he provides the melody when they need it, brings the distortion when they want to rock, and generally comes up with interesting lines throughout.

“Deliver” is a fast rocker with lots of pounding chords from the piano (“pounding” is his big M.O. throughout the record), but he changes things around enough to keep things interesting, for the most part. Dick comes up with an interesting bass line that occasionally goes outside the normal scale, but he uses them at times when they’re not obvious. Very subtle. “Little Red and Black Circles, Floating” features him in particular — the piano part pounds pretty consistent throughout (with a couple of melodic breaks), and Dick gets to play the melody. Unfortunately, he can’t save this one himself, as the piano part doesn’t really contribute much to the song.

“Midnight Shakes the Memory” is the big rock song where all three get to show off. The song has so much energy that it almost makes your stereo shake — it almost dances with energy. Dick gets to show off here, too — his bass lines at the beginning build tension, and the bass and Glover’s keyboard parts play off each other nicely. They change the melody often enough that it’s hard to tell when they’re repeating a section, and that keeps things interesting.

All in all, an interesting idea that they execute pretty well, although over the course of a full-length album the piano style might get somewhat tedious. Their bass player, though, is the one that really makes it work — they’d better get that guy a contract!