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The Parson Red Heads say goodbye to L.A. with a pair of shows starting tonight

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Affability is one of the most underrated qualities in music. While critics and those similarly inclined often champion novelty and affected eccentricities, sheer likability often trumps all (or at least it should). And in the Parson Red Heads’ repatriation to their native Oregon, the city of Los Angeles is losing perhaps its most winsome outfit.

The decision for their move was explained two months ago, but in brief it boils down to the high cost of living in Los Angeles and the band’s ability to quit their day jobs and concentrate on music full-time.

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Throughout their five-plus years in Los Angeles, Evan Way and company electrified every Silverlake and Echo Park nightclub imaginable with their kinetic live performances that worked within the Laurel Canyon folk and Southern California psych traditions, but expanded upon them through their natural effervescence, joie de vivre, and careful attention to songcraft.

Tonight marks the first of the pair of going-away shows, with the group taking over Spaceland, alongside the vaunted Le Switch, another chronically underrated unit. On Tuesday, the Redheads play The Echo with Red Cortez and The World Record.

Fresh off a tour with Cotton Jones, the Red Heads have been peddling a new EP of old songs originally written between 2003 and 2004, and re-recorded recently. In honor of their farewell performances, the band is giving away an exclusive MP3 of ‘World,’ a song that ironically concerns a move to Los Angeles.

-- Jeff Weiss

Download: (Pop & Hiss Exclusive)
MP3: The Parson Red Heads- ‘World’

The Parson Red Heads, tonight Sept. 17 at Spaceland, 1717 Silverlake Blvd. 8:30 p.m. $5, $2 if you wear all white.


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