Parquet Courts Do Mardi Gras in Uproarious Video for Funky Wide Awake! Title Track

Parquet Courts have offered another preview of their forthcoming sixth album Wide Awake! in the form of its funky, propulsive title track, “Wide Awake,” along with a funny and colorful video for the new single, both of which are sure to kickstart your morning in a major way.

A press release accurately describes “Wide Awake” as “the song that most contrasts their previous work,” adding that it “aims to achieve the deceptively complex goal of making people want to dance, powering the body for resistance through a combination of groove, joy and indignation.” The song is an infectious, beat-driven party-starter featuring singalong-style vocals, funk-infused guitar licks, and all kinds of literal bells and whistles. “Movin’ and groovin’,” indeed.

The “Wide Awake” video, directed by Brother Willis and filmed in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, is just as delightful, if not more so. Clad in purple tuxedos, A. Savage, Austin Brown, Sean Yeaton and Max Savage caper and cavort all over the Big Easy, stopping to go crate digging, enjoy Cafe Du Monde’s famed coffee and beignets, and dance with Elvis impersonators along the way. The band is decidedly less “Wide Awake” the morning after, but that’s nothing another few cups of joe (plus a little kick of tabasco) won’t fix. The video ends with a nod to the Parquet Courts boys’ next adventure.

“I was very intrigued by the band’s idea to spend a few days filming all around New Orleans during Mardi Gras,” says Willis in a statement. “Probably should’ve thought twice about it, but we all came out the other side changed people and with a video (or more?) in our collective pocket.” Brown teases, “You’ll never guess what happens next … ”

Fans who signed up with their phone number on the Wide Awake! website received a wake-up call from the band on Thursday morning, including an early sneak preview of today’s new tune. Further communiqués from the band are forthcoming—you can sign up to receive those here.

Watch Parquet Courts’ “Wide Awake” video below (or stream the track via your service of choice here) and revisit the details of their new album, plus lead single “Almost Had to Start a Fight/In And Out of Patience,” right here. Wide Awake! is out on May 18 via Rough Trade.