Parquet Courts Share Video for “Freebird II,” Announce New Tour Dates

Parquet Courts have shared the video for their track “Freebird II,” from their recent Danger Mouse-produced album Wide Awake!, which somehow successfully incites simultaneous protesting, head-banging and toe-tapping. The video does much the same, framing the Brooklyn-based rockers against an aggressive red backdrop as they rage through the song and toast with champagne at a masked dinner party. Previously an Apple Music exclusive, the video is now available to watch down below.

The band collaborated with director Claes Nordwall, who’s also responsible for their “Berlin Got Blurry” video. Here’s frontman A. Savage on their shared vision for the clip, and his obvious dislike for the Confederate flag:

I wanted to work with Claes Nordwall again, who shot the video for “BERLIN GOT BLURRY”, not just because he’s got a talent for shooting on 16mm, but because he has a great eye and is good at helping me articulate visual ideas for the screen. It was a lot of fun to film. Originally there was a shot of us ripping up a confederate flag in the video, but we decided it wasn’t obvious enough that the flag was getting destroyed, so we cut it. But just in case you were wondering, we are not fans of it. It was fun dressing up for this; everybody was assigned a character that fit their personality. Thanks to everybody who worked really hard on this video… Claes, our choreographer Juri, and Brittney who made sure all the moving parts, well, moved. It was the biggest crew we’ve ever worked with and we’re all very thankful to them because it came out great!

Wide Awake! follows 2017’s MILANO. Parquet Courts have also shared a slew of new tour dates, which you can find further down. The band recently engaged with their punk-rock lineage by covering a Ramones deep cut. Watch them perform it at the BBC 6 studio here.

Parquet Courts Tour Dates:

September
17-22 – Lincoln, Neb. @ Lincoln Calling Festival
23 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Showbox
24 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Imperial
25 – Portland, Ore, @ Wonder Ballroom
27 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Fillmore
28 – San Jose, Calif. @ The Ritz

October
10 – Mexico City, Mexico @ SALA

November
03 – Dublin, Ireland @ Academy 2
04 – Manchester, U.K. @ O2 Ritz
05 – Newcastle, U.K. @ Boiler Shop
06 – Galsgow, U.K. @ SWG3
07 – Leeds, U.K. @ The Church
10 – Bristol, U.K. @ SWX
12 – London, U.K. @ Roundhouse
14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
16 – Paris, France @ Elysee Montmarte
18 – Cologne, Germany @ Gebaude 9
19 – Munich, Germany @ Ampere
20 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Brotfabrik
30 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Spirit

December
01 – Columbus, Ohio @ Skully’s Music Diner
02 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Ballroom
03 – Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre
05 – Toronto, Ontario @ Danforth Music Hall
06 – Montreal, Québec @ Corona Theatre
08 – New York, N.Y. @ Hammerstein Ballroom w/ Sun Ra Arkestra