Couch Potatoes// Living Room Songs

—by jack

I took the 4 train north to Washington Square Park on a sunny New York morning for my shoot with LILY & THE PARLOUR TRICKS. The band was running a little late, so I took a free half hour to eat a giant bagel with some thin tasting coffee and watch NYU students navigate construction work that had torn up half the sidewalks in the neighborhood. 

When Lily showed, she brought me up to her beautiful apartment— large enough that is must’ve been shared by at least a gaggle of young, beautiful people (seriously, watch the video and tell me I’m being facetious using the phrase young, beautiful people).

The shoot was great. The band chatted like a group of friends who genuinely really liked each other. Lily made fresh coffee with some contraption fancier than a Mr. Coffee. There was a light kit in the corner that I was invited to make use of. And the music. Oh man. 

I guess you’d describe Lily & The Parlour Tricks as a jazz group. But imagine that “jazz” still connotes novelty, coolness, sex and burlesque, experimentation—because L&TPT oozes all of it. And that was singing a song about Charles Darwin, for fuck’s sake. Imagine if they’d sung about five-foot-long reefers like Fats Waller. 

Alright, reeling it back in. Enjoy the song, I know I did.