Parks & Recreation - "What Was She Doing On The Shore..."

Parks & Recreation - "What Was She Doing..." Sampler Mix

Parks And Recreation make warm, 70s AM radio pop with a postmodern twist, a kind of genre-less pastiche of pop music trends that comes straight from the first cassette mix tape your high school crush gave you. Inspired by bands such as ELO, Wings, Queen, David Bowie, Squeeze, The Smiths, The Cars, Blur, The Divine Comedy, The Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian and The Flaming Lips, Parks and Recreation’s songs are about the stuff of modern poplife: spy movies, piano lessons, food courts, parking lots, grocery stores, kissing in motels and cyber sex.

Parks and Recreation was born out of Michael Johnson’s solo project, Reclinerland when in 2005 the band swelled to a five piece, justifying, even calling for a name change. Michael, together with Anthony Georgis (American Girls), Jason Hughes (Periscope), Joe Ballman (Nordic) and Bob Ham (Rally Boy) have forged an undeniably entertaining live combo. What Was She Doing On The Shore That Night? -- recorded with Adam Selzer at Portland’s Type Foundry Studios (The Decemberists, M Ward, Norfolk and Western, Blanket Music -- is their debut, bridging the transition from songwriter to tightly knit, full tilt band. Whereas the wide open spaces of the opening title track recall Reclinerland, the band ratchets it up on track two with disco Bass, Pulp inspired vocal swagger and both a string and horn section into the mix. This is no garageband. This is ambitious pop, ebullient and clever, and destined to raise eyebrows and get toes tapping.

What Was She Doing On The Shore That Night
The Perfect Love
Break Into Song
La La La La La
Maybe The Moon Knows Something
Danny Built His House All Spiral
I Tried To Date The Singer In A Band
Flat On Her Back
A Northwest Wind