Parenthetical Girls! Girls! Girls!

To begin this all too neatly: Portland's Parenthetical Girls sound like a marriage between the neo-pop orchestrations of Final Fantasy and the sexually-ambiguous audio perversions of Xiu Xiu. Over the years, forever-warbling frontman Zac Pennington has slowly turned his project into a wholly-orchestral outfit, assembling a crew of classically-trained, multi-instrumentalist, string-playing types to help him author his ditzy symphonies.

Their latest longplayer, Entanglements, is released today on hipster German imprint Tomlab. And with nary a hint of reservation I can proudly proclaim it one of 2008's most charmed and charming albums, destined for a position near the pinnacle of many a best-of list come year's end.

In digging for dirt on the genesis of this genius compact-disc, it was only natural to turn to the man who stands out front of these Parenthetical Girls. The resulting conversation, with Pennington, makes for the rollicking read, no?

Photo © [Sarah Meadows]