Rock pedigrees can be misleading, particularly
when musicians are eager to work outside of the musical templates they're known
for. So it goes with House & Parish, which features former members of The
Promise Ring, Texas Is The Reason, The Gloria Record, and The Love Scene. The
band's debut EP, One, One-Thousand, avoids the emo/punk that House & Parish's
members helped define a decade ago; instead, it embraces gauzy Britpop that
swirls around John Herguth's breathy vocals. House & Parish certainly plays
it well, but the songs tend to blur together, a red flag for a six-track EP.
The closing song, "Over/Out," recalls The Church circa "Under The Milky Way,"
though any song could have appeared on Dave Kendall-era 120 Minutes. Although One,
One-Thousand
is pleasant enough, House & Parish still needs time to put its own, more
interesting stamp on the style.