MeetFactory & A.M.180: Popular Music

"Beautifully ornate pop with a haunted heart." Popular Music is the new project of Prudence Rees-Lee and Zac Pennington, frontman of the cult experimental band Parenthetical Girls, which broke up over a decade ago.

​Their entrancing debut record Popular Music Plays In Darkness was born out of deconctruction of the musical language of last century's cinema. Together, Pennington and Rees-Lee recorded the haunting synth-pop adaptations of 12 more-or-less obscure silver screen song adaptations between Hollywood and Melbourne, using a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder, a small arsenal of analog synthesizers and rhythm boxes. On the LP, Popular Music engages in a conceptual dialogue with the myth of cinema — an attempt to embody the very literal darkness of sitting silently in an unlit auditorium, alone together, at the altar of an industry built on a semi-religious devotion to the escape fantasy. The debut was followed by the semi-autobiographical, existential album set in apocalyptic Los Angeles, Minor Works of Popular Music, released in 2023.

Last year, the band put out a casette-only mini album Against Men as well as an instrumental collection of eerie Christmas carols, titled Carols For Consumers.

This coming May, Popular Music embark on a European tour with a stop at MeetFactory.
 

„Truly astounding… exists in a realm inhabited by Sparks and Destroyer’s storied and theatrically minded lyricism with hints of Scott Walker and Gary Numan. Quite simply, there is nothing minor about this work.” — The Quietus

Tickets:
390 CZK via MeetFactory & GoOut
450 CZK at the door

Before your visit to MeetFactory, we recommend checking out the page Information for visitors.