MeetFactory & A.M.180: Popular Music + Sundrinker

"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

The evening will open with Sundrinker. The Prague-based band return on stage as a seven-piece, blending shoegaze, progressive math rock and jazz fusion in their eclectic musical vision. "Only live will all that is great on the album, the musicianship, the energy, the dynamics, come out in full glory and blow the listener out of their shoes," writes Marek Reinoha for Headliner.


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.