3 out of 5

Label: Southern

Producer: John Congleton

It’s just not enough to really sink into it.  Parish School is Brian Case from 90 Day Men doing the New Wet Kojak thing – isolating the beats and sultriness from his core band (GVSB in NWK’s case) and distilling it into a splinter project.  It’s hard to say what the desire was, here, if this was experimental or Case testing the waters for a full-fledged project, but although Congleton’s production and Case’s learned skill at applying his peculiar monotone in a very particular singing fashion make for a compelling few tracks, there is a lacking build that the space on the 90 Day Men albums allows.  The EP feels very laid back and distant, which, admittedly, the instrumental tracks on 90’s Panda Park had also, so it’s indicative of the band’s sound at that point, but Parish School seeks to carve off the excesses and just focus on that.  This isn’t a bad thing, really.  But it’s a few tracks shy of giving you enough to form a full opinion, and the last track ruins the spell anyway, subtracting the beats and going acoustic.  Again, could work in an album context, but this is a rare case of where narrowing things down to an EP doesn’t work as a benefit.