This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
No more entries, please, we have a winner: The prize for the most obviously Canadian band name goes to The Parkas.
But hey, it’s not like that’s such a bad thing. After all, without such an obvious handle, you’d be hard-pressed to know where this London, Ont., outfit call home. Their music — or at least their swell debut album Now This is Fighting — certainly doesn’t give it away. For a bunch of northern boys, this pack of guitar slingers have a decidedly southern outlook, accesorizing their bouncy indie-pop with the twangy licks, gritty textures, choogling beats, pumping stomp and ragged harmonies of country, roots-rock and blues. The odd Stax-Volt horn line, the occasional burst of punk, a rollicking organ line every now and then and even a touch of Elvis Costelloish R&B only serve to further enhance and expand the band’s sound on this tastefully underproduced effort — and further confuse the pigeon-holers, we suspect. Either way, there’s no fighting the realization that these guys are on to something good.
