To Be Or Not To Behave artwork. Photo and design by Goddamn Glenn. Image features (from left) Maggie Maraschino, Honey Pie and Tracey Vaughan.

BOSTON, MA 

September 27, 2024

THAT is the question. And on Friday September 27th it finally gets answered as the band presents To Be Or Not To Behave, their first proper studio recordings since 2017’s Waylaid in the Melée. The four song EP was mixed and produced by Brian Charles of The Sheila Divine and owner of Rare Signals studio in Cambridge MA. Initial tracking began at Q Division in the summer of 2023, with the remainder of production taking place at Rare Signals in the winter of 2024. 

Tracklist

Track By Track Breakdown

1. Knight Owl

Equal parts anthem-rock and new wave fight song, the salty lead-off track on the album gets right to the point as it opens with a monstrous voice-sample. Singer Goddamn Glenn explains how the song sets the stage for the rest of the EP. “For the new record, I wanted to create something both more modern sounding, but also something that pays homage to my 80s glam rock, pop and early 90s influences. These are also the first studio recordings featuring keyboardist Allison Sigrist and she gives the track its high, new wave sheen.” 

Sigrist adds, “Glenn often has put together demos with certain sounds in place, but he provides the space to change the parts or add to them, so I never feel like I’m just playing those parts from rote without being able to contribute.”

To capture the flamboyance and virtuosity of 80s glam rock, it was also critical to bring in a real “shredder” on guitar. Parlour Bells found that in Michael J Johnson and on “Knight Owl” the results are a guitar solo for the ages. 

Johnson explains, “I tried to synthesize elements of some of my favorite guitarists, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Tom Morello. Eddie and Randy stretched the boundaries of traditional guitar playing, where Tom Morello has explored ways in which you can go beyond the traditional sounds of the guitar, and I like the idea of combining elements of both approaches.”

2. Dixies

The “dixies” here refer to the paper Dixie cups used to serve up some very questionable Kool-Aid to the cult-faithful. Clocking in at just 2 minutes and 29 seconds, it’s a brisk foray into psychedelic pop, anchored by Mike Leggio’s stopwatch bassline and Tony Porter’s airtight drumbeat. “We’re constantly trying new things in this band,” says Glenn. “I don’t really feel like any two songs are alike. But I think ‘Dixies’ is probably the most unconventional tune we’ve ever released. Sure, there are nods to T-Rex in there, but we feel like this one is some truly spacey headphone music.” 

The band credits Brian Charles of Rare Signals, who recorded and produced the album, with the sonic quality of the tracks. Drummer Tony Porter elaborates, “To a certain extent, I’d say he approached this music with a cinematic approach in terms of trying to evoke some ‘imagery’ along with the basic meaning and intent of the songs. It was fun to see his enthusiasm for the possibilities of what this music could become.”

3. Slasher Movie Weather

That “cinematic” aspect of To Be Or Not To Behave is taken quite literally on this 80s slasher-inspired track. In August, the single arrived packaged with a mini-horror movie / music video directed by Glenn and his wife and creative partner Honey Pie.

“One of my guilty pleasures on a sweltering summer night is sitting in my office with the AC cranked and watching some of the lousiest, cheesiest slasher movies from the 80s,” says Glenn of his inspiration for the song and video.

But the cinematic aesthetic can also be found just in the track itself, particularly in the song’s moody, nocturnal breakdown. Listen closely, and you’ll find yourself lost in the woods with no one to keep you company aside from the eerie guitars and cricket noises. Certain sounds in the song are also direct nods to the 80s slasher-genre, emphasized especially by Allison Sigrist’s textured keys. 

“I’ve got a bunch of different things going on,” Sigrist explains, “from the sparse atmosphere of the early verses, to the Halloween soundtrack quote, to full-on piano comping under the outro. That was a fun one to work on.”

Watch the video for “Slasher Movie Weather”

4. The Ballad of Felix Moncla (2024 Version)

Closing out To Be Or Not To Behave is an updated and fully realized version of a song the band created and released remotely from quarantine during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. “Back in 2020, when we were unable to perform or even assemble in a room together, we were intent on staying creative. As happy as we were with the results of putting this one together from our respective home studios, it still has the overall vibe of something recorded in isolation,” Glenn explains. “Initially, there was never any plan to re-record this one, but we found ourselves with some extra studio time and our bass player Mike Leggio suggested we use the time to attempt an updated version. It was an excellent suggestion on his part because Brian Charles ended up giving the song the lush production value that it always deserved.”

The song tells the lesser known story chronicled in American UFO lore known as the “Kinross Incident,” in which US Air Force Pilot First Lieutenant Felix Moncla vanished mysteriously after pursuing an unidentified flying object over Lake Superior in 1953.

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Taken as a whole, To Be Or Not To Behave builds upon the theatrical and cinematic aspirations that were established in earlier Parlour Bells work. From the rainy, film-noir streets of “You Don’t Wear That Dress, The Dress Wears You” on 2013’s Thank God for the Night to the Bowie-like science fiction musings of “Celebrities On Ice” and “Wetware” on 2017’s Waylaid in Melée, Parlour Bells like to transport the listener to a setting of their own creation. But what sets this record apart is that those cinematic inclinations are not just evident in the song themes but in the overall production. Where previous efforts might be considered more or less straight up anthem rock with the quirky tales to be discovered within the lyrics, the songs on To Be Or Not To Behave embrace those idiosyncrasies in both content and form.