Parquet Courts Premiere ‘Watching Strangers Smile’ On ‘Ellen’

While Parquet Courts recently released a new studio album, they went another direction during their return to The Ellen DeGeneres Show today. Instead of performing a track featured on Sympathy For Life, the quartet premiered the new single “Watching Strangers Smile” on Tuesday’s episode of the syndicated talk show.

“Interestingly enough, this song is the b-side to the ‘Black Widow Spider’ single, which was released only in Japan via Big Love Records,” explained frontman A. Savage. “The music was recorded during the sessions for Sympathy for Life, but it was left unfinished. I recorded the vocals on my own to sort of keep from going stir crazy that first lockdown summer. Apologies to my neighbors for the long afternoon spent screaming these vocals in my bedroom.”

Parquet Courts made their Ellen debut in 2018 by performing the title track to Wide Awake! Watch the band play “Watching Strangers Smile” on today’s episode below: