Stream: Strange Parade, ‘The Watchers’

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Strange Parade (Photo by Jean-Paul Bondy)

Strange Parade is a collection of indie all-stars led by songwriter Brian Cleary, onetime keyboardist in the mercurial L.A. band the Movies, who for a time were the toast of … well, anywhere people toasted.

Cleary himself went on to join indie stalwart Jim Putnam in Radar Brothers, and Strange Parade’s current lineup of Paul Lacques, Ashley Berry and Dan Allaire can count alliances with such bands as the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Cass McCombs, Darker My Love, I See Hawks in L.A., Double Naught Spy Car and Apex Manor, among others.

Last week, Strange Parade announced the May 6 arrival of their sophomore album, “The Watchers.” It’s the follow-up to 2019’s “Between Us All,” which Cleary made with a completely different cast of talent.

The title track starts off a little bit country, with Cleary’s deadpan in total control, before building into a whirlygig of keys, dense guitar and lap steel. Americana-gaze? Think John Cale, or even Radar Brothers.

“The song is basically about seeing yourself from the outside,” Cleary says. “Extroversion growing into introversion. Not taking things too seriously for your mental survival. That sort of thing.”

||| Stream: “The Watchers”

||| Live: Strange Parade, along with Purple Witch of Culver and Happy Hollows, play the Silverlake Lounge on May 7. Tickets.

||| Previously: “Between Us All”