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Song Premiere: Graham Parker Reunites With the Rumour After Three Decades

'Coathangers' is first track from new LP 'Three Chords Good'

Graham Parker and the Rumour
Kevin Mazur
August 22, 2012 7:00 AM ET

Click to listen to Graham Parker's 'Coathangers'

British rocker Graham Parker has reunited with his original band, the Rumour, for their first album together in more than 30 years, Three Chords Good, out November 20th on Primary Wave Records. "Let's go back to a time in a prehistory," Parker sings at the beginning of the album's guitar-driven track "Coathangers," which you can stream exclusively here.

Getting their start in the pub rock scene of the mid-Seventies, Graham Parker and the Rumour signed with Stiff Records and then Mercury, drawing instant attention for the superb albums Howlin' Wind, Heat Treatment and Squeezing Out Sparks. The band broke up in 1980, and Parker eventually moved to Woodstock, New York, carrying on his solo career with intermittent success.

In addition to releasing a new album this fall, a long-gestating documentary, Don't Ask Me Questions, is being wrapped by the Gramaglia brothers (End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones). And Parker will appear as himself in Judd Apatow's next movie, This Is 40, set for a December release.

"As far as I can tell, I'm basically a metaphor for abject failure in Judd's movie," Parker told Rolling Stone on the set last fall. "And I couldn't be more thrilled.

"This whole experience is proof of that old show business rule I did not think would ever apply to me – that if you stick around long enough, anything can happen. You can't write this stuff. Except Judd did."

Apatow, a longtime fan of Parker and the band, said, "I always loved his music and appreciated his sense of humor. A lot of Graham's early songs were witty and a little mean, and that's usually a way in for me."

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