The Pains of Being Really Good
By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 10, 2009 8:05PM
New York's The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has been on our radar for several months, and they're finally enjoying a little indie moment in the sun thanks to a healthy recent dose of blog and P4k approval.
The good news for these guys and gal is that their sweet, hook-heavy and fuzzed out pop will maintain its freshness long after the buzz backlash tries to bring it down, mostly because they forgo the studio wankery and (literal) bells and whistles that bog down so many of today's late '80s/early '90s-eyeing indie outfits. Instead POBPAH is buoyed by a coyly amateurish, consequently pure take on the noisy, jangly rock that made groups like Black Tambourine, The Sundays,and even Teenage Fanclub the monumental touch points that they have been for their musical successors. Nearly twenty years after the heyday of those groups, iconic lo-fi pop label Slumberland Records has released POBPAH's debut self-titled full-length, just in time to be the minty fresh gargle of unpretentious nostalgia that we all need. That, and a soundtrack to the spring we are collectively willing to come.
But wait, there's more! POBPAH drummer Kurt Feldman is much more a maestro than he is your average skins pounder, and his main outfit, The Depreciation Guild, is along for the ride on this tour. To say that the band’s majestic, driving, sky-high pop melodies are ‘reverb-drenched’ and ‘blissed-out’ is to not do them justice - there is vintage warmth amidst the chaos that makes the DG as comforting to wrap oneself in as it is enthralling to listen to. The foursome - Feldman, brothers Christian and Anton Hochheim and an '80s Nintendo Famicom - will release a followup single to their masterful, swirling showgaze-y masterpiece LP In Her Gentle Jaws [Ed. note: click the link to download the album for free!], "Dream About Me," on influential experimental twee Shelflife Records.
It may be hard to hear the music over all of the buzz surrounding these two stars on the rise, but we think the effort will be well worth it.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart and The Depreciation Guild play with Very Truly Yours and Colour Me Pop DJs tomorrow, February 11, at Schubas, 3159 N Southport, 9 p.m., $8, 18+