It resounds in a rush \u2014 fuzzed out guitars crafted in big city streets, punctuated by lyrics of drug addiction and the calamity of love. The sound \u2014 unmistakable, yet fresh \u2014 elicits \u201980s underground rock and forgotten bands such as The Field Mice, Rocketship and Black Tambourine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Field Mice? Rocketship? Where do 20-somethings find these bands? These inspirations? Unknown depths of coolness wrought from tales of big city excess? No, someplace darker. Think Moons Over My Hammy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI grew up in suburban Pennsylvania with my mom and hung out with my three friends, sitting in Denny\u2019s smoking section but not smoking, drinking bottomless cups of coffee, discussing anarchy and wondering if anything cool would happen,\u201d said Kip Berman, lead singer and principal songwriter of Brooklyn\u2019s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. \u201cWe\u2019d go to punk shows and stuff, but were never as punk as the real punks. We\u2019d talk about how there was never anything to do, but looking back on it, I think that we had fun all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Started in a warehouse to celebrate the keyboardist’s birthday, POBPAT (\u201ctaken from the title of an unpublished children\u2019s book,\u201d Berman notes) still isn\u2019t made of real punks, but finds itself with plenty to do. Comprised of Berman, drummer Kurt Feldman, singer-keyboardist Peggy Wang and bassist Alex Naidus, the band recently embarked on an international tour to promote its self-titled full length debut and in the process, far exceed its wildest expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always used to joke with Peggy, \u2018all our dreams are coming true\u2019 \u2014 like when we played a sandwich shop in Tallahassee to between three and six people,\u201d Berman said. \u201cBut now, they really are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those dreams are sowed on the strength of Pains\u2019 initial LP, a collection of shoegaze gems and bouncy beats belied by forlorn lyrics (\u201cCan\u2019t you see his arms are a hell and won\u2019t ever leave?\u201d Berman sings on \u201cStay Alive\u201d). \u201cEverything With You,\u201d found singe success and steady airplay on Sirius XM. Signed to slumberland Records (home to dreamy indie pop bands), POBPAT finds the label suits its musical and commercial tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrowing up, we loved so many of the bands they put out \u2014 Rocketship, Velocity Girl, Aislers Set,\u201d Berman said. \u201cThanks to the Internet and home recording, there\u2019s a great leveling of the playing field, because now a band on a small indie label can still record for cheap, get attention and distributed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pains saw the Internet\u2019s power firsthand. Touring to support its debut EP in 2007, the band grabbed a Saturday afternoon slot at Athens, Georgia\u2019s Popfest, and an hour before it took the stage, the Black Kids leapt into indie buzz history with a blazing set that sent bloggers into a frenzy. And though Pains missed the online bustle that day, it did stumble upon something just as satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did a tour to Athens Popfest and there were less than 10 people at every show,\u201d Berman remembers. \u201cThe wonderful thing was, we were all having so much fun, it wasn\u2019t disappointing in the least. We ate a lot of Dairy Queen, especially in Georgia, where it was 105 degrees in August, and discovered Jagermeister \u2014 at first in a tongue in check \u2018we\u2019re doin it\u201d way, but then\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those small show days are long gone, as the Pains hype grows. Pitchfork called the LP one of the year\u2019s best and NME and The New York Times praised the band\u2019s retro-yet-new-sound rise to prominence. Berman appreciates it all, realizing it wasn\u2019t long ago he wanted to sit where he is right now. After all, being cool happens when you’re not looking for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s hard for people to understand, but no one was a super cool 13-year-old listening to The Flatmates and Meat Whiplash,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were pretty much typical teenagers into Nirvana and learned about The Vaselines and began to know about these other amazing bands like Teenage Fanclub, The Pastels, Beat Happening, and the underground pop bands of the \u201990s and \u201980s. Don\u2019t worry about being cool, because lots of cool music isn\u2019t \u2018cool\u201d \u2014 I mean, we all jam out to Smashing Pumpkins\u2019 \u2018Siamese Dream\u2019 in the tour van more than people might assume.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It resounds in a rush \u2014 fuzzed out guitars crafted in big city streets, punctuated by lyrics of drug addiction and the calamity of love. The sound \u2014 unmistakable, yet fresh \u2014 elicits \u201980s underground rock and forgotten bands such as The Field Mice, Rocketship and Black Tambourine. The Field Mice? Rocketship? Where do 20-somethings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[62,61],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-slumberland","tag-the-pains-of-being-pure-at-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}