polvo...

Math rock...hmm...someone with more patience than I should address this query. While folks like Slint & Rodan were tagged as "math rock" (if I read my CMJs correctly), it's been attatched to folks that are playing something akin to a tres wanky Gang of Four. Lots of bass noodling. Not very melodic. Plenty of loud / soft dynamics to give you _Nevermind_ flashbacks. (This is stereotypical, mind you.)

I believe Don Caballero are the epitome of "math rock". Their 2nd album was an impenetrable fortress of wacked time-signatures, Black- Sabbath-on-shrooms riffing, and multi-limbed drum soloing. (Their later efforts are, supposedly, better.)

This is a good thing.

1. Today's Active Lifestyles
2. Cor-Crane Secret
3. Celebrate The New Dark Age
4. Exploded Drawing
5. Polvo
6. Shapes
7. This Eclipse

it's funny how opinions change. in 93,94,95, polvo felt untouchable and now to hear such fire pointed at their asian noodling, it's kind of amusing. has history revised itself? (or maybe just caught up?)

m.

polvo is the answer to my hotmail favourite band secret question, or something.

haterz get trampled by my sacred cow.

Three words: Today's. Active. Lifestyles.

ash lives in our hood.

yes! that ruled! superchunk's devo cover was a favorite back in the day...

"freedom of choice" tracklisting....

1. Ca Plane Pour Moi performed by Sonic Youth - 3:58
2. Rock & Roll Girl performed by Muffs - 2:21
3. Destination Unknown performed by Erectus Monotone - 3:14
4. How Much More performed by Redd Kross - 3:07
5. 5' 1" performed by Tiny Lights - 3:37
6. Pump It Up performed by Mudhoney - 3:09
7. The Wait performed by Das Damen - 3:11
8. Tainted Love performed by Finger - 3:47
9. Wishing performed by It's O.K. - 4:10
10. Dreaming performed by Yo La Tengo - 2:59
11. Wuthering Heights performed by White Flag - 4:00
12. I Got You performed by Connells - 4:06
13. Homosapien performed by Big Dipper - 4:50
14. Mexican Radio performed by Polvo - 3:23
15. Antmusic performed by Hypnolovewheel - 3:56
16. Don't You Want Me Baby performed by Chia Pet - 3:43
17. Hero Worship performed by Permanent Green Light - 5:01
18. Girl U Want performed by Superchunk - 2:35

(haha, i still have that CD. Still kinda disappointing tho' :( Youth's "Ca Plain Pour Moi" cover rocks it, as well as Erectus Monotone's "Destination Unknown" cover)

Yancey: I can understand the Polvo/Unwound connection, since I got into both bands at around the same time. There sure was an awful lot of that kind of indistinct-roar guitar dissonance in the early 90s, wasn't there? Ah, good times.

I also wonder how Polvo has aged... I'd guess not very well.

and what hstencil said.

also, from what i have:
1. todays active lifestyles (OTM about all songs mentioned so far - lazy comet, my kimono, thermal treasure, but ESPECIALLY time isnt on my side - that synth solo is one of the finest kitchen-sink pop/rock moments i can think of...)
2. celebrate the new dark age
3. cor-crane secret

(ill update when i get a little more familiar with exploded drawing)

x-post haha see I think polvo is the ultimate treble band!!

they definitely used cheaper guitars then sonic youth which explains some of the variance in tones. i'm just explaining that tunings played a pretty significant factor in their "sound" which was largely a sonic youth influence.

flip it and reverse it, dude-io.

They were my favorite band was I was 16. Not so much these days.

Siberia is way better their previous reunion album, but it still sounds like a bunch of older guys covering unreleased Polvo songs.

That's because the upbeat songs are great chase scene music!

Xpost

The hippy was gone before the lights came on

I actually thought "Beggar's Bowl" went in the direction I always wanted them to go in. Never felt like they rocked hard enough. Even at their most rocking in the past, like "Fractured Like Chandeliers" or "Every Holy Shroud", it never quite KICKED ASS like "Beggar's Bowl." Does the new album rectify this?

Uhh, it's definitely propulsive, but it's not necessarily the surprise potential alt-rock hit direction that Beggar's Bowl was. It is fantastic, though!

Also I don't know I think they've definitely rocked just as hard or harder on Cor-Crane Secret at least.

"light, raking" is a surprise keyboard jam

that song is so well timed for the start of autumn

keyboard bit is vv goofy but i love it anyhow

new record sounds fine but i wish the sound was dirtier, like it was back in the 90's..

Could be dirtier, but I expected some conservatism. Same with the last one.

relatively

I didn't realize my pre-order of Siberia would come with a signed poster! Maybe I just forgot?

I have tried to start #AshBowieWednesday on Twitter but to no avail. :)

Weird, this old band of John Dwyer (Ohsees, Coachwhips, Pink and Brown, etc.) and Brian Gibson (Lightning Bolt) sounds exactly like early Polvo, I mean guitar moves completely copped from the S/T and Cor-crane albums. Pretty fun to listen to actually, minus a little throwaway action here and there:

https://soundcloud.com/daylongs/sets/tar-aiym-krang-ii

I mean, in 1997 I was in the exact same headspace as these dudes.

RIP Eddie Watkins, you ruled:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9LPMOqpCc

I will always love these records, yet another bummer. His drumming was perfect for mark 1 of this band.

One of the most formative records for me period. My favorite EP of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3wrxfkEbQQ

Again, the drumming is perfect on that record for the sound/approach.

Ffs I just played TAL (again) today

RIP

Argh! That's awful!!

That's a real shame, I love Polvo but especially the earlier stuff. RIP.

Blasting "Every Holy Shroud" right now.

Crazy, he (and Ash I think?) was a chef at 411 West on Franklin Street wayyyyy back in the day when Chapel Hill was one of the coolest places on the planet.

His son said on FB that it was completely unexpected, passing in his sleep.

From what I know of him over the past 20 years, he was a hard working family man who loved his wife and children more than anything.

Super shitty news indeed

I mean, I listened to a lot of Bowie and Prince in my life, but I've probably listened to more of Polvo.

What a very nice, sweet gentleman... who also was a ferocious drummer for the first 6 years of that crazy band.

When he left, I felt Polvo was never quite the same.

i wouldn't change a thing about those early polvo records. way too young of course. rip.

i was feeling glum and then the purple bear popped up on my ipod <3

i'm so excited i could just explode
cross your fingers and it might get shown
i told my parents to stay up late
but it's half past two
and there's been a mistake

RIP

so he was the drummer up to and including Exploded Drawing? such amazing records for many reasons, definitely including the drumming. sad I never saw the original lineup live

Yeah, Brian Walsby replaced him before Shapes and after Exploded Drawing... sometime in 96/97.

I've driven (literally) my wife crazy drumming along to his parts on the steering wheel many many times.

Cranking "Exploded Drawing" so loudly right now. Haven't listened to this for 10 years or so (cause I wore it out so heavily when it came out it is kind of internalized forever hah hah). So damn good.

"Exploded Drawing" is so awesome - that was my go to on hearing the news - damn good drum record.

RIP

I had the t-shirts on the left and the right:
http://i.imgur.com/21nHrUD.jpg

this video is amazing, and so is this song. DISCUSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMa4-d3JW-8

I love that song. Cool guitar solo and nice outro synth doodles too

love that warbly guitar thing in the middle and the end. how fucking cool is that?

They do a good job of writing classic rock-esque anthems without really sounding like anyone else at all

Fantastic song. In Prism was my favorite album of 2009, but I couldn't get into Siberia for some reason. I guess I have to try again.

love the filigree, not so much the song. my favorite polvos tend to be fragmentary, abrasive, only secretly tuneful.

Emil from Holy Sons/Grails/Om covers them in the latest episode of his excellent podcast: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1633582233421734&id=1280469688732992

The closing credits of the above podcast contains an amazing lost/forgotten Polvo-related track from Dave Brylawski:

Idyll Swords - "Autumn In Empire"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PATFus6yUf8

Totally missed that the Can I Ride ep got reissued as a mini album last year with the two songs off the Vibracobra single stuck on the end. Looks like it was some sort of record club edition? Gone now though - FUCK

Cor Crane Secret and Today's Active Lifestyles get a vinyl reissue this coming week - i kind of want them to replace my own long gone copies but it looks like they've uglified the covers for some reason

New interview:

https://www.talkhouse.com/polvo-finally-appreciates-their-own-music-sort-of/

Avalon - Downhill Together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKhsJTrCmo

Haha yes that is amazing

https://vimeo.com/4531300

~30min HD pro-shot interview/live footage (warts n all) from the 2009 reunion era:

Fast Canoe
Enemy Insects (loose jam outro)
Every Holy Shroud (new slower intro, spacey long middle section)

Speed Stick - Knots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnO0wp-YYKA