polvo...

?? i don't understand this at all. older polvo (i.e. celebrate the new dark age) rocked VERY VERY hard.

it did, this is very true. it's not a matter of "rocking hard" it's the GROOVE. the old drummer did not groove. he skittered around the guitars frenetically.

In my mind one of the truly great things about Polvo as well is that they are constantly "going for it" in very restrained ways. In most of their songs the guitars are constantly adding slight variations to the riffs and parts of the songs, coming off as slightly improvisatory but within the framework of the song. Of course they wrote songs with lots of parts the "took you on a journey," so to speak, but even within that the songs were constantly shifting and mixing it up instead of just focussing on perfection or being super super tight. It is something that I wish more bands picked up on.

In Prism track listing:

1. Right the Relation
2. D.C. Trails
3. Beggar’s Bowl
4. City Birds
5. Lucia
6. Dream residue/Work
7. The Pedlar
8. A Thousand Waves

Anyone heard any of the other tracks?

this saturday ~_~

Well, I am still excited that they are back together and I am still imagining that the new record will have some great shit on it, but I have listened to "Beggar's Bowl" a few times now and I am just not feeling it much. I like some of the short little transitional guitar bits that come in the pauses of the song, but the main riffs and parts are just not doing it for me. I was really kinda bummed out cause I have truly liked everything they have ever done, for the most part, and I don't know, it just feels off to me. Too slick? I mean, Shapes had slick bits, but it never sounded like something that would make sense on a "Modern Rock Radio" station. Hmm, maybe I am being too critical, but it just seems overcooked to me. Perhaps pretty great live, minus all of the reverb and studio shit going on.

Surprised no one else seemed to get a similar feel from it. Makes me hope that it's just me being an ass and that the record really will be great.

yes, you are an ass

xp what you are describing is what's cool about it--like after 12 years i wouldn't want them to come back with just a polvo record (i mean that would be fine but beggar's bowl makes it clear that they had no intention of halfassing this). it sounds like they took the core of their sound and expanded upon it, which is awesome imo.

Hmmm, being an ass and am an ass conversation ... Look, I don't want them to just come back with another Polvo record either. I did mention that I loved Shapes, did I not, which most Polvo fans did not at the time. You know, I am listening to it right now, and the breakdowns and little insertions in the pauses are cool, but the main riff and bass tone and even some of the guitar tones are just kinda lame sounding. I was legitimately surprised, as I can honestly never remember thinking this about a Polvo song. I don't hear just an update to their sound, I hear some kind of bad studio ideas making their way into the sound kinda stuff going on, and it legitimately makes me wonder about the upcoming record. I hope I am wrong.

I want to add that in the context of a whole record "Beggar's Bowl" may sound quite a bit different to me, but as a standalone track right now I am having trouble getting into it. Gotta say that, as noted, the playing on the song is pretty amazing, super-tight for sure. It really is just the sound and parts of the arrangement that aren't doing it for me, but I will shut up as there is no way to reconcile it until the record comes out. I am still hoping that it will be a great record.

If you are in NYC this friday they are playing a free show with Obits at South Street Seaport. Search "Polvo" on ohmyrockness.com if you need more info. Don't miss it!

def. want to go to this.

obits any good?

obits are awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaBG9HLxApQ
almost as good as hot snakes, who i like a lot more than polvo. rick froberg has the greatest rock voice ever

oh wow, didn't realize he was in this band. (who I've never actually heard of.) LOVE hot snakes/drive like jehu!

songs aren't as long as drive like jehu. obits are more an extension of hot snakes. it's gonna be an amazing show. getting to see these two bands free is hard to beat

Super fucking pumped for this. My buddies from St. Louis flew in last night just for this show.

FYI, info about the weather and what's happening with the show tonight:
http://twitter.com/SeaportMusicNYC

Let's hope Ian Hunter intervenes with the rain god to protect them.

yikes.

sadly, I may pass....

dont give up yet they moved the show to brooklyn bowl in williamsburg. bands play at 10pm dont miss it. its indoors now.

They were awesome!!

aw, I figured it was off. missed it. ah well.

oh what the hell, i'll go see them tonight

Huh? In Maryland? Have fun!

was raining was sad didnt go oh

jesus h they were great! vibracobra, batradar, bombs that fall from your eyes, city spirit, fast canoe, feather of forgiveness, titletrack, thermal treasure, tilebreaker, and two new ones. pretty rad setlist imo.

Yeah thats at least really close to the setlist they played in Brooklyn (can't remember everything exactly)!

ah...mmm...leaked...
...arrr...sounds fucking awesome...ahhh

hmm

more or less half quiet post rock songs - sounds kinda like sonic youth' Murray Street influenced,
and half more catchy-straightforward-loud-math-rock songs that continue the 90's Polvo/albini tradition.

overall it sounds like an enjoyable,satisfying record, nothing new but thats not what's expected from them. nice continuation of their 90's stuff - like those 10 years or so were just an illusion- they picked up exactly where they stopped,
with the same guitar tuning and all the other polvo schticks.
great reunion record.

streaming on the merge site too. listening now...

i'm glad pitchfork gave it 8.1 cause i almost thought i was the only one who liked this album!
(cause of the lack of posts about it)

i didn't love it but i will give it another go

i'm waiting for physical release yo

i'm digging this a bunch

just bought tickets to see them this saturday!

so after spending a couple days with this i think i'm mostly struck by how pretty a lot of it is...like instead of consciously subverting and fucking up every riff they realized it's more effective to do that 75% of the time and it makes the other 25% sound even better.

i'll admit on the second half i kind of wanted them to just play something really abrasive and old-polvo but that obviously was not the goal--this record is a little moodier, a little lower-key.

the first half pretty much kills tho.

i'll admit on the second half i kind of wanted them to just play something really abrasive and old-polvo but that obviously was not the goal--this record is a little moodier, a little lower-key.

I think this will make me warmer to the record, actually.

I've never heard of Polvo before this new disc, and I hate the term math-rock (makes me think of prog, I guess). But I'm digging the jagged guitar sound on the eMusic soundscans.

yeah it's a bad term and it doesn't apply to polvo any more than it does to like, sonic youth or something.

i never understood what math rock was supposed to mean

i think it is for don cab and no other band

I think I've read people call Battles a "math-rock" band. Maybe Rush, too?

if you didn't listen to math rock in the 90s, you obviously won't understand what it was supposed to mean. it's not that hard to grasp, and it is instantly identifiable.

i would agree that there is a particular type of 90s indie rock band that could be grouped together--i think the issue is more the term "math rock" being used for that group.

It was invented by a friend of ours as a derogatory term for a band me and James (Lo) played in called Wider. But his whole joke is that he'd watch the song and not react at all, and then take out his calculator to figure out how good the song was. So he'd call it math rock, and it was a total diss, as it should be.

the only acceptable use of it, for me, involves a calculator.

hahah where's that quote from?

if you didn't listen to math rock in the 90s, you obviously won't understand what it was supposed to mean. it's not that hard to grasp, and it is instantly identifiable.

Indeed:

Math rock is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock music that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords.

Wiki is all-knowing, all-seeing.

the quote's from here, it looks like

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6502-chavez/

Polvo were always tagged as 'lo-fi' by the press at the time IIRC, which I never really understood either, speaking as someone that was also listening to the Dead C and all that Siltbreeze stuff.