I fully immersed myself in music at a very early age, poring over page after page of old Geocities sites, looking for every obscure anecdote about every band I came across. I would obsessively search for connections between bands, scenes and labels in an attempt to connect every dot. As I approach thirty, not much has changed.
One day, after what I'm sure was a painfully long diatribe about Chapel Hill circa 1992 or some shit, it dawned on me that there was perhaps a better way to share my passion for the remote reaches of independent music. This inkling coalesced into the blog you see before you. So, herein, I'll be discussing bands that have been posed on for too long, hopefully instilling y'all with the same love I have for them in the process.
I'm pretty clueless as to how to best format these things, when I'll put up new posts and all the other logistics, but I'll do my best to consistently post new things and keep it interesting.
Ultimately, I think the best way to do anything is to just do it, so let's just jump into this shit.
To kick this journey off, I'll be discussing the band Polvo, who I frankly didn't realize people weren't hyper aware of until recently. My personal relationship with Polvo's music began circa 2005 via the internet. During my teen years, any time not spent skateboarding with friends was spent online, downloading every bit of music I could find and meticulously researching it (all very slowly on a dial-up connection.) Truthfully, I couldn't tell you the precise means by which I discovered Polvo, but I do faintly recall a rabbit hole beginning with Slint and spiraling down into the history of Steve Albini and Touch and Go Records, which somehow led me to Don Caballero, which led me to Archers of Loaf, which led me to Merge Records, which eventually landed me on Polvo.
I do distinctly recall the first song I ever heard by Polvo, because I had never heard anything like it in my life. I still haven't, for that matter. It was the song "Vibracobra," off their phenomenal debut LP on Merge records, "Cor-Crane Secret." You can watch the video for it below.
To give a little context, Polvo was an indie rock band formed in 1990 in Chapel Hill, NC by Ash Bowie, Dave Brylawski, Steve Popson and Eddie Watkins. From the jump, Polvo did things differently. Though you can hear reference points such as the weirder corners of the SST catalogue if you listen closely enough, even their earliest recorded material sounds wildly original. Their first release was a double 7" entitled "Can I Ride," which they put out via their own label Kitchen Puff Records. They were quickly picked up by Merge, and in 1992 put out the previously mentioned and truly groundbreaking "Cor-Crane Secret."
The first time I ever heard "Cor-Crane Secret" in its entirety was the summer of 2006, driving back from Bloomington, IN in my friend Justin Gregory's truck. He had picked up a CD copy of it from a little spot called TD's, which I still visit whenever I'm in the area. I also recall picking up a Squirrel Bait CD there during that trip, which I was ecstatic about, as that is a teenage proto-emo band featuring the key members of Slint, but that's a story for another time. Needless to say, I was floored by the record. I subsequently picked up their follow up record "Today's Active Lifestyles," which I loved even more. Peep a favorite from that record below.
After a couple more EPs via Merge, the band signed to the legendary Touch and Go, which brings my rabbit hole journey of discovery full circle. As a kid, I remember not enjoying the Touch and Go era material as much as the Merge stuff, but I've come to really enjoy it as an adult, and highly recommend checking out both "Exploded Drawing" and "Shapes." Polvo disbanded after "Shapes," but after a twelve year hiatus, the band reformed in 2008 to play some festivals, and subsequently re-signed with Merge to release 2009's stellar comeback record, "In Prism." In 2013, they release "Siberia," which was yet another phenomenal record, pushing the band's sound even further into the realm of prog without sounding corny, which is a true fucking feat. I strongly suggest scoping both of these later records.
As of now, Polvo is laying low. Unfortunately, 2016 also saw the passing of their original drummer, Eddie Watkins. That said, I truly hope the band plans to tour and record more in the future. If "Siberia" is any indication, they have certainly not lost their touch. So, in summary, go listen to Polvo, you dummy. This was truly a life changing band for me. They shifted the way I thought about music in such a massive way. I think there was a period of a few years in high school where I refused to play in standard tuning because of these guys. So go listen, tell your friends, buy their records, and get lost, homie.
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