Monday, February 9, 2009

Splitting the Difference # 6 - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart/Parallelograms 7" (2008, Atomic Beat)

Lately, when people have ask me to recommend my latest and greatest discovery of the moment, my band of choice to pluck out of my back pocket has been New York's The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but they won't be staying in my pocket much longer. With great accolades from Pitchfork for their oven-fresh, self-titled debut on Slumberland Records, as well as accruing glowing praise in several print magazines, POBPAH could be on the cusp of something far grander than this split single that was limited to a pressing of a mere 300 copies. The Pains co-ed amalgamation of mid-80s British jangle, and faint shoegazer inclinations a la Isn't Anything-era My Bloody Valentine, dovetail to a relentless, chiming crescendo, indelible to even the most discriminating hipster. Their track here, the inventively titled "Kurt Cobain's Cardigan," doesn't appear on their full-length, or anywhere else, but is as representative and essential as anything else in their burgeoning repertoire. Who would've guessed the influence of bands like Close Lobsters and Black Tambourine would still be resonating some fifteen to twenty years after the fact? The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are on a trek of the US. Check out the dates at their Myspace site.

Female-fronted UK denizens The Parallelograms offer up two swift slices of minimalist indie-pop, that lean vaguely in the direction of the Popguns and Primitives (remember them?), but would ultimately sound more at home on a Brit fanzine cassette comp, circa 1988. This single has sold out, but check out Atomic Beat Records website some new bands that just might land in your back pocket.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kurt Cobain's Cardigan
The Parallelograms - 1, 2, 3, Go!
The Parallelograms - Pop the Bubbles

1 comment:

Giderai said...

The file of the above link no longer exists.
That's why you should repost it.
Follow the link and see what you got.
http://www.atomicbeatrecords.co.uk/releases.html