The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - 'Belong'

While they should be applauded for developing beyond their fuzzy debut, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seem to have experienced some growing pains on their second full-length, Belong. While early ’90s alternative seems to have done wonders for their sonic palette, clumsy lyrics ultimately undue the record.

Give the band credit for consistency, though. Belong is steadfast in its goth attitude – line after line talks about wanting to die, languishing in bed and not belonging anywhere. This isn’t too far off from The Head on the Door in terms of sound and sentiment, but the whole thing comes off as dull and underwhelming. Blame the lack of variation or the slower tempos, but what once seemed cute and twee on The Pains of Being Pure at Heart gets annoying on Belong.

Some of these lines are just obnoxious: “My Terrible Friend” might unload the biggest clunker of the bunch with “What did you take? ’Cause that’s what I’ll take / And I can’t take it without you.” I can only justify the opening lines to “Strange” (“When everyone was doing drugs / We were just doing love”) by assuming the band was high when they wrote them, but that can’t be right. There’s just a lack of eloquence, not to mention rhyme scheme diversity, at play here.

Still, the band at least gets the music right. It’s startling how closely Belong approximates the guitar tone of Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream at times, but then, Alan Moulder mixed both albums. The bulk of the record is still in an ’80s template, but the band seems less indebted to early My Bloody Valentine now.

The best and worst thing I could say about Belong is that any of its songs would fit in perfectly with the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. It’s steadfast in its juvenile depression, but it lacks the Cure’s manic depths or the Psychedelic Furs’ sleazy come-ons. It’s the kind of album you need to hear in your teens and need to sell in your twenties.

Vinyl Vednesday 12/1/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s installment is an epic yarn about Record Store Day, which came twice this year with the inclusion of a Black Friday celebration. Here are three vinyl finds from RSD 2010, Part Deux. Viva la vinyl and, as always, e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s Higher Than the Stars Remixes (2009) on black, Jimi Hendrix’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (2010) on clear green, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Save My Love” b/w “Because the Night” on black.

Place of Purchase: Higher Than the Stars came from a.k.a. music. Hendrix and Bruuuuuuuuuuce came from Repo Records.

Thoughts: a.k.a music…you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, at least as far as indie record obsessives go. Still, they hooked me up with that exclusive Bruce 10-inch back in April for Record Store Day proper. So I decided to stop there first, even though my loyalty lies with Repo. The clerks at a.k.a. tend to be wieners, but the selection is so good. It’s like hate-sex on black wax. I arrived right when they opened, hoping to beat the RSD crowd, only to find out that a.k.a., for whatever reason, wasn’t participating. I asked an employee if they had anything in stock. “Oh, we don’t do that,” he chortled. What a dick-bungler. Still, they had a pretty neat remix 12-inch from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart that had been discounted (T or F: The Pains sound even better with haunting dance beats? Discuss), so I bought that, went to Brave New Worlds Comics, because hell yeah I love comics, and then called up Repo.

“Hey, I was wondering if you guys still had any of the Record Store Exclusives in stock?” I asked, lips trembling.

“Hell’s yeah we do. Supplies are limited, but we actually care about customer service, so I’ll set aside whatever you need, Joe Pelone. You are one cool guy,” the voice on the other line said [NOTE: I’m paraphrasing. Capote did it!]. A quick drive to Sixth and South yielded like $70 in records and CDs, because that is how I do. Among my haul was a Christmas 10-inch from Jimi Hendrix. It’s a goofy curio to hear Hendrix play psychedelic versions of “Little Drummer Boy,” “Silent Night,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” Turns out he wanted to record some demos as reference track for a string of December shows he was playing. Ever the showman, Jimi tossed in some holiday goodies. The result is exactly what you think would be: Christmas standards mixed with Jimi’s psych-rock noodling. Dude would have hosted an awesome Christmas special. “Three Little Bears” is thrown in to, because why not? The tunes are good, but the back cover is priceless.

I also picked up a new single of old songs from Bruce Springsteen. “Save My Love” and “Because the Night” come from Springsteen’s new vault-clearing The Promise, which boasts two discs songs discarded during the recording of Darkness on the Edge of Town. I get why these songs didn’t make it on to the album, but the fact that Bruce just left “Save My Love” to rot is insane. It’s such a catchy, radio-ready anthem. At least “Because the Night” got to live on with Patti Smith (Who, let’s be honest, perfected the song). I can’t wait to hear The Promise based on these recordings, though. I mean, Springsteen basically dropped a double-album for the hell of it.

Post-script: After Repo, I ate victory falafel from Maoz on Second and South. It was delicious.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - 'Say No to Love'

On their new seven-inch, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart continue to progress away from the early My Bloody Valentine fuzz of their self-titled debut. On these two new songs, the group sounds much more cleanly produced than ever before, now recalling the Cure, Psychedelic Furs and Modern English. Basically, they’re still indebted to the ’80s, only this time they’re a bit more on the John Hughes side.

“Say No to Love” is a little jarring upon the first listen. Frontman Kip Berman sounds markedly different from previous recordings, a bit deeper, but the song is still pretty cute. With music this chipper, “cute” is the only word needed, even if the chorus is the title. B-side “Lost Saint” is a little bit slower, which is the real departure for the band. It savors the mood more.

Given that it’s just a seven-inch, it’s hard to say if Say No to Love marks the Pains’ new sound or not. As produced, the songs wouldn’t have fit on Pains or Higher Than the Stars. Whether or not this is the point where the Pains start to get slicker and duller won’t be revealed until LP #2.

regarding things I am excited about.

-The Next Big Thing advanced to the third round in a battle of the bands tournament. Round Three is going down on the Trocadero main stage, which is kind of a big deal. Tix = $14. There are an ass-ton of bands playing, but inside sources told me NBT is expected to go on around 3:10. That's a great set time for those of us looking to be in bed by 4 p.m. sharp! So hey, Internet friends, let's take the train into that big ol' city and show Chinatown how we get down with the drunkest, punkest friends I know - the Next Big Thingers.

Seriously, though, I'm all about getting drunk in the afternoon and then heckling my buddies.

-Amy Czulada, a former classmate of mine, wrote 50 songs about 'Merica with a buddy of hers named Rob for their honors project. I'm pretty stoked on it - she wrote 50 freakin' songs! They're of the charmingly lo-fi indie/folk/twee variety, although the duo occasionally gets all fierce 'n' loud as well. Sufjan Stevens can suck a big ol' wiener, 'cause Amy beat 'em at the U.S. history game. E-mail czuladaa1@student.lasalle.edu to hear the project for free. Click here for a taste.

-Have you seen the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart music video? It's starts off all cute 'n' twee-like until a girl walks into a room full of furries. Then shit gets weird. Still cute, but kinda weird. Also the Pains have a new single coming out next month. My pseudo-goth heart is filled with anticipation.

Vinyl Vednesday 12/30/2009

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. This week, VV takes a look at three of the top albums of 2009. You can find my best of ’09 list over at punknews.org; an expanded edition will run sometime around New Year’s. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (2009) on black, Silversun Pickups’ Swoon (2009) on black, and Thursday’s Common Existence (2009) on black with the Thursday dove logo etched into the D-side.

Place of Purchase: Pains and Swoon came from my favorite record store, Repo Records in Philadelphia. Common Existence came from Hot Topic.

Thoughts: Got-damn do I enjoy me some Pains o’ Being Pure of Something Something Something. Super catchy, kinda fuzzy, twee/Ramones hybrid. Good stuff. Every so often, I pick up an album based purely on hype, and Pains was one such purchase. I bought it on CD without knowing any of the songs, fell in love, and then went back to Repo for the vinyl version. This album was pretty much perfect for every season – haunting hooks in the winter and fall; lo-fi romance for the spring and summer. Gosh I hope they stick around.

I was introduced to Silversun Pickups when Wonka Vision Magazine slapped ’em on the cover around the time of my internship. I bought their record Carnavas on the strength of breakout single “Lazy Eye,” fell in love, and then proceeded to soak up as many SSPU tunes as I could. It was quite the happy day when sophomore full-length Swoon dropped. It’s not as good as Carnavas, but damn is it a close second. The band served up another helping of androgynous shoegaze-leaning alt-rock. Sometimes the album rocks out with its genitals out (“There’s No Secrets This Year”) and sometimes it kicks back a bit (“Getting Old is Getting Old”), but it’s always entertaining.

Common Existence made me giddy in 2009. First I got stoked on the fact that Thursday overcame the major label grinder. There was an awkward lil period where I feared it would be a Full Collapse retread – lead single “Resuscitation of Dead Man” seemed too 2001 – but that quickly ended once I heard the album’s 45 minutes of tunes. Common Existence gives me the feeling that Thursday could pretty much do whatever they want. “Last Call” shows how much they dominate the post-hardcore game, but “Circuits of Fever” and “Love Has Led Us Astray” reveal a band that knows how to write more ethereal jams. Punk bands tend to have short, fiery lifespans, but, thankfully, Thursday has been going strong for over a decade.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - 'Higher Than the Stars'

[Go to MySpace to hear two of the new Pains songs right now!]

New York City’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart opened 2009 with one of the best albums of the year; now they’re closing it out with one of the best EPs, Higher Than the Stars. They’ve already been bleeding B-sides for a while; now they’ve gone and given me four new tunes, plus a really great remix of the title track. It’s like falling in love all over again.

For those looking to check out the Pains’ retro noise/twee/shoegaze sound (Early My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Belle & Sebastian with more distortion pedals, etc.), Higher Than the Stars might be the better buy in today’s economy, by which I mean it’s cheaper and still high quality. “Higher Than the Stars” opens the EP by slightly tweaking the band’s formula. It’s still dreamy and lovelorn, but the fuzz is all but gone. Not so on track two, “103,” the band’s love letter to Princeton University’s radio station WPRB 103.3 FM. It’s surely too soon to say a late ’09 Pains track has the classic sound of early ’09 Pains, but “103” is the most retro of the bunch. Already a solid addition to the band’s set list, “103” adds a dash of grit (relatively speaking) to the album.

“Falling Over” reveals the band’s seemingly growing push towards dreamy dance music, while “Twins” tries to bridge the gap. It’s fuzzier, but more mid-tempo. Without a Ramones-y tempo, “Twins” is easily the least appealing track on High Than the Stars. But the slack is soon picked up by the title track’s “Saint Etienne Visits Lord Spank Remix.” Sure, it’s an obnoxious title, but the remix strengthens the song’s more chill aspects. Given the mellow groove of “Higher Than the Stars” and “Falling Over,” the remix fits in better than “103” or “Twins.”

“Lord Spank” reveals yet another potential avenue for the Pains: remixes. Regardless of where the band goes for LP #2, though, I’m confident it’s going to be beautiful. Maybe they’ll drop a clean-sounding Darklands or a swirling Loveless. Hell, what if it turns out they have a Discovery in them?

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at The Barbary

New York City bands The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and ZAZA made a quick stop at Philadelphia’s The Barbary before finishing up their spring tour together. And by quick, I mean half-hour sets. Maybe it was a mercy – was I the only one in attendance who didn’t have a final the next day? Maybe it was a lack of songs – the Pains could play their entire released discography and still not fill an hour. Either way, the too-brief night, however fun it was for the moment, felt anticlimactic in the end.

ZAZA, featuring Pains drummer Kurt Feldman, went on first with an introduction of “Hi… errrr… banter” from guitarist/fronmtan Danny Taylor. Though the band experienced some guitar issues early on, they eventually found a working groove. Swirling, ethereal, droning… pick any shoegaze adjective and it’ll stick to ZAZA, though that’s not meant as a dig. Taylor unfurled a vast array of guitar tones with his mother of an effects board while bassist/keyboardist Jennifer Fraser danced through the layers with her fleet lines. Though Feldman has pretty perfect time and proved to be a top notch drummer later, he felt like a waste here. ZAZA uses preprogrammed drums, which were louder than Feldman’s floor tom/snare/cymbal setup. And while the beats were solid, nothing seemed beyond the grasp of a drummer with a full kit. Granted, Feldman was working a double shift, but given that he only played for like 65 minutes total, ZAZA’s choices in percussion became distracting.

Preprogrammed or not, ZAZA still provided a cool set, featuring songs like “Sooner or Later” and “Always On” from the band’s new EP Cameo. All four songs are available for free online at zazasound.com. The crowd wasn’t particularly into dancing… or clapping… or jokes… but this was also the same crowd that filled The Barbary back-to-front, as if they didn’t want to appear too eager to attend this sold-out show. As such, ZAZA seemed to have gone over well.

Aside from a few minor amp issues and flubbed notes, Pains of Being Pure at Heart put on a mighty tasty show. Tunes from their eponymous debut like “This Love is Fucking Right!”, “Stay Alive,” and “Come Saturday” were played to near perfection, with waves of distortion drifting over the audience. A disco ball and a bubble machine made the lovesick, charming music that much more adorable. Frontman and Philadelphia Kip Berman was excited to be playing a show hosted by R5 Productions, arguably the city’s strongest alternative to Live Nation, and WPRB 103.3 FM, Princeton University’s radio station. The latter even got a dedication with the uber-catchy new song “103.” Berman later wished his mother, who was in attendance, a happy Mother’s Day. What a good son.

But while the set was fun and peppy, it was also awfully short. The Pains played for about 35 minutes. Throw in ZAZA’s half-hour set and it still doesn’t match the hour wait after door’s opened plus the 25 minutes spent setting up between bands. Granted, the Pains only have one full-length to their credit, but it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a Jesus and Mary Chain or Smiths cover or two… or three.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t

[Dedicated to Nate Adams. Sometimes I DO like new bands, ya handsome jerk.]

I’ll start by saying that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s eponymous full-length debut sounds like a tribute album to The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Ramones by Belle & Sebastian, and finish by defending that statement.

Hailing from New York, The Pains have crafted a tasty 10-song collection that, while sorta kinda maybe derivative, is infectious and accessible. They’ve been tearing up those Interwebs lately, earning a slew of somewhat unearned My Bloody Valentine comparisons. While this four-piece doesn’t explore guitar textures nearly as much as Loveless, they do share a lousy name and a penchant for borderline Gothic romantic pop songs like MBV circa Ecstasy and Wine, which is a roundabout way of saying they’re not as noisy as The Jesus and Mary Chain circa Psychocandy, but they’re not as cleaned up as the Chain circa Darklands either. The lo-fi vocals are fuzzed out a bit, obscuring specific lyrics (which might be for the best; nothing on “This Love is Fucking Right!” lives up to such a great title) in favor of mood and melody. You can’t always tell what co-vocalists Kip Berman and Peggy Wang-East are singing, but you can feel where they’re going. I’m hesitant to use the phrase “noise pop” to describe The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, because at their heart, they feel a little too safe, a little too twee, a little too Belle & Sebastian to ever be dangerous or, ya know… noisy.

This band writes simple pop songs and then adds a lo-fi layer of atmosphere to the mix, making the tracks feel dark but quite danceable. That B & S comparison hangs over the album constantly, and might end up being the one deal-breaking quality for some. That’s because these songs are secure and warm like your grandmother’s embrace. Depending on your perspective, that makes the record either repetitive or cohesive; I’m leaning towards the latter. Truth is, sometimes I just don’t give a shit about Dillinger Escape Plan’s time signatures or Ponytail’s anti-pop approach (that’s not a dig at either band, mind you). But I’m always down for four-on-the-floor pounded out love songs.

As for the Ramones bit, well I know this stuff ain’t pop punk. But try to ignore that The Ramones “invented” punk. Forget the raw live shows. Go back to the studio recordings of “Don’t Come Close” or “She’s a Sensation” or “Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love);” you’ll hear a budding pop mastery akin to what’s going on in The Pain of Being Pure at Heart’s songs like “Hey Paul” or “Come Saturday.” Berman’s guitar even has some of the same chugging rhythms as Johnny Ramone’s style, albeit with different tonal results; which is doubly interesting (at least to me) since My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields lists Johnny as one of his primary influences. Everything is connected.

So that’s what I hear when I play The Pains of Being Pure at Heart; a bunch of bands I love, plus Belle & Sebastian. Somewhere in there, I even found some songs that stand out on their own. Opener “Contender” is a cute/fuzzy/warm ditty with a dash of tambourine and a splash of haunting vocals. “Come Saturday” is the surprise rocker that keeps the vocals twee but makes the music go bang. And “Stay Alive” is the epic and exciting pulse-pounder; Berman lets off some shimmering guitar pyrotechnics to make listeners swoon. As a 35-minute blend of dreamy pop music, though, there’s little point in singling out tracks. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart works as a whole, so play it over and over.