Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles
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Polvo (means "dust" in Spanish) was formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina right around 1990. Might have been a tad earlier, but whatever. The band released four albums and several EPs between 1992 and 1997 on well known labels such as Merge and Touch & Go. I've seen their music described as some sort of "indie math-rock", which was of course was popular in the early 90's. As the band's sound progressed (and became more progressive itself) the overall sound became closer to post-rock with an interesting Asian twinge to it. I believe Exploded Drawing's cover is a perfect example. One of my favorite album covers actually...
Anyway, Today's Active Lifestyles is Polvo's second album and was released in 1993. I was having trouble deciding which album I wanted to add to this thread, but I decided that TAL was really seminal in terms of which direction the band was heading. Slightly noisy, but not what I'd call abrasive by any means, full of stops and starts and changing time signatures. I've always had a slight erection for Ash Bowie's voice. Polvo is the type of band that I can always pick out if I overhear somone playing them, they managed to maintain a distinctive sound while many around them faded into the background. I would have loved to see these guys back in the day with say... Drive Like Jehu. That would be sweeet.
As of 2008, I believe they have re-formed the band. Not really up on that info at the moment.
Hope that was descriptive enough, I'm trying to get this one done before my lunch date.
**Note that is the original cover. They had some legal problems with the lions, and they were removed.
**Polvo (means "dust" in Spanish) was formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina right around 1990. Might have been a tad earlier, but whatever. The band released four albums and several EPs between 1992 and 1997 on well known labels such as Merge and Touch & Go. I've seen their music described as some sort of "indie math-rock", which was of course was popular in the early 90's. As the band's sound progressed (and became more progressive itself) the overall sound became closer to post-rock with an interesting Asian twinge to it. I believe Exploded Drawing's cover is a perfect example. One of my favorite album covers actually...
Anyway, Today's Active Lifestyles is Polvo's second album and was released in 1993. I was having trouble deciding which album I wanted to add to this thread, but I decided that TAL was really seminal in terms of which direction the band was heading. Slightly noisy, but not what I'd call abrasive by any means, full of stops and starts and changing time signatures. I've always had a slight erection for Ash Bowie's voice. Polvo is the type of band that I can always pick out if I overhear somone playing them, they managed to maintain a distinctive sound while many around them faded into the background. I would have loved to see these guys back in the day with say... Drive Like Jehu. That would be sweeet.
As of 2008, I believe they have re-formed the band. Not really up on that info at the moment.
Hope that was descriptive enough, I'm trying to get this one done before my lunch date.
**Note that is the original cover. They had some legal problems with the lions, and they were removed.
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