a romantically frazzled fierce panda one sheet

The Band: THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

The Release: 'KELLY’

The Formats: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Label: fierce panda (catalogue number NONG 272)

The Release Date: SEPTEMBER 8TH 2014

The Truth: THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART is an indiepop band from Brooklyn, USA. They consist of centrifugal force Kip Berman (vox / guitar), Anton Hochheim (dums), Christof Hochheim (guitar) and Jacob Sloan (bass / vox). They recently released ‘Days Of Abandon’, their third album, and ‘Kelly’ is the second single off that album following the heartily acclaimed sonic truthfulness of ‘Until The Sun Explodes’.

Much like the much of the rest of ‘Days Of Abandon’ ‘Kelly’ is an impeccably light-fingered alt.pop nod to the ‘80s when independent acts started discovering the joys of the studio sheen. Also much like the rest of the album these sugar-rushing melodies disguise a profoundly miserable lyrical undercurrent sealed by Berman’s lyrical kiss-off of “Passed out on the train again, woke up at the end of the world.” The female vocal is by Jen Goma from A Sunny Day In Glasgow, although for the recent US and European tour dates Fear Of Men’s Jess Weiss was an able live replacement.

Those live dates culminated on July 3rd with a rammed headline show at the Scala in Kings Cross. In October Pains will be heading out on an American tour with The New Pornographers. As if that wasn’t enough, Kip’s crew are coming back to imminently for these choice shows here, here and there:

AUG 9TH BRIGHTON Sticky Mike’s Bar
AUG 10TH SKIPTON Beacons Festival
AUG 11TH UTRECHT Ekko
AUG 13TH BERGEN Landmark
AUG 14TH STAVANGER Folken
AUG 15TH OSLO John Dee
AUG 16TH TRONDHEIM Samfundet
AUG 18TH GRONINGEN Vera
AUG 19TH CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms
AUG 20TH NOTTINGHAM Bodega Social
AUG 21ST CHESTER The Live Rooms
AUG 22ND LEEDS FESTIVAL
AUG 24TH READING FESTIVAL
AUG 25TH LONDON, ROUGH TRADE EAST (Free - 1pm)
AUG 25TH LONDON, BANQUET RECORDS (Free - 6pm)
AUG 26TH PARIS Le Silencio
AUG 29TH STOCKHOLM Popaganda Festival
SEP 2ND SOUTHAMPTON, Joiners
SEP 3RD LONODN, Hoxton Bar and Kitchen
SEP 5TH MURCIA Lemon Pop
SEP 6TH SAN SEBASTIAN Kutxa Kultur Festival

'Days Of Abandon' comes off the back of two critically acclaimed records - 2009's self-titled debut and the 2011 follow-up, 'Belong' - that demonstrated the group's ability to shift musical registers from bedroom pop daydreams to Alternative Nation anthems. Produced by Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine, Patrick Wolf, Cloud Boat) and mixed by Charlie Hugall (Swim Deep, Florence & The Machine) at London's Engine Room.

Never a man to knowingly stand still for too long, 'Days Of Abandon' sees Bergman depart from the exaggerated roar and clamour that defined the Flood-and-Alan-Moulder helmed 'Belong’ to whizz up ten pop songs in 37 minutes. This is a record which rockets from Aztec Camera to Camera Obscura in the indiepop firmament without tripping over any awkwardly twee roots; a big, shiny musical creation which is as convincing as it is concise, and it is a VERY concise album. But don’t just take our word for it, take these words here:

"Loveable songwriting at its best - one of the most invigorating records to far this year." - drunkenwerewolf.com

"There's a vivaciousness permeating every aspect of this record...Indie pop at its most sparkling." - thelineofbestfit.com

"'Days Of Abandon' represents its creators' most ambitious body of work to date." - drownedinsound.com

"A record that jangles in all the right places...Indie pop that sounds this simple takes a lot of skill." - London In Stereo

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