Postcards from the Yellow Room
29 August 2010 | News | No Comments
Sid Smith writes of Pontiak and “Living” that, “their songs often have a provisional, almost perfunctory feel about them. It’s a gamble which in less seasoned hands might be risky, but since this band of brothers have been working this way since 2006, it’s carried off so engagingly that it’s easy to give them the benefit of the doubt.
http://sidsmith.blogspot.com/2010/08/pontiak-living.html
Soundblab Living Review
28 August 2010 | News | No Comments
Soundblab’s review of “Living”: “You have to be prepared, have no preconceptions or wishes you want fulfilling. In short, you need to be dedicated to the listening process. … This is an album welcome only in solitude and darkness, for contemplation and meditation; here, and only here, will the atmosphere swallow you and like you best.” 7/10
European Tour Dates – October & November 2010
18 August 2010 | News | No Comments
We are very excited to announce the first dates of our upcoming European tour this fall to support the release of “Living”. We will have more to announce in the coming days.
Tue 12-Oct-10 POL, Krakow @ Re
Wed 13-Oct-10 POL, Warsaw @ Powiększenie
Thu 14-Oct-10 GER Berlin @ Jagerklause
Fri 15-Oct-10 SWE, Malmo @ Debaser
Sun 17-Oct-10 DEN, Copenhagen @ Lades
Mon 18-Oct-10 GER, Cologne @ Tsunami
Thu 21-Oct-10 GER, Offenbach @ Hafen 2
Sat 23-Oct-10 UK, Penryn @ Miss Peapod’s
Sun 24-Oct-10 UK, Manchester @ Ruby Lounge
Mon 25-Oct-10 UK, Glasgow @ Captain’s Rest
Thu 28-Oct-10 UK, London Old Blue Last
Fri 29-Oct-10 BEL, Diksmuide 4AD with Shining & Drums are For Parades
Wed 3-Nov-10 ITA, Rome @Circolo Delgi Artisti
Thurs 4-Nov-10 ITA, Madona Dell’Albero @ Bronson
Fri 5-Nov-10 ITA Pescara @ Wake Up
Sat 6-Nov-10 ITA, Padova @ Unwound
Wed 10-Nov-10 AUS, Vienna @ Arena
September shows, European release of Living
16 August 2010 | News | No Comments
We have a few US shows this September that we are announcing. We will be playing a new set of songs from our new album “Living” plus a few newer songs as well. The three shows include a set at Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh as well as sets with our friends Ocean and a just-confirmed show in Baltimore with Mondo Drag.
Sept. 10 – Richmond, VA @ The Triple w/ Ocean
Sept. 11 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopsctoch Festival
Sept. 14 – Baltimore, MD @ Golden West w/ Mondo Drag
We are also very excited about the European release of our new album “Living” September 6. We also have a European tour coming up this October and November with dates to be announced very very soon. Check back or feel free to email us with any questions. See you at the shows!
Filter Review – 84/100
29 June 2010 | News | No Comments
New Review for “Living” in this recent edition of Filter: 84% “Van, Lain and Jennings Carney throw down a diverse gripload of bottom-heavy bard-burners … onto two-track tape over four months. … Book your journey now.”
Reax Magazine gives Living a 9/10
22 June 2010 | News | No Comments
Reax Magazine on “Living”: it’s truly is a living, breathing monster. You can almost feel the music breathing down your neck as distorted guitar wash and heavily plucked bass push eardrums to the edge before drums roll and crash into the song’s feedback laden conclusion. Only a mute wouldn’t be gasping for air by the end of the four-minute blitz of sound. … It’s this willingness to stop when they’re ahead that will earn the Carney brothers a devoted following that devours their albums over and over again. No matter how quickly they can produce them.”
Living Press
13 June 2010 | News | No Comments
Bmore Musically Informed : I just picked up a vinyl copy of the record earlier this week, and from the first couple of spins I am already convinced this might be their best yet. From the super heavy low-end, to the haunting psychedelic soundscapes, to the blissful acoustic sonics that bridge it all together… this record is brilliantly dense in all the right ways.
Bull City Records: With this new album, the band is further exploring aural textures and the space that instruments can create while locked tightly together. It’s a local sound that hasn’t quite become recognized as having a locale just yet. The sounds are overgrown and claustrophobic at times, haunting and cavernous in other areas and dark and brooding all the way through. There are elements of approaching, impending, unknown dangers that nervously build and build, only to break and backslide into calm and ease. Pontiak has successfully created modern mountain music.
Under The Radar Magazine 7/10 : “Maybe it’s singer Van Carney’s haunting croon, recalling record-bin ephemera such as England’s High Tide (not to mention a certain Jim Morrison). Maybe it’s the sheer variety of content, as the band drift from groove-driven heaviness on “Young” and “This Is Living,” to such feedback-laden space jams as “And By Night,” or grab the acoustic guitar and organ for some old-fashioned psychedelia on “Beach.” … Pontiak play the craftsmen, eschewing the self-indulgence, paring things down and proving (again) that even a stagnant genre has somewhere to go.”
Prefixmag : Young,” a propulsive rocker that could go head to head with a top Queens of the Stone Age single. “Original Vestal” is a brief, dissonant track that breaks up the riffage of “Young” and leads into “Algiers By Day,” a pleasant but inconsequential mid-tempo tune that is followed with “And By Night,” a superb example of Pontiak’s ability to wrangle feedback into a rock template.
The Power of Pop: the most captivating moments on the record come when the band showcase their spacier side and push the sonic boundaries of their studio and instruments, such as the three-track sequence of Second Sun-Beach-Lemon Lady. At the heart of this record is the tension between pop-structured, dusty chugging riffs and spacier, dreamy exploration, a tension that makes it captivating. This is a record that allows for space to breathe, and what it breathes is fire.
Pitchfork: … Living is cohesive, with the songs fluidly oozing into each other. … The opening track, “Young”, scorches, its swinging crunch exhibiting the imprints of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple without being derivative of either.
Permanent Records: The first track on Living sounds like what we’d hoped Pontiak would evolve into since we heard their first record just a couple years ago. The parts / songs are seamlessly interwoven together and the vocalist comes and goes without warning, at times sounding like a less jock-y Josh Homme, or a more foreboding Nick Cave.
ZapTown : Instead of diving into a catatonic state of epic-length exploratory rock songs, Pontiak blooms from the epicormic state of rock and roll by utilizing the timing ideology of the three-minute pop song construction. … “Young” sounds like a warm-up session for Frank Zappa during his Apostrophe days, while “Second Sun” takes notes off of Amon Duul II. Then there is “This Is Living,” which sounds like the band just came off of a daze of listening to Deep Purple’s Machine Head all night.”
Sound Fix Records : It’s not hard to understand how Pontiak has, almost stealthily, become pretty seriously beloved by those in the know: The three Carney brothers of Virginia have now, with Living, put out five records in two years, the kind of work ethic that makes other musicians hold you in high regard. Oh, and then there’s the music itself: an organic style of rock & roll badassedness that has dirt under its nails and a ciggy dangling from its lips.
Living
17 May 2010 | News | 4 Comments
Our new studio album “Living” is now available at your local record store or online as well. We are very excited about this new album. The vinyl is translucent gold/150gram and is limited to 1000 copies. You can also purchase a copy at a show.
Living tracks posted
10 April 2010 | News | No Comments
There are three new tracks posted to our myspace page from the new album “Living” that will be released May 18 on Thrill Jockey. You can check them out and then we’ll see you at the shows in May when we hit the road with Arbouretum.
May Spring Tour with Arbouretum
27 March 2010 | News | No Comments
Here are most of the dates for our upcoming May tour with Arbouretum. We DO definitely have a Baltimore show in the works and it will be posted very soon.
We have limited quantities of Sea Voids – a very, very, very few left – for sale at the shows, and a few Maker and Kale LPs to sell (we are running low on everything). We are out of Sun on Sun LPs but will have plenty of new copies of Living ready for you to take home. See you at the shows!
May 12 – Charlottesville, VA @ Random Row Books with Arbouretum, Andrew Cedermark & Buffalo Wildwing & Goblet (Ned Oldham and Friends)
May 13 – Baltimore, MD @ Floristree with Arbouretum and Jason Urick
May 14 – Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5 with Arbouretum, Caltrop and Antlers
May 15 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight with Arbouretum & Caltrop
May 16 – Asheville, NC @ The Lab with Arbouretum & US Christmas
May 17 – Athens, GA @ Caledonia Lounge with Arbouretum
May 18 – Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia with Arbouretum & Forest Magic
May 19 – Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley with Arbouretum
May 20 – Chicago, Il @ Hideout with Arbouretum & Bitchin Bajas (CAVE)
May 21 – Columbus, OH @ Bourbon St. with Arbouretum
May 22 – Bethlehem, PA @ Secret Art Space with Arbouretum, Brother JT, LA Overtoner
May 23 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott with Arbouretum & High Aura’d
May 24 – NYC @ Santos Party House with Arbouretum & CoConuts
Anyone looking to tape, video or take pics, please feel free to contact us ahead of time. Thanks.