We are happy to announce the UK/European/Australian release of our new album “Living” which came out on Monday, September 6. Here are some snippets about the album:

BBC: “First things first, this – the Virginia-based Carney brothers’ fifth in four years – is an excellent and unique record. … But what’s most admirable about Living is the disregard the band seemingly has for the conventions of modern rock. … Pedantic and elitist, yes, but there’s something that will be forever thrilling about young men who don’t want to plough fields that have been so thoroughly forged before.”

NME: “The American independent label Thrill Jockey, which made its name during the post-rock boom of the ’90s, is undergoing a heavy, psychedelic renaissance at the moment. In the green-thumb, orange-amp, black-heart department alone they’ve released astounding albums by and in the last 12 months, and now you can add Pontiak to that list. Brothers Van, Lain and Jennings Carney recorded this twitchy rock beast on the farm they live on in Virginia and, true to its origins, the autistic, head-nodding riffs speak of isolation.”

MusicOMH: “Pontiak being the sort of band that rattles organs out of alignment with their impossibly loud live show, Living could well have been an incomprehensible, sludgy mess. But, as it is, Living is a thick slab of riffy backwoods blues-rock that works as well on big speakers as it does on headphones – in either setting, it engenders a sense of general unease and spooked-out edge-of-seat anticipation in the listener.”

Rock-a-Rolla: “With its four months of recording sessions, Living underwent a relatively epic gestation in comparison to the previous releases … The level of intuitive communication and familiarity which successfully allows such ferocious recording schedules makes itself know musically in the rough-hewn and organic feel of the trio’s modern-day vintage rock experimentation.”

Rock Sound: “Their fuzzy-toned, retro-rock lumber leaves this writer all set to scribble some biolerplate pish about slow-moving country life … (Living) continues along … that of Crazy Horse-ish extrovert jamming and counterculture electric blues riffmonsters like the Groundhogs.”

Sid Smith: “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.

Soundblab 7/10“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.”

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’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

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!

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 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.”

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 €œLiving€ 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.

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.

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.

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.