Press for Comecrudos

Tiny Mix Tapes 4/5 “The most jarring moment of the whole EP is the final second, as the organ stops on a dime and the aural film effectively cuts to black. Yet, due to the band’s immaculate pacing and tenacious creation of diverse, lavishly constructed atmospheres, this ‘cut to black’ only serves to leave the listener not merely wanting, but praying for more. Comecrudos is far more immersive than any EP has a right to be.”

Knox Road“… enough to make you love Pontiak in a whole new way, or become obsessed for the very first time. … Pontiak got it right with Comecrudos. I enjoy their other records, but this one really taps the right vein.”

Dusted” … the EP wrestles with big issues — the largeness of nature, the smallness of man, the meaning of self amid transitory experience — in a remarkably focused and musical way. There’s very little preaching or even overt philosophizing in these four compositions, but you still come away thinking about the most fundamental questions.”

Sonic Masala” … it truly is a fucking killer release, and has me even more anxiously anticipating their next LP release, which at this stage won’t be until next year. My favourite EP of the year thus far, hands down, and running for best release. Get it!

SentireAscoltare (IT) “Si può parlare quindi di Comecrudos come il disco definitivo dei Pontiak? Se non fosse solo un ep, e se non fosse che ormai i tre fratelli Carney hanno raggiunto una statura di primo piano, si potrebbe. Ma è meglio non fidarsi dei tre virginiani: nella prossima uscita potrebbero fare ancora meglio.”
(7.3/10)

Live Review:
Rocka Rolla – “Pontiak … utterly blow(s) away any doubts one may have about good old, guitar-heavy psychedelic rock’s capability to produce viscerally exciting, powerful and totally valid modern music. Touching on diverse doom, southern-fried stoner, bluesy classic rock and noisier abstract influences, Pontiak are heavy, fuzzed-up and powerfully varied, yet somehow head-noddingly friendly and earthy.”

Sea Voids Press is Here:

The Line of Best Fit: “On the one hand Pontiak’s songs can seem to merge into one, the silent spaces between them becoming insignificant. On the other hand, individual sections of songs can violently react against others, as if refusing to be caged with them and feeling more associated with the opening section of the next song or the outro of the last. … From playing with our minds to offering up to us exactly what we expect – somehow this is more affecting than if Pontiak had simply played with our minds.”

StrangeGlue: “Pontiak know about the space between notes. They know how to use it, and not just use it to make you think that your record player is fucked (although my record player actually was fucked last week, and I thought it was them). … It leaves me feeling like I have been driving immensely fast towards an abyss I was not aware of, stopping to teeter precariously on the edge by chance. Or maybe it’s the sound of falling. It’s heavy, and it’s fuelling all sorts of illuminations.” 8/10.

Other Music, “Pontiak’s third long player for Thrill Jockey finds the three Carney brothers venturing deeper into heavy neo-psychedelia territory, all the while maintaining a keen sense of melody and song structure. Slow, growling guitar riffs and moments of bona fide sludge metal are interwoven with noisy soundscapes, pounding stoner rock, and even some folk. A very dynamic album, and definitely their strongest to date.”

StonerRock.com, “There’s a spark of creativity going on here that shines brighter than in most bands – I get the feeling that they’d be able to knock off an album full of songs like “Life and Coral” and “It’s the Life” and it’d be just as impressive as one full of their heavier, more twisted material. Recommended.”

The Philler:, “This album is less of a sea and more of an ocean, from the big and deep and slow and menacing blues stomp that gives into altogether more swaggery one at the opening, to the dripping guitar chords that roll into one another across most of the other tracks, and including the little islands of acoustic-guitar that pop up a couple times. There are nine tracks in just over half an hour of music here, but the album has such a coherence and intensity of sound that listening to it seems epic—in a good way. An engine of tight, steady drumming punctuates the whole album.”

Maker Press is Here:

Pitchfork – 7.9/10 “… one of the most ambitious and iconoclastic rock records of the year … And that’s the real charm of Maker. Even when Pontiak are demolishing, abbreviating, or stretching structures, they maintain an allegiance to song. “Heat Pleasure” might be 94 seconds of cymbal splatter and feedback rolling into one wide wave, but it adheres with direction and purpose. … Pontiak, then, find ways to satisfy both castes– the musical purists and progressives– even as they play songs that seem designed for one or the other.”

Xlr8tr (8/10), “Maker jumps confidently between retro-psych (à la Dead Meadow) and sledgehammer riffage (à la Shellac); there are moments of piercing dissonance (“Wax Worship,” “Headless Conference”) and stoner-rock bliss (the epic 13-minute title track). And throughout it all, the Carney boys never back off from the pummeling intensity afforded by these intimate live recordings. Pontiak cuts to the quick.”

Tiny Mix Tapes 3.5/5: “Although Pontiak’s music carries a rural, rustic vibe, Maker’s stylistic range is impressively broad, blending disparate elements into a rather cohesive whole. “Aestival” recalls late-period Earth (at their fastest), with its ringing chords, consistent ride cymbal ping, and narcotic haze. … Indeed, Pontiak display a great amount of restraint and maturity on Maker, but they’re most successful and exciting when combining their more avant-garde tendencies with their love of classic southern rock, as heard in the multiple segments of album standout “Wax Worship.”

Wired Magazine:, “It’s beyond refreshing to hear guitars unfurl and growl the way do in Pontiak’s perfect soundscaping. The digital age has birthed too many wankers, but this Virginia-based riff pusher is having none of it, even though the band usually records mostly live and in one or two takes. Led by Van, Jennings and Lain Carney, three brothers from the Blue Ridge Mountains, Pontiak delivers powerful anthems that worm their way into your lobes and lay beautiful, noisy eggs.”

Brainwashed, “The disc’s title track pretty much encapsulates the entire album’s ethos into a single 13 minute track, getting in bass heavy sludge, dissonant guitar noise, jazzy improvisation, and pure stoner rock all together in a way that makes sense. … For a young band, Pontiak definitely has their proverbial shit together when it comes to sound and style.”

Mojo, (4/5) “…delivers nuanced amplifier worship in excelsis.”

Rocka Rolla, “A glorious record, with a deeply warm and almighty delivery.”

Wire (UK) “Pontiak’s organic approach comes as a breath of fresh air. … An elongated power surge.”

Other Music, “Pontiak’s ominous, primal sound is captured in Maker with raw mostly-live takes and impressive ingenuity. The three farm-raised Carney brothers (Van, Jennings, and Lain) have an intuitive, communal way of playing together, creating a dark, growling, psychedelic sound that is eerily inforced by choral vocals and the droning, dwindling hum of intentionally dying amps.”

StrangeGlue (8/10), “Maker stomps about like some kind of heaving beast that your eyes can’t quite get a fix on. There is a quivering in the air, a heat haze. You could call Pontiak a defiant band, drawing a line in the sand for anyone who travelled across the desert with the amiable vibrations of Sun on Sun, their previous full length. Maker makes an ascent into the hills and forests beyond that line, into mountainous terrain.”

Subba Cultcha (4.5/5 Headphones), “Comparisons don’t come easy, but if you remember the expansive, psychedelic stylings of post-grunge troupe Truly, cross breed them with the last couple of Bad Seeds albums and the heavy, droning dirge of the God Machine. That should put you somewhere in the ball park. … Heavy without being metal, experimental without falling to bits and original without being inaccessible, this is a special band, perhaps in part due to the fact that it is composed of three brothers and therefore a great deal of jamming time has been possible. It’s still growing on me, but I know “Maker” isn’t going to be freed from my CD drive for a while yet.”

Onda Rock (7.5/10) — translated — , “Never repetitive, the album offers many faces, as in “aestival” the group marries the dark side of Nick Cave and the poetry of Bill Callahan putting in the delicate acoustic ballad sounds ecstatic and furious that seem to leave the pages of rock Pink Floyd. … All that “Sun On Sun” promised is translated into reality in this excellent new chapter of one of the best American band in recent years.”>

Blurt Magazine, “… it’s clear that Pontiak diverge from their psych-rock contemporaries in their ability to drape volume-dealing trippiness atop tightly wound aggression. Classic rock bangs up against free-noise chaos, homespun folkiness is rendered hostile by maxed-out reverb and fuzz, and, by teh [sic] time the epic title track closes out the disc, a thorough brain-scrubbing has been delivered alongside a brutal ass-whupping.”

Citizen Dick, “After listening to Pontiak’s third Thrill Jockey release, Maker, for the fourth time through, one thing is abundantly clear; this is not tea sipping music. … Many tracks on the record were recorded in one, live take, and this all inclusive style is kicking me hard where it counts right now.”

Creative Loafing Atlanta (4 Stars), “The stuttering “Laywayed,” the noisy bursts of “Heat Pleasure,” and the hyper-manic clusters of guitar and drums in “Headless Conference” come together like pop fodder fitted with deep, dark grooves and warrior crooning.”

Kale Press is Here:
Crawdaddy!: “Starting off the pack is “Dome Under the Sky”, which, if you’re not paying close enough attention, could easily be mistaken for one of Arbouretum’s heavier jams. It features powerful riffs a la Black Sabbath, and lead singer Van Carney’s vocals pierce through the thick sonic swagger of the guitars. Next they take on “The Endless Plain of Fortune” from Cale’s third album, the highly-regarded Paris 1919. Pontiak stretch this song out past its 4:12 mark into an 8:34 exploration, making it a rather extraordinary rendition. The album wraps up with Pontiak’s version of Cale’s “Mr. Wilson”, showing another side to Pontiak, as the heavy riffs subside for a song that’s mostly keys, effects, and drums, with guitar only adding slight background accents. … Kale … is a cool reference tool to have around if you’re a fan of either Arbouretum, or Pontiak, or both … Also, it’s a nice taste of things to come from Pontiak in the near future.”

Dusted Magazine:, Pontiak’s picks of Cale covers “allow the band to stretch well beyond its desert rock, stoner-drone home territories, working from a lighter-toned palette.”

Sun on Sun Press is Here:
JULIAN COPE: “I’ve also been vibing on SUN ON SUN by three-piece post-stoner nutters Pontiak, whose ominous, portentous music straddles a wide sonic rift valley, with references that stretch from the southern latitudes of Spain’s Viaje A800 to the northern majesty of Black Sabbath and Harvey Milk via the Doors. …Pontiak are either space aliens or Mormons (what’s the diff?), which is probably why their music sounds as though it were filtered through deep space.”

Foxy Digitalis 8/10: “There is something truly incredible happening here. … Surreal lyricism and catchy melodies sung over atmospheric power-southern-rock with epic-psych riffs, head-nodding-grooves, precision drumming breaking into huge choruses and soaring reverb-heavy ripping guitar solos is about the best way I can think to describe their sound and that’s just the first song from the LP. Each track brings something different and it’s always the ‘perfect’ kind of different. They bring it down quietly to end the record with a nice acoustic piece that floats in timbre and time. Flawless despite its flaws, Sun On Sun is produced with a welcome unpolished and organically-grown raw sound likened to a soundboard recording of a live show.”

i94Bar In Australia: “Like something living and toxic being exhumed from the belly of a dying beast, this seven-track album wriggles and slides when drawn out into the sunlight. Dark and brooding in places, explosive and white hot in others, it’s a genre-busting source of wonder. … Excuse the rant but when you find intelligent life out there, you have to tell people about it. There’s little wasted and not much out of place. This is very much an album in a crowded landscape that might pass you by if you’re not watching. Don’t let the fact you’ve never heard of Pontiak put you off when this could be one of the smartest dark gems in your contemporary music collection.”

Time Out Chicago: “Oh man, you know that movie where Paul Bunyan builds a washing machine on top of a mesa in the Sonoran desert and puts an old stone cathedral and some battleship hulls inside? Then the camera just pulls back in slow motion as the sun sets? Pontiak would’ve been perfect for that. Wait, dude, did someone put peyote in my Mr. Pibb?”

The Baltimore City Paper: “Pontiak, on its third release, even adds one or three personalities, still without tearing apart its face, and delivering a delicious Pink Floyd/Doors/Kyuss swerve. … Dripping guitar dirge; drawn, mopey/apathetic vocals; an elephant’s lumbering pace; a chorus that howls without lifting its head. It’s actually kinda perfect … It’s like a goodbye peck on the cheek from an album that’s spent the rest of time together shoving its tongue down your throat.”

QRO Magazine says: “Sun on Sun is as if an abstract artist produced a collection on the subject of power tools. … Far too often these days, power-rock is one-dimensional, cheesy, or both. Sun on Sun is neither, though, and amazingly brawny and complex. It sounds like the Carneys could kick your ass, but have far more important things on their minds.”

Raven Sings the Blues, “The band’s latest offering Sun On Sun is as powerful as it is nebulous; trading thunder and smoke in equal measure. … [T]he band power on through the next few decades of heaviness to create the perfect amalgam of swagger, fire and light.”

Gerald Van Waes’ Pysche van het Folk in Belgium: ” What is really fine about the band, is that they, with relative simple fundaments of bluesy riffs still are able to create something different that ranges from an influence coming from postrock songs, to a slowed down hypnotic jam-rock flavoured rock, with beyond that even one experimental track with echoed sounds of distorted guitar and metallic percussion.

Mentes de Acido says, “Their sonic rituals seek catharsis with the three brothers singing at the same time, they try to create atmosphere and aim to submerge the listener little by little. The strength of the album is precisely that the group gives the impression of living on the margin of any influence, and all these points in common on which we have commented appear to be a coincidence, as if they only make the music that comes from within.”

KAUR 89.1 FM Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota:, who said that closer “The Brush Burned Fast”, which harkens back to their older works? It returns to a more folk-heavy ballad with a creepy echo effect that, combined with Van’s emotive vocals, has a haunting effect and which also puts an end to one great album and leaves me thinking that if secluding yourself in the woods creates music like this, more people should do it. Of course, it may just stem from a life-long understanding between brothers who know just what to put in and what to leave out.”

Any Given Tuesday, “all the noise, feedback, riffage, majestic beauty and total aural assault that would compare to two giant stars colliding in outer space…

Beatbots: Sun on Sun intro track “Shell Skull” launches forward with a heavy guitar riff and drum combination of classically hard-rockin’ proportions … the musical abilities of the brothers Carney are sure to draw you back for repeat performances, at which point the band’s strengths—among them, well-worded narratives and stellar songwriting of the blues-rock variety—become that much more apparent.”

KFJC FM, Los Altos, California: “Fault lines open the earth and sounds chant forth from the chasm…”

Jason Von Nostrand Groves ***************************************************************************
“sun on sun: i heard certain cliffs in california eroding into the ocean and the surf breaking on those dislocated masses of earth. seagulls riding on orthographic uplifts. a thousand plateauxs of sagebrush. geologic music. awesome.”

From the Baltimore City Paper, Pontiak will “swallow (you) in lovely fuzz [and] smoked-out heavy riffage…”