Member Since: 1/11/2006
Band Website: none
Band Members: ash - guitar
dave- guitar
steve - bass
eddie - drums
Sounds Like: POLVO
Cor-Crane Secret
(Touch And Go)
AMERICAN Rock is dead. Apart from a few valiant avant-garde voyagers (Mercury Rev, Pavement), diligent footnote-adders (Buffalo Tom, 360's) and radical idealogues (Nation Of Ulysses, Cop Shoot Cop), you can safely turn your ears elsewhere these days without fear of missing much. And, personally, I've never forgiven them for cruise missiles. So who the fuck are Polvo, why have they such a stupid name, and why should I let them through my cultural customs barrier?Everything about Polvo seems to be shrouded in anonymity. Cor-Crane Secret arrived with no press release and no explanation, silently dropped into my hands by Mueller with a smug look of "Hah! Now you've got the lurgies!" The only clue is a thanks on the sleeve to Soo Young Park (him out of Bitch Magnet/Seam). Aha! Now I understand: products of a supergroup culture! (It's a little-known fact that with a population of 260 million to draw on, the American alternative scene is supported by rotating membership of only 20 musicians. Thus every "new" band is made up of the drummer from Sebadoh, the bassist from the Afghan Whigs and the guitarist from Superchunk.)Even the titles ("Ox Scapula," "Vibracobra," "The Curtain Remembers") are so impenetrably obscure as to suggest nothing more than a vague aura of artiness. Which is the first real hint of what Polvo are about. If Cor-Crane Secret leaves me dumbstruck (why else haven't I been able to even mention the music yet?) it's because Polvo are the first new American guitar band I've heard for months who owe no debt to the fuck-art-let's-rawk Sub Pop aesthetic (Perhaps the reason Polvo appeal is that they sound so Europhile).Most of Cor-Crane Secret appears as heard through a dust haze: a skewed, near-antirhythmic sense of dynamics somewhere on a line between Pixies and Shudder To Think, an effortless command of the more vibrant hues of the Nineties guitar spectrum (from Mecury Rev's bee-in-a-jar buzz to the Valentines' erotic, aerobatic swoon), and a way with a yearning, plaintive riff that rivals Buffalo Tom's "Taillights Fade" or Swervedriver's "Never Lose That Feeling." Most importantly, in an age when bands feel a compulsion to fill every space with reassuring grunge, Polvo are unafraid of silence, and comprehend its power. If Disco Inferno had grown up on Husker Du rather than Joy Division, they might have come up with something like this.I still reckon the Yanks are fucked. But one more exception won't hurt.Simon Price
Melody Maker
Record Label: kitchen puff/merge/touch and go
Type of Label: Indie