Matt Pond Announces New Record

Matt Pond PA is a semi-popular band that I got a firm grasp on and wouldn't let go of, beginning in the Fall of 2005. Most folks would recognize their cover of Oasis's "Champagne Supernova" for Fox's teen drama The O.C. in the mid-00s, but the band's early work is nothing to simply binge drink into obscurity. I relinquished my grip around the band in the Spring of 2007 when I drifted onto other groups, but not before witnessing them play live in Philadelphia in November 2006. They warmed the crowd up for Straylight Run, but the prom night sympathizers were simply out-shined by their predecessors. Like many artists I grew attached to in the middle of the past decade, they had a music video featured on MTV2's Subterranean, then hosted by current Vh1 employee and renown Pittsburgh Steelers fan, Jim Shearer. The band seemed very natural and fresh to me. The tunes seemed to complement every season and climate condition. The musical arrangements, the album artwork, the bristly beards - it all seemed very picturesque.

Since 2007, the band's seen many alterations, including changes in the line-up. However, frontman Matt Pond is rounding up the remaining troops for a release of the band's first record in two years. It's called Dark Leaves and it hits shelves sometime this spring, via Altitude Records.

Apparently, the top brass Brookyln-(escape to)-Philly band is trying out what I claim to be the "Bon Iver" style of recording; meaning, abandoning formal studio technology for a more stripped-down and raw engineered sound. It's all the rage in Wisconsin.

With this new record comes another EP, following 2007's Freeep (Free EP, get it?). Aura Sacra Fames is being released in three installments, the first of which came out in November. The other two installments are due before long.

Here's the track listing for Dark Leaves:

1. Starting
2. Running Wild
3. Specks
4. Remains
5. Sparrows
6. Brooklyn Fawn
7. Ruins
8. Winter Fawn
9. The Dark Leaves Theme
10. First Song

My guess is we'll be hearing some tunes about how life is much more peaceful amongst Bambi, little birds, and other woodland creatures in a forest. How serene.

Matt Pond PA - "Closest (Look Out)"