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BRM MEET THE ARTISTS: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart


Posted by Hartley On Nov 17, 2008

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they don't look all that pained....

Yes, their name is The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. However, those who count them as friends, go shorthand, and affectionately refer to them as The Pains. In no time, I'm sure many a music writer will go with the TPOBPAH tag once this buzzy NYC quartet's kick-ass self-titled debut drops early in '09. Anyone whose heard a drop of the Pains' (nay: TPOBPAH's) blissed out, neo-classical boy-girl fuzz-pop will not find it shocking that the group is firmly entrenched with the newly relaunched seminal indie-pop label, Slumberland. While labelmates like Cause Co-motion, and Crystal Stilts play equally brilliant takes on the 80's c86 formula (the former more angular, the later more...um...druggy) - The Pains are the label's one true super-accessible group. There's nary a moment on the band's debut that isn't memorably catchy: in barely two-minutes, "Hey Paul" has a Vaseline's-like disarming simplicity to it that's far harder to pull off on record than it sounds. "Everything With You" is immediate and pop-punk-y enough to satisfy kids with a nostalgic thing for Green Day while at the same time earnest enough to live up to the band's "twee" influences. Best yet, "A Teenager In Love" is a straight-up 80's love song. No irony here folks. The track is sprinkled with so many magical Prefab Sprout-like keyboard lines it seems as though The Pains wrote it exclusively for the Some Kind OF Wonderful OST....

More important than any of that though, is the fact that here's the right group for the right moment. In a music industry climate where bands either have all look and no talent, or no look and all talent - here's a group that kinda has it all. The Pains posses both the right sound (a little Jesus And Mary Chain, a little Television Personalities, a little Rocketship), the right look (think dark colors, vintage 80's prints, and APC's penchant for logo-less euro-prep), and songs. Actual, memorable, songs with like bridges and choruses, and even a solo here and there. It's no wonder The Pains of Being Pure At Heart were one of the biggest success stories at this year's CMJ festival. The NY Times even said we should get them on Gossip Girl (Hi Alex!)...

Here's "A Teenager In Love" and "Everything With You" off The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's s/t debut out on Slumberland in early '09:

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