Pond – In Concert at Primavera Sound – 2017 – Barcelona, Spain – RNE Radio 3 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
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Pond in concert from the 2017 Primavera Sound festival. It occurred to me that I haven’t run any Pond concerts or sessions for almost five years now. No good reason – no good reason at all. I happen to like Pond very much and they offer furthr proof there has been a very healthy scene in Australia for some time now. You could easily mistake Pond for Tame Impala; there is that connection – and you could also draw comparisons to Jagwar Ma – they all are cut from the same musical cloth. And it’s a rich one.
Pond were formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 2008 with members Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson and Joe Ryan. The original idea of Pond was to be able to get anyone they wanted to play whatever they wanted in a collaborative musical project.
Their first album was released soon after in January 2009, titled Psychedelic Mango which contained many psychedelic rock and pop elements. Their second album, Corridors of Blissterday, was completed live with an eight piece band in five days, and released in June 2009. This led to the creation of their 2010 album, Frond, released in May 2010, featuring a heavier pop influence than previously heard from them.
After the breakthrough success of Innerspeaker, the debut album by Tame Impala, a band which shares three members with Pond, the album Beard, Wives, Denim was recorded in 2010 and later released to critical acclaim in March 2012.
They toured the United States in 2012, appearing at festivals such as South by Southwest, with another album titled Hobo Rocket set for release in the future. On 26 May 2012, NME magazine named Pond “The Hottest New Band In The World” in their “Hot List” issue. On 28 June 2012, Pond had a one-off performance with Can frontman Damo Suzuki, one of Pond’s biggest inspirations and musical idols (and a lot of people’s).
On 9 September 2019, the band announced a live album, Sessions, that would be released on 8 November 2019. They also released the single “Don’t Look At The Sun (Or You’ll Go Blind)”, a live version of a song from their debut album Psychedelic Mango.
So get your credit cards ready, or have your hammer poised over the piggy bank and grab it up when it comes out. In the meantime, here’s a few reminders and inspirations to keep you going ’til November.
