Pure Bathing Culture - "Pendulum"
(Partisan Records [U.S.] / Memphis Industries [Europe], 2013)
It's a huge honor to present this song. I first heard it in summer 2k13 on Sirius' XM U station. I was immediately floored that an unknown new band could barge out of the gates with such a masterfully-crafted song. (Though I secretly wondered if Pure Bathing Culture was Memoryhouse under a new name...) And the opening jangly guitar chords made me think it was a cover of the Go-Betweens' brilliant "Streets Of Your Town" (see video embedded below), but luckily it turned out to be an entirely new song by an entirely new band, and it blew me an entirely new mind.
This truly should've been a massive radio hit. If you're a fan of production like I am, you'll revel in every little detail of this song as it leaps out of the speakers with unmitigated authority, and it will truly be stuck in your head for the rest of your life. I'm sure the band's manager or publicist is a nice person, and was smart enough to choose to work with such a talented band, but he or she needs to be replaced immediately. In America's current musical climate, in which completely hookless, soulless songs by the likes of Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, and Arcade Fire are becoming hits or semi-hits left and right, it should be pretty easy for any trained squid to finesse this song onto playlists nationwide. Obviously it did get onto Sirius, which is quite a taste-making entity, but the only times I've heard it on WTUL were when I requested it. In fact, a DJ last fall played it back-to-back with "Streets Of Your Town," at my request. I also got KLSU to play it last fall at my request. It was on some sort of regular rotation on Sirius XM U, because I heard it several more times there. In fact, Sirius was so devoted to this band that they hosted a live in-studio performance / interview session in September. I recorded some of it, mainly because the lyrics to "Pendulum" were a lot easier to make out in the live version. Watch it here.
Here's the Go-Betweens song I mentioned above. Check out how similar the opening guitar part is to that of "Pendulum":
Note: That's the "big-budget" version of the video; there was also a more low-key original version that focused more literally on the streets of an Aussie town. So, if the Go-Bees were able to get TWO videos made for their killer song, how come Pure Bathing Culture didn't even get one? Refer back to the criticisms I had for PBC's management...)
Download an interesting remix of this song called "Pendulum (Women's Hour Edit)" for free here.
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| Stairway left after bombing of Aleppo, Syria by the Assad regime. This reminded me of a pendulum. (Posted by Tumblr user miymintimatmazel; photographer unknown.) |
Planets with similar climates: The Go-Betweens - "Streets Of Your Town" (1988), Puro Instinct - "Slivers Of You" (2010), Cocteau Twins - "Heaven Or Las Vegas" (1990), Memoryhouse - "Heirloom" & "Sleep Patterns" (2011), Spiritualized - "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" (1997), Wild Nothing - "Through The Grass" (2012), Slowdive - "Alison" (1993).
