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Pompeii
Pompeii is one of the acts that's graciously agreed to play our little party on Wednesday, but even if they weren't we'd most definitely cover them anyway -- in case you were about to accuse me of engaging in some kind of payola (I kid, I kid!).
I was bowled over the first time I saw Pompeii, after missing their sets for months --despite the best of intentions. They're a sweet, melodic, and melancholy band, unabashedly bittersweet with their hearts on their sleeves. Often compared to Death Cab for Cutie, Pompeii's work is a lot meatier and darker than that band's comperable early offerings; in the end that comparison always seems to do a disservice to Pompeii -- they are their own band.
And, forgive me as I quote myself here, but as I watched Pompeii that first time, I realized I was seeing a band who was using that ubiquitous (and utterly tiresome, usually) Radiohead influence in the right way -- chiming, lovely guitars and sweet, sad boy vocals and modestly epic and darkly uplifiting lyrics (courtesy of lead guitarist Erik Johnson and frontman Dean Stafford, respectively), over the driving clatter of emo drums (from Rob Davidson) and Peter Hook-ish melodic bass lines (courtesy Shane Stevens) -- all hoisted up by the deep, raspy scraping of Caitlin Bailey's cello. I'm hesitant to know what to call Pompeii's music -- because it's not indie pop, or indie rock, or straight up goth or emo. It's all these things, and in the end, I think that's why Pompeii's music is so affecting.
Pompeii's offical site. They have a self-released 3-track EP available at shows, and their debut on Eyeball Records will be out later this spring. Pompeii's official showcase is Wednesday at midnight at Redrum (it's all ages, a rarity at SXSW). See their website for additonal day party appearances.
Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 03.14.06 at 10:18 AM
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