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After eight years and seven albums, Polvo has finally left its identity problems behind. The Chapel Hill, N.C., quartet's first label affiliation, with Merge, led to assumptions that it was just another Superchunk, while the band's extensive use of alternative guitar tunings brought myriad comparisons to Sonic Youth. With Shapes, its second record for Touch and Go, Polvo asserts its individualism. Guitarists and songwriters Dave Brylawski and Ash Bowie perfect their balance of noise and melody, bassist Steve Popson provides a counterweight with progressive rhythms, and drummer Brian Walsby--who last year replaced Eddie Watkins in Polvo's first lineup adjustment--masters the band's jarring tempo changes and musical mood swings. The musicians also weave Asian instrumentation and Indian or Middle Eastern themes into the overriding rock aesthetic throughout Shapes. The band's longevity hasn't landed it on a major label or on the cover of Rolling Stone, but according to Brylawski, this was never the goal. "We have a core audience," he says on the phone from Chapel Hill. "We hit this plateau with our first record (1992's Cor-Crane Secret) and we haven't gotten bigger since then, but we were pleasantly surprised how big we were then." The four original members of Polvo met at the University of North Carolina as Chapel Hill began developing into one of America's most visible rock scenes. Brylawski and Bowie shared a love of bands on the California punk label SST, such as the Minutemen and Sonic Youth, and also of classic rock acts like Led Zeppelin and Rush. As college seniors, the four friends parlayed their frequent jam sessions into the band, which played in North Carolina rock clubs and garnered a reputation for unwieldy yet often fascinating performances. "We used to be a really sloppy live band, very inconsistent," Brylawski says. "Some shows would be really good and some would be godawful." In the studio, however, Polvo began carving out a distinctive niche. As the indie world splintered into camps plying grunge, jangly pop or New York art-rock, the Chapel Hill quartet merged a punk sensibility with prog-rock influences; some critics traced Polvo's sonic lineage to early Genesis and King Crimson. Its 1996 debut for Touch and Go,the gatefold double LP Exploded Drawing, confirmed Polvo's fondness for the much-maligned '70s style of music. Citing its mix of modern-day prog rock and Asian themes, critics praised it as Polvo's most ambitious work to date. Without the added benefit of commercial success, the band's songwriters spent the next year engaged in other projects. Bowie had started a personal and professional relationship with Mary Timony of Helium and relocated to Boston to play bass in her band. Brylawski moved to New York City and traveled to India, where he built on his collection of Asian instruments; he soon started collaborating with other New York musicians, concentrating on Middle-Eastern traditionals and ragas rather than rock and punk. When band members scatter from their home base and engage in side projects, it's usually perceived as detrimental, but Brylawski says the physical distance and extracurricular activities improved Polvo's focus. "When the four of us lived in the same town and were more of a garage-rock band--stereotypical guys who hang out, drink and practice--it was a lot of fun, but we were really lazy," he explains. "We had trouble getting motivated. Now, when Ash moved away and started playing with Helium, all of the sudden we had these constraints, where we knew we had to get an album done and we had X amount of time to play. We became really efficient. "We've matured a lot as people and--dare I say it?--we're more professional," adds the 29-year-old. "We were sloppy ex-college kids just playing and doing the indie-rock thing. The older we got, the more we had to do outside the band, and it made our time more concise." It also made the band expendable, or so go the rumors that this is Polvo's final tour and that Shapes is the band's swan song. Brylawski declines to declare an end to his longtime band, though he admits that the cycle of recording indie-rock albums then spending months carousing across the country in a van has lost its charm. Still, he strikes a hopeful note about Polvo's accomplishments, expressing satisfaction with Shapes and comparing his band's exit to the graceful departure of a famed UNC basketball coach who retired in 1996 with the most wins ever by a college coach. "We don't feel sad about this at all," Brylawski says. "We feel really good. We can always play together. No matter what happens, I don't see myself never playing with Ash again, because I love Ash and he's my favorite musician in the world. But in terms of the band/career thing, I don't know what else we could do. We've done everything we wanted to do, really. We're like Dean Smith--going out on top." |
