Polvo - Shapes - Violet - VINYL LP

This compilation's nine tunes-the first seven from the Can I Ride double 7-inch EP (1990), the last two from the InchVibracobraInch b/w InchThe DrillInch 7-inch (1991)-are not quite the sound of a torch being passed, but they were a sign that Sonic Youth's weird tunings, the hardcore punk and proto-indie rock on SST Records, and R.E.M.'s hazy rock (three big influences on this era of Polvo) were changing lives. Even back then, the impossibly catchy roar from Merge's flagship act Superchunk was known to outsiders as the sound of Chapel Hill. But Polvo was something different from the same region. While the band never cottoned to the Inchmath rockInch tag (and it's hard to disagree with them), there is no question that there was a distinct Inchhow can we make guitar rock sound different from all the other guitar rockInch vibe going on in the mid-Atlantic, from Richmond to North Carolina over to Louisville and down almost to Atlanta. (If the Mastodon dudes aren't fans I'll eat your shoe.) Album Tracks 1. Can I Ride 2. Leaf 3. Lull 4. Totemic 5. Tread on Me 6. Teen Dream 7. Snake Fist Fighter 8. Vibracobra 9. The Drill

Today's Active Lifestyles, the second full-length by North Carolina rockers Polvo, did exactly what a sophomore LP is supposed to do It expanded the ideas put forth in the first album, gave them a new spin and shine, and presented the Inchwhere we are nowInch to the world.Produced and recorded over four heady days in December 1992 by former Bostonian and ex-Volcano Suns bassist Bob Weston (around the time he started in Shellac), Today's Active Lifestyles hit record store shelves in April 1993. From the whizzing crunch of InchThermal TreasureInch to the loping, connective InchMy KimonoInchto the 7-minute-plus blowouts InchStinger (Five Wigs)Inch and closer InchGemini Cusp,Inch the album asserted it's place as a most worthy successor to Cor-Crane Secret. The foreboding title of a particularly screechy, fuzzy jam, InchTime Isn't on My Side,Inch proved to be nonsense; Today's Active Lifestyles has aged beautifully. Album Tracks 1. Thermal Treasure 2. Lazy Comet 3. My Kimono 4. Sure Shot 5. Stinger (Five Wigs) 6. Tilebreaker 7. Shiska 8. Time Isn't on My Side 9. Action Vs. Vibe 10. Gemini Cusp

In January 1992, fresh off the glory that was the band's 1991 double-7Inch debut, Polvo headed into Duck Kee Studios in Raleigh, NC-aka the place where a lot of early Merge stuff was recorded-to track what became their debut full-length. Cor-Crane Secret was released in July of that year, the same month as Sonic Youth's Dirty and Danzig's Danzig III How the Gods Kill. (Sadly, a triple bill never happened.)Opening with a new take on InchVibracobra,Inch a bit of alternately languid and shuddering guitar churn that had appeared on a single the year before (a perfect way to bridge the Polvo of InchthenInch and InchnowInch), Cor-Crane Secret, with songs such as the herky-jerky InchKalgonInch and the youthful-yet-complex InchIn the Hand, In the Sieve,Inch established the first iteration of that Polvo sound intricate guitar melodies, Mr. Bowie's plain-spoken vocals politely deep beneath the guitar waves, and cool ideas of how guitars could go together all over the place. In an era where guitar bands seemed to be blooming like wildflowers in a particularly fertile cow pasture, Cor-Crane Secret was a complicated bloom indeed. But Polvo was just getting started. Album Tracks 1. Vibracobra 2. Kalgon 3. Bend or Break 4. Can I Ride 5. Sense of It 6. Ox Scapula 7. Channel Changer 8. In the Hand, in the Sieve 9. The Curtain Remembers 10. Well Is Deep 11. Duped