The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most talked about pop bands in years. Their distinctive brand of noisy pop is a tidy distillation of all the great noise-pop precedents - early MBV, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship - but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song. They have released a handful of singles on classy labels like Slumberland, Fortuna Pop!, Atomic Beat and Cloudberry, each one issued to greater anticipation and even wilder reception. Critical acclaim has come from such varied quarters as Stereogum, Fader, Big Takeover, Indie Pages, Skatterbrain, Drowned In Sound, Indie-MP3, Clash Magazine and uncountable others.

Following up the band's ace "Everything With You" single and whirlwind Swedish tour, we are delighted to bring you their self-titled debut album. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart is an instant classic, packed with brilliantly-executed pop gems that blend the rush of youthful enthusiasm with crafty arrangements, well-honed tunes and buckets of guitar racket. Drawing on the sparkling legacy of the best of 80s and 90s pop, POBPAH update the timeless noisy pop template with a thoroughly modern viewpoint and a very distinctive, playful personality. There is something instantly identifiable about a Pains tune, and it is the essential "rightness" of their records that has captured the attention of pop fans around the world and raised anticipation levels for this album to a near-fever pitch.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart delivers on this promise with perfect assurance. Smashing tunes like "Come Saturday" and "Young Adult Friction" are classic three minute masterpieces that simply beg to be played on repeat. "Stay Alive" and "Gentle Sons" show the band can slow it down and still rock it, and "Hey Paul" is as brash a slice of noise-blast guitar pop as you'll hear all year. Weighing in at a flawlessly-conceived ten songs, this is all the album that Pains fans had hoped for. Handily transcending easy pigeonholes like "indie pop" and "indie rock," it is just a great album that shows a smart young band fulfilling their potential and crafting a very convincing statement of purpose.

"What distinguishes POBPAH from the rest of their modern peers is a sense of craft located in the sweet spot between wilfull amateurism masking incompetence and not gumming things up with bells and whistles." — Pitchfork
"The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have crafted an impeccable debut way beyond their years... the prospects as to what this band may achieve in the future is incredibly exciting to say the least..." — Drowned In Sound
"...it's much more than the sum of its parts and too effortlessly effervescent to be studied. Pure indie-pop to hold close to your heart." — NME
"...the Pains of Being Pure at Heart are irrepressibly light, a band at ease with melody and softness." — NY Times
"The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have crafted a debut album that is better than any word of mouth that it could receive, since practically any description of their music would just force potential listeners to jump to conclusions and run for the hills. You're just going to have to listen for yourself." — URB Magazine
"Can we wait for life to save us in the ways that a band like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart are saving indie pop?" — Dusted
"...just screams for continuous replay, as the catchy boy/girl harmonies wonderfully gel with the jangly, distorted guitars that echoes early My Bloody Valentine and Black Tambourine." — Yellow Stereo
"If dreamy, '80s-sounding indie pop is your thing, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have your number in a big way." — Time Out NY
"I think it's safe to say that even if POBPAH split tomorrow, people would still be talking about them and listening to their records for years to come. They're not an ordinary band, they're something special, something exciting, something to celebrate." — Indie-MP3
"...addictive pop gold that locates a place beyond the band's well-chosen influences." — Stereogum

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart are:

Peggy Wang - keys + vox
Alex Naidus - bass
Kurt Feldman - drums
Kip Berman - guitar + vox

Selected Discography:

This Love is Fucking Right! 3" cd-r (Cloudberry, 2007)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP (Painbow, 2007)
split 7" single with The Parallelograms (Atomic Beat, 2008)
split 7" single with Summer Cats (Slumberland, June 2008)
Everything With You 7" (Slumberland, October 2008)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart LP/CD (Slumberland, February 2009)
Young Adult Friction 7" (Slumberland, March 2009)
Come Saturday 7" (Slumberland, September 2009)
Higher Than The Stars 7"/12"/remix 12"/CD (Slumberland, September 2009)

Releases

Higher Than The Stars EP - released September 22, 2009

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Come Saturday 7" - released September 8, 2009

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cover art (24kb)

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cover art (136kb)

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cover art (1.1mb)

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Young Adult Friction 7" - released March 31, 2009

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cover art (24kb)

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cover art (132kb)

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cover art (780kb)

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The Pains of Being Pure At Heart LP/CD - released February 3, 2009

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cover art (16kb)

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cover art (148kb)

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cover art (152kb)

download the one-sheet

download the lyrics

Look

band photos (print resolutions available on request)

(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)
(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)
(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)	(credit: Annie Powers)
Hi Res (38.5MB, 3621x3712) (credit: Pavla Kopecna)	Hi Res (11.3MB, 3621x3712) (credit: Pavla Kopecna)	Lo Res (44kb, 300x305) (credit: Pavla Kopecna)	Hi Res (4.4MB, 2560x2598) (credit: Pavla Kopecna)