Andrew VanWyngarden’s remix of “So Lo” makes me want to tap my toes and shake my butt. Isn’t that a sight? Toe tappers and butt shakers unite!
Pond and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden are pleased to share their reimagined version of “So Lo” ahead of the next leg of 2024 word tour dates.The track features in its original form on Pond’s recent album, Stung!, which arrived 21st June via Spinning Top Records.
“So Lo” is a sizzling slice of art-house funk, now further invigorated by VanWyngarden’s sludgy bass breakdown and unique eye for macabre danceability.
“We asked Andrew if he could take ‘So Lo’ further into the concrete New York late night for us and he went above and beyond,” Pond co-founder Jay Watson explains. “I love the darker chorus he made, it completely changes the feel of the melody. We’ve been MGMT fans and mates with them for such a long time, so we were stoked when he sent this back!”
This reimagined composition arrives with a visualiser created by musician and artist Raissa Pardini (@raissa_pardini).
June 21st saw Pond share their tenth album, Stung!, to critical acclaim across the globe; with Uncut, MOJO, Rolling Stone Aus, DIY, Dork and Clash all publishing 4-star reviews on the LP. UPROXX wrote “Rimming with fuzzed-out guitar tones, bombastic drumming, and alluring sonic trickery.”
After a fully sold-out run of shows in Australia, Pond continue their Stung!world tour with UK dates starting in Southampton on 24 September, running through until October. The tour features a stop at London’s Electric Ballroom, which has been upgraded due to demand, along with sold out shows in Glasgow and Bristol. EU dates start with a sold-out show in Paris on 5 October and conclude in Copenhagen on 13 October.
Then, the party resumes via a run of an additional twelve US dates and two Canadian dates over November and December with support from New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Fazerdaze: thus completing a year in which Pond have travelled over 3 continents in support of their Stung! LP (Spinning Top Records). AU Review affectionately labelled Pond’s Sydney performance as “gig of the year 2024!” while Sydney Morning Herald praised Pond’s musical versatility “proving there’s no lane to which they can’t switch”. Tickets and details for Pond’s UK/EU and North American tour dates are available atpond.band.
The last four Pond albums have been showcases of tidiness and brevity, 10 ideas always tucked into 40 minutes or so. But on Stung!, they gleefully, madly, and willfully lean into double-LP largesse, tapping the spirit of Tusk and Sign ‘O’ the Times by funneling 14 songs into the most unfettered and splendid hour of their recording career. A band for the better part of two decades, Pond has accepted (with no small joy or relief) that they are no longer beholden to shifting expectations of cool. That idea has empowered them, allowing them to play precisely what they want, to not move toward any goal but being themselves.
On Stung! you’ll find some of Pond’s most glorious rock songs ever and also some of their least rock moments, all psychedelic drapery or funk vim. In that epic, as in Stung! at large, Allbrook speaks to our collective modern paradox of being disappointed in or even disconsolate over a world that we know more about than any prior generation but also being in awe of it and (sometimes) each other, too. There are so many reasons to cry and so many reasons to marvel. Can’t they all, Pond suggests with Stung!, be reasons to sing?
It takes more effort for Pond to make a record these days—not musically, of course, but logistically. They’re all adults with relationships, children, professions, hobbies, side-projects, or some mix of them all. To wit, Allbrook and Jay Watson, or GUM, both released solo albums last year, with GUM just recently releasing a collaborative full-length album with Ambrose Kenny-Smith (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs). They began making Stung! in piecemeal fashion, then, a member or two showing up at the little studio in Watson’s back yard to work on a new idea. They’d tinker joyously and endlessly in Watson’s little workshop, trying a panoply of machines and widgets to get the most interesting sounds. What’s more, they were able to let the songs they had sit over time, so that Pond’s deeply democratic process could not only siphon and improve the best ones but also tease out what they might be missing for this very full double-record.
At last, they realized they ran the risk of being stuck in this phase—creation, adjustment, addition—forever. The whole quintet decamped to Dunsborough, the scenic surfing hub on Australia’s southwestern coast where a friend had recently finished a spacious and state-of-the-art studio. Allbrook would run near the shore each morning. They’d all swim during the day, then record until deep in the night. They left most of their ancillary gear at home, forcing them to drill down on the songs, ideas, and sounds they already had, to make them better without getting carried away in endless possibility. After nearly a year of writing and workshopping, they had plenty of material, the makings of a set more expansive than any previous Pond album.
The title Stung! began as a joke in Pond, a reference to having a crush on someone or something that they began to use so often they simply had to make it the name. They still laugh when they hear it now, a silly inside wisecrack suddenly open to the outside world. But it’s kind of a credo, too: despite the bruises, the callousness, and the suffering, they remain stung with music, with the idea of making songs that feel just so and doing it together, as friends. And they are stung with the world, too, even when it bites back. “Well, I’m stung/the bells been rung,” Allbrook sings during the winning title track. “If love’s a game, then I guess you won.” Ten albums in, though, Pond seems to be having more fun playing now than ever before.
Order your copy of Stung! on 180g 2LP “Bee” vinyl here.
STUNG! TRACKLISTING:
1.Constant Picnic
2. (I’m) Stung
3. Neon River
4. So Lo
5. Black Lung
6. Sunrise For The Lonely
7. Elf Bar Blues
8. Edge of the World Pt. 3
9. Stars In Silken Sheets
10. Boys Don’t Crash
11. O, UV Ray
12. Last Elvis
13. Elephant Gun
14. Fell From Grace With The Sea
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
With special guest Fazerdaze
11.12.24 – Royale – Boston, MA
11.13.24 – Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY
11.14.24 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
11.16.24 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
11.17.24 – Mr. Smalls Theatre – Pittsburgh, PA
11.19.24 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
11.20.24 – St. Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI
11.22.24 – Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
11.23.24 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
11.28.24 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC
11.29.24 – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA
11.30.24 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR
12.3.24 – The Warfield – San Francisco, CA
12.5.24 – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
UK/EU TOUR:
*support from Barbagallo
^ with The Jürgen Clubs
9.24.24 – Papillon – Southampton, UK *
9.24.24 – Heartbreakers – Southampton, UK Late DJ Set
9.26.24 – Gorilla – Manchester, UK * LOW TICKET WARNING
9.27.24 – The Wardrobe – Leeds, UK *
9.28.24 – The Grove – Newcastle, UK *
9.29.24 – King Tut’s Wah Wah – Glasgow, UK * SOLD OUT
10.1.24 – XOYO Birmingham – Birmingham, UK *
10.2.24 – Thekla – Bristol, UK * SOLD OUT
10.3.24 – Electric Ballroom – London, UK * LOW TICKET WARNING
10.5.24 – La Trabendo – Paris, FR * SOLD OUT
10.6.24 – La Grand Salon, Botanique – Brussels, BE *
10.7.24 – Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL * LOW TICKET WARNING
10.8.24 – Bürgerhaus Stollwerck – Cologne, DE *
10.10.24 – Hole44 – Berlin, DE *
10.11.24 – Fabrik – Hamburg, DE *
10.13.24 – Vega – Copenhagen, DK ^
Tickets on sale now via pond.band
