Archive for May 2013

Pond -- Beard, Wives, Denim

Three things that Mormon lumberjacks simply couldn’t get enough of back in the old days. (Ba dum bum. Did I just alienate my Mormon readership?)

Australia’s Pond (not to be confused with Matt Pond or the band Pond from Oregon) is generally labeled as something along the lines of a “psych pop” band, and listening to the entirety of their March 2012 album, Beard, Wives, Denim, you can generally catch the gist of that. There’s a touch of late-’60s psychedelia mixed in with their indie/glam amalgam. But as I listened to the album this morning, this song, “Elegant Design,” jumped out at me for a somewhat different reason: it’s probably one of the best modern indie Led Zeppelin homages I’ve heard. I can’t say for certain that’s what they were shooting for, but everything from its power chords to its acoustic strumming, Bonzo-inspired drumming, and Robert Plant-like falsetto singing point in that direction. The hazier production detracts from what would have otherwise been Led Zep’s inherent sonic stomp, but if you think of it more as a Zep remix, it lessens that feeling of something missing. It’s not the only place you hear the influence of the almighty Zeppelin, but it’s one of the clearest examples.

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