When Polvo called it quits back in 1997, there was no long-simmering feud that boiled over into a full-blown break-up. It was just a matter of friends who decided to move on to other ventures after a fairly momentous seven-year run that saw the North Carolina quartet tagged by some critics as the architects of Math Rock.
in 2007 the Post-Rock instrumentalists of Explosions in the Sky were offered the honor of curating the second weekend of 2008’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, and they contacted Polvo with a similar plea to reunite for one show.
After the overwhelming response to the show at last year’s ATP, Polvo was determined to keep the momentum going, playing a number of festival dates (“When we were playing originally, they weren’t that common, so it was a treat to do those,” Popson says) and continuing to write new material.
Clearly that attention paid off. In Prism, Polvo’s first album of new material in 12 years, is a triumph, a brilliant evocation of where they’ve been and a glimpse into where they intend to go. For Popson, the biggest surprise of the process has been the reception Polvo has enjoyed upon its return.
“We were really unsure how we would be received,” he says. “We didn’t know if it would be, ‘Oh, that’s a band from 12 years ago, who cares?’ Of course, it’s always striking and odd when you’re talking to someone in a club who’s 21 and it’s, ‘Yeah, I was 10 years old when your last record came out.’ Me and Dave are like, ‘We don’t want to hear that!’ ”
They perform Friday at the Southgate House with Dirty Johnny and the Make Believes, and Mock Orange. Get show details and read Brian Baker's interview with the band here.
