Also this issue:

Playing the Joker
Deirdre Flint talks shop and loses her religion.
-M.J. Fine

The Beatmaster
Isn't it about time King Britt made a hip-hop album?
-A.D. Amorosi

The BellRays
-Sam Adams

Uri Caine's Goldberg Variations
-Kyle Parker

20 Miles
-Paul Burress

Alô Brasil
-Mary Armstrong

Rainer Maria/ Mates of State
-Patrick Rapa

Beat Box
-Ainé Ardron-Doley

March 13-19, 2003

music

The Sound and The Fury

MATT PONDERING: “It’s not bad to argue about parts. Even if it makes people angry.
You have to if something doesn’t work. You have to say it.”

Matt Pond is naughty by nature (not ’cause he hates ya).

by Patrick Rapa

From where the audience was standing, Matt Pond PA's October performance at Village Underground in New York City, part of the CMJ Festival, was pretty much perfect. The miniature orchestra moved in unison with Pond's earthy voice. The guitars and keys swooned subtly and mysteriously. The cello pulled in the crowd like an undertow.

Still, the friendly but bluntly earnest lead singer feels inclined to apologize. The band, he says, can do better.

See, that night, Pond got into an argument with the sound guy, who ended up walking out.

"'Cause I told him to fuck off or something like that," recalls Pond, between pints of lager at Anthony's in Old City. "Which isn't probably the best thing to do. But when someone threatens to make you sound bad, what are you going to do?"

But isn't the sound guy important?

"It's important, but we've learned to self-contain our own sound. He was angry at us for not wanting to use the monitors too much," says Pond. "But we just try to make it so we control our sound on stage. And if it sounds good on stage it shouldn't be that difficult to make it sound good to the audience."

It's not surprising that he would get into an argument over sound. Matt Pond PA albums have a perfectionist's eye for detail. The band actually recorded half of their breakthrough CD, 2000's Measure, twice -- when they came to the conclusion that it would sound better starting with drums instead of guitar.

It's also not surprising that Pond would get into an argument. He is, by his own admission, fairly short-tempered. "I can get angry pretty quickly. I'm trying not to. I had a fit on the bus yesterday coming back from New York. This one woman was telling another woman to shut her babies up, and her babies weren't even making that much noise. So I told her to shut the fuck up, that if she said anything else I would try to make her shut the fuck up," he recalls with mock anger. "Which I don't encourage. I don't believe in that type of violence. But these kids were fine, they weren't doing anything. There was no need."

The same passion that fuels his lyrics -- sometimes nostalgic, other times smartly angst-ridden, but never straight-up love song fare -- is evident in the way this rock band gets along.

"I've never fought more with a bunch of people than in this band," he says, blaming it on his own argumentative nature. "It's not bad to argue about parts. Even if it makes people angry. You have to if something doesn't work. You have to say it."

MPPA is on tour now, and will set out again in April with fellow locals Bitter, Bitter Weeks (the singer/songwriter persona of MPPA producer Brian McTear) and Lefty's Deceiver (which, like MPPA, features Mike Kennedy on drums) for what they're dubbing the Philadelphia Throwdown Tour. They've printed up posters of the Liberty Bell dripping blood.

Counting from spring to spring, MPPA will have been on tour six out of the last 12 months. Conflicting egos and tight quarters on a long tour occasionally lead to animosity outside the creative process. "You can almost go to blows, and you do sometimes," says Pond. "And that's weird. That's like fighting your sister or something and you regress back to being 5. It's weird, too, not looking at each other for a night."

Don't be fooled by the name: Matt Pond PA is, he insists, a collaborative effort. "Working on songs with the band is really satisfying," he says. "Doing demos with [drummer] Mike is satisfying. Giving them to other people and having them come to you with parts -- that's really fucking satisfying. It's really integral what each part of the band is doing. And I like it that way."

Although the lineup has changed a lot over the years -- only Pond and studio cellist Jim Hostetter remain from the beginning -- he always manages to surround himself with skilled, nuanced musicians. He finds himself constantly praising Kennedy, whose multi-instrumental skills help turn the demos into fully realized songs. "Mike is the generator," says Pond. "Whatever I'm not too embarrassed to play, I play with Mike."

MPPA's current touring roster also includes scene-stealing cellist Eve Miller, resident tattoo artist/bassist Will Levatino and elegant electric guitarist Jim Kehoe, whose thoughtful pop hooks often offset the cello's somber broodings. He's immortalized in "New Kehoe NJ," an apologetic, self-effacing rock song Pond wrote after the two got into a "pretty serious row" on tour one night.

Generally, Pond says, MPPA is a happy band that's easy to get along with. "Our rider is simple: a case of Budweiser and a bottle of Maker's Mark," he says. "They always accommodate on the beer. The Maker's Mark is 50-50. It's something we don't expect, but when we get it we're very grateful, and we drink it gladfully, and it takes everything up a notch."

Is MPPA fueled by alcohol?

"No, but when you're sitting in bars every night for a few months you end up drinking."

Surely this band can't put on such tight symphonic performances with everybody sloshed on whiskey. Their nitpicky approach is more in line with the two pots of coffee that get downed at each practice.

"Every time somebody makes an error -- we're not the kind of band that glosses over things -- the [other] four people all look at that person; everybody knows exactly who it is and what it is. And everybody either simultaneously smiles and looks away or they all stare at the person and go what the fuck did you just do?"

You can tell just from listening to his music -- especially 2001's The Green Fury -- that Matt Pond isn't from around here. His lyrical ruminations and expansive sound recall the open wilderness of New Hampshire, where he grew up, or Canada, where he spent a lot of time drinking underage and hanging out.

"All our records are about Canada," says Pond, showing off the maple leaf tattoo on his shoulder. He's a distant relative of American pioneer Peter Pond, a bold and reputedly short-tempered Connecticut man credited with exploring and mapping much of Western Canada.

Matt Pond lived all over the country -- Portland, San Francisco, Providence -- before settling on Philly and starting the loud and wild Mel's Rockpile. The band had a lot of fun, but it wasn't what Pond was after as a performer or a songwriter. "I liked the people I was playing with, but I thought the songs were stupid," he says. "I mean I was writing a lot of them, so "

Last fall, MPPA put out The Nature of Maps, arguably the band's best, most engaging album to date. As with previous CDs, Maps doesn't overuse its lush arrangements. It's fairly common for a band to embellish and extend its songs just because of the added depth provided by the cello, harp and violin. MPPA will have none of that. Maps never dulls its hooks; its 12 songs are neatly wrapped up in just over 38 minutes.

Pacing and punctuality are important to Pond (he actually ran to this interview), so the band already has a newer CD (a collection of outtakes and B-sides, available only at live shows) and another one (something with "Mississippi" in the title) in the demo process. Selling CDs -- and T-shirts, buttons and hoodies -- helps keep the band afloat. (Pond and Kennedy made some money doing musical scores for the Oxygen Network, but that's mostly dried up post-9/11.)

Surprisingly, the band is rarely praised for its prolific, professional approach, nor its restraint and brevity. "I stopped reading interviews. For our last record there was a review on Pitchfork that said I should die," says Pond, who notes that Maps has garnered plenty of positive and negative reactions from the press. "I see things like, 'They're not living up to their potential.' What? Potential? I'm in high school again," he jokes. "Mom, stop it, I'm trying!"

Matt Pond PA plays Sat., March 15, 8 p.m., $10, all ages, with Elliott and Army of Me, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.