Sunday, September 21, 2008

Pond - Rock Collection (Sony, 1997)

Portland, Oregon natives Pond got their start as one of the more fledgling bands on the Sub Pop label in the early 90s.  Along with bands like Hazel and Sprinkler, Pond were never able to cash in on the big Sub Pop/grunge boom, but that didn't stop Sony imprint label The Work Group from signing the band after two full lengths for Sub Pop.  Their third and final record, Rock Collection, was released by Sony/Work in 1997. Though instead of falling victim to the historically ill-fated major label debut, the record is considered by many to be their finest hour (though not successful commercially).

Rock Collection presented a more mature and polished take on the noise-pop (or "wussy-core" as the band called it) Pond had been honing on their first two records. Pond toured with a diverse array of bands, from Soundgarden to Rocket From the Crypt to Six Finger Satellite... none of whom Pond really sounded at all like. Pond probably would have fit in a little better with the soon to be burgeoning third-wave emo movement (aka the era of Sunny Day Real Estate clones) , and you can hear this sort of 90s-emo leaning in the album's moody single, "Spokes" (video included below). In fact, after the band's breakup, Pond members would go on to play in Audio Learning Center (also ex-Sprinkler), who were signed to emo powerhouse label, Vagrant Records.

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2 comments:

Sarah A. said...

great video! that girl played a bunch of minor roles in weird late 90s and early 00s teen flicks, too, i think.

DigMeOut said...

Listen to a podcast review of Pond's Rock Collection on the Dig Me Out Podcast at digmeoutpodcast.com, a weekly podcast dedicated to revisiting lost, forgotten and overlooked rock of the 1990s.