Polvo

by Steve Huey One of the most popular and accomplished bands in the arty, noisy indie rock offshoot dubbed math rock, Polvo touched on many of the styles hallmarks: dissonant, intricately layered guitars that often employed alternate tunings; odd, off-kilter rhythms; an emphasis on dense sonic texture; and unorthodox song structures that, nonetheless, were often unconventionally melodic. Additionally, their music had a pronounced Eastern feel that came not only from the Indian and Middle Eastern-style drones in their compositions, but actual Asian instruments as well; that helped set them apart from other post-Sonic Youth/Slint guitar experimentalists. Polvo were formed in 1990 in Chapel Hill, NC, site of one of the more fertile and eclectic indie scenes of the 90s. Their lineup consisted of vocalists/guitarists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, bassist Steve Popson, and drummer Eddie Watkins. Bowie and Brylawski met in a Spanish class at the University of North Carolina, and discovered a mutual admiration for both the SST roster and the progressive end of the classic rock spectrum. Despite an erratic live presence at first, the band earned a strong local following and released the seven-song double-7 Can I Ride on Kitchen Puff in 1991 (it was later reissued as Polvo). They subsequently signed with Chapel Hill indie Merge — run by Superchunks Mac McCaughan, a high-school classmate of Brylawski and Popson — and issued their debut album, Cor-Crane Secret, in 1992. Reviews were mostly favorable, and — helped by tours with Superchunk and Babes in Toyland — the band garnered a devoted cult audience that remained fairly steady throughout its existence. Todays Active Lifestyles followed in 1993, refining the groups approach, and it was followed in turn by two EPs, 1994s Celebrate the New Dark Age and 1995s This Eclipse. Polvo subsequently switched to the Chicago-based Touch & Go label, which was more associated with challenging, noisy guitar rock than Merge. Their debut for the label was 1996s double-length Exploded Drawing, an eclectic, progressive effort that began to delve more explicitly into the guitarists fascination with Asian musics. Drummer Watkins left the band afterward, and was replaced by Brian Walsby. The rest of the group was beginning to drift apart as well; Brylawski moved to New York City to play with Asian musicians (and also traveled to India), while Bowie started dating Helium frontwoman Mary Timony and relocated to Boston to play bass with her band. Polvo reconvened in 1997 to record Shapes, and rumors that it would be their final album proved true when they amicably disbanded later that year. Bowie had been making four-track recordings at home of material that wasnt quite right for Polvo, and he eventually turned it into a solo project; adopting the name Libraness, he debuted with Yesterday...and Tomorrows Shells in 2000 on the Tiger Style label. Brylawski, meanwhile, joined the North Carolina-based, world-inflected trio Idyll Swords, which released two albums on Communion.