I entered Cup A Joe, got a coffee and sat down at the Pac-Man table in the back. Five minutes later, Steve Popson of the band Polvo walked in wearing blue denim and black shirt. I wave him over and he takes a seat. We start with introductions, and he brings up the Pac-Man table we’re sitting at. Popson owned an arcade bar called the Blue Bassoon Classic Arcade across the street.
Casual conversations like these led to the creation of Polvo. The band started as a simple college band with Popson (on bass), Ash Bowie, Dave Brylawski and Eddie Watkins.
The group recorded a single in 1991, Can I Ride, on their own, maxing out their credit cards putting out the single. Their high school friend Mac McCaughan, of Superchunk, issued their debut album, Cor-Crane Secrets in 1992 on Merge Records, a Durham-based label now famous for bands like Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel.
The band’s sound ranges from Asian-influenced jams to highly experimental noise rock. Polvo’s stylistic interest comes from the band’s main songwriters, Bowie and Brylawski.
Brylawski brought a lot of the Asian and world music styles to the band, while Popson credits Bowie with the deeply expansive compositions. Polvo’s is credited as the foundations of math rock and post rock and their sound has been recreated by many different artists.
Polvo continued to play shows in North Carolina with other locals and went on to tour the United States and Europe. Their influence in the post-rock and indie rock scenes is undeniable, with contemporaries such as Spoon, The Mountain Goats and others drawing inspiration from the sheer passion and power Polvo threw into their albums.
However, indie rock is not something Polvo felt like they were making, according to Brylawski. They were just kids making music they loved. As a whole, the scene was formed by a bunch of bands that had family relationships with one another and their labels, and Polvo’s family extended out to many different people and places.
In time, Polvo moved to Touch and Go Records, a label and distributor in Chicago. From there, Polvo enjoyed moderately large success, moving from a band with no money in their pockets to an internationally known act.
The band released many more records on the label until 1997, when they released their album Shapes. The band disbanded after a two-night show at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, N.C.
In 2008, the band reformed without Eddie Watkins for an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival curated by Explosions in the Sky, their first gig since the Cat’s Cradle show. The show varied in acts, including post rock, indie contemporaries, Battles and Animal Collective.
Since its reunion, Polvo has recorded a new album and have signed back to Merge Records.
Popson seemed to show modesty in Polvo’s importance to the scene’s development, but as an observer, it can be seen Polvo was a completely defining band for not only the genre of indie rock, but for much of the 90s music scene. Indie definitely owes a lot to the North Carolina band.
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Genres of Rock
Math Rock: Uses asymmetrical time signatures to compose musical arrangements, which gives a mathematical feel to the music to some critics.
Post-Rock: Subgenre concerned more with the instrumental aspect of music. Often features repeating tracks and lengthy guitar tracks.
Noise Rock: The featured audio tends to be reverb, with lyrics and melody often not put to the forefront of a song’s focus.
