It wasn’t a near-death experience, but it was enough to compel Matt Pond to hit the reset button. The newly emancipated, New Hampshire-bred frontguy for the ever-morphing outfit Matt Pond PA broke his leg on tour in 2011. Shaken by the freak occurrence and the ensuing surgery, Pond finished out the tour sitting down, then headed to St. Augustine, Fla., to convalesce with friends. Once there, he quickly took to the funky, historic northeast Florida town’s laid-back lifestyle and Southern lilt. A rejuvenated sheen permeates The Lives Inside The Lines Of Your Hands (BMG)—especially the new album’s ebullient first half. It isn’t so much that Pond has abandoned the autumnal, inward-delving perspective that pervaded 2010’s The Dark Leaves, or his long-established penchant for overt melancholy. But he has given both a thorough airing out with a blast of smog-free, temperate air. Pond will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on him.
Pond: The opposite sex tends to occupy large tracts of my mind, to put it mildly. That said, there are those who can transcend gender. There are those whose description of strength defies a flimsy pronoun. Even beautiful guitar wizards like Marnie Stern. I’ve been listening to the advance of The Chronicles Of Marnia as I fall asleep. “Year Of The Glad” has become my latest theme song. Though I may be completely mistaken, I feel like I simultaneously understand and am understood. To my ears, Marnie writes songs about everyday epic champions, both broken and breathtaking. Primal, refined and frenetic, while triumphantly declaring the significance of self-doubt. There’s a thread between her music and Missing Persons’ “Destination Unknown.” I’ll follow that thread down into my dreams again tonight.
Video after the jump.
