Following an incredible response to their eponymous debut album, New York’s The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have announced a major European tour and festival dates for the summer. If you haven’t seen them already, this is your chance to check out the band that were tipped as one of five to watch in 2009. It’s fair to say that The Pains… have become a certified indie phenomenon, breaking out from the fertile Brooklyn scene with an infectious pop sound that has gained the band mainstream acclaim as the next great heirs to New York's rich musical tradition -- a tradition they embrace from past to present;
"New York has always been an amazing place for music, and we're constantly inspired by everyone from The Ramones and Blondie to Sonic Youth and Magnetic Fields. Being mentioned alongside those bands, as well as contemporaries from our postal code like Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls is definitely flattering-- as they're all groups we really admire!"
But the band also channels many of the British indie greats of the ‘80s and '90s (Teenage Fanclub, The Vaselines, My Bloody Valentine) that filtered over to the US through Kurt Cobain's championing, college radio and mixtape exchanges with distant friends in high school. They’re looking forward to returning to these shores for a tour that culminates with an appearance at the legendary Isle of Wight festival at the personal request of Tim Burgess of The Charlatans. “We're all completely thrilled to have a chance to come back to the UK,” says lead singer Kip Berman. “Seeing people dancing and singing along to our songs last time was pretty incredible. But more than that, just the chance to see all these places where so many bands we loved growing up came from feels like a pop pilgrimage.”
In support of the tour, the band are set to release Young Adult Friction, a wry tale of innocence and teenage lust in the library that has the lyrical precision of early Smiths but the dancefloor grooveability factor of prime period Pulp. On the B-side, Ramona shows another side to the band by slowing the pace for a slice of gauzy dreaminess akin to Galaxie 500 or those other fabled sons of New York, The Velvet Underground. 14 Brighton The Great Escape, Plan B Night @ The Pavillion
18 Wrexham Central Station
20 Glasgow Nice n Sleazys
22 Manchester, Friends Of Mine @ Chorlton Irish Centre
23 Bristol Dot To Dot Festival
24 Nottingham Dot To Dot Festival
9 London White Heat @ Madame JoJos
13 Southampton Joiners Arms
14 UK Isle of Wight Festival Big Top Stage
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Young Adult Friction"
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announce UK shows and single
