the pains of being pure at heart

I did a Tonevendor order the other night - it's the first time I've done a big internet record order in quite a while. I've stocked up on records I've been meaning to buy for quite a while (Heavenly, Pants Yell!'s "Recent Drama"), missed out on others which were out of stock (Voxtrot, boo, but luckily I spied it at JB Hi-Fi the other day) but I also bought the first EP by NY band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.


When a band knows how to wear cardigans as well as this, I know I'm onto a winner. Plus, when I listen to a song like "A Teenager In Love", it not only conjures up the best thoughts of jangly late eighties English guitars, but all those wistful Sarah Records moments. And "Come Saturday" sounds so very C86 - all that fuzz over the 14 Iced Bears melody. Love it, love it, love it. I love how their Myspace page reads:

"Imagine if The Ramones traded in their leather jackets for anoraks, or Stephen Pastel actually threw Aggi off the bridge and married Black Tambourine's Pam Berry and had four babies that formed a pop band in 2007."

This is just the best description for a band EVER. More bands should purport to be the progeny of Stephen Pastel and Pam Berry - in particular, more boys in Brisbane should suggest this as their own lineage, so I can fall head over heels for cute pop boys. But, like my dream last night about Pam Berry being my friend on Facebook, I can but dream.