Five years ago: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong

Ok, I'll admit it. I went to a lot of shows last week and so I missed posting about the five year anniversary of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Belong. It came out five years ago on March 29. I would probably just give up on posting at all about it because of being late but it's one of my favourite albums so I have to give it tribute.

Belong is The Pain's second album, and it features an over-abundance of beautiful songs. They're awash in fuzz and swirling chords (although not as much fuzz and on their début), addictive melodies and emotive lyrics. Listen!

And if you want you can check out the pictures I took when I saw the band at The Horseshoe.

Here are my favourites from this album.

"Belong"

"Heaven's Gonna Happen Now"

"Heart In Your Heartbreak"

"The Body"

"Even In Dreams"

"My Terrible Friend"

"Girl of 1,000 Dreams"

"Too Tough"

Pic from Stereogum.

New video from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Days of Abandon: Until the Sun Explodes

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart just released their new album Days of Abandon. They recently stopped in at The Horseshoe Tavern on their tour and I shot them. They've now released a video for the track "Until The Sun Explodes" from the new album.

Check it.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at The Horseshoe

Does having members of your band open up for you on tour, and using the singer from the second opening band in your band save lots of money, or does it just make for a tighter inter-band relationship? You'd have to ask the guys in The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and opening bands Fear of Men (whose singer sang with Pains) and Ablebody (who are the guitarist, bassist and drummer of Pains).

All three bands put on cool performances on April 26 at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. This post is about headliners The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

I've been listening to these guys since I discovered their eponymous début on emusic. I instantly fell in love with the shoegazey guitars and pop melodies on tunes like "Come Saturday" and "The Tenure Itch".

Their album Belong came in number 4 on my fave albums of 2010-2011 list, tunes like "Belong", "The Body", "Heart In Your Heartbreak" and "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now" came in numbers 17, 34, 53 and 55 respectively on my fave songs of 2010-2011 list.

This is my first time seeing the band live and it was great to hear their tunes come to life on stage. I can't tell you why, but somehow I feel like the perfect dance moves for this band lie somewhere between Molly Ringwald's 80s moves and Stephen Page doing his best Charlie Brown. YMMV.

Here are some tunes:

"Heart In Your Heartbreak" from Belong

"The Body" from Belong

"Simple and Sure" from their forthcoming new album

"Come Saturday" from their début

Their new album Days of Abandon comes out May 13.

New track from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Eurydice

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a new album called Days of Abandon coming out May 13. They're in Toronto at The Horseshoe on April 26.

We got to hear "Simple and Sure" and now we get to hear the track "Eurydice".

Fun, bouncy tune. Check it out.



And here's the official video for the bubbly "Simple and Sure".

New music from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a new album called Days of Abandon that comes out April 22. They've let us hear a stream of the sticky sweet treat "Simple and Sure". Take a listen:



They're in Toronto on April 26 at The Horseshoe.

New video for 2-year old song: Belong by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart found a way into my heart with their swirling guitars and poppy melodies. 2011's Belong was one of my favourite albums of that year and it has endured. The album came in at #4 on my best of list and the song came in at #17. Except for one quick tease, we haven't heard new music from them since then.

Continuing the tease, they've released a long-lost video for the title track, "Belong". Great song!

New song from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I really enjoyed The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's eponymous 2009 début and their 2011 follow up Belong. Now, in this MTV video that I'm truly surprised isn't geoblocked, they perform a new song called “Until the Sun Explodes”.

Sounds great! Looking forward to a new ablum.

Honoured to be part of the Zeitgeist

The wonderful folks over at Hype Machine have put together their 2011 Zeitgeist, featuring a cool People's Choice Top 50 Albums of 2011.  I'm honoured because my Top 30 Albums of 2010-2011 was part of the input into the list.

Thanks, Hype Machine!

And here's the title track from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Belong, one of the albums on the Zeitgeist and my list.

My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2010-2011: My best of list: Top 70 songs

Since I didn't put up a post for my favourite tunes and albums of 2010, and since it takes me a while for things to grow on me, I'm going to be a little different than other music writers. I'm going to do "best of" posts for 2 year periods. This will allow me to be late to the party, and give songs extra time to germinate in my little brain. So this set of posts will cover 2010 and 2011.

1. "Whirring" - The Joy Formidable

2. "Heartsink" - Blood Red Shoes

3. "Kill Me Carolyne" - The Whigs

4. "Conversation 16" - The National

5. "Lonely Boy" - The Black Keys

6. "The Smidge" - The Hold Steady

7. "Let's Get Out Of Here" - Les Savy Fav

8. "Rill Rill" - Sleigh Bells

9. "Old Fangs" - Black Mountain

10. "Fuck You" - Cee Lo Green

11. "Tighten Up" - The Black Keys
12. "Not At All" - Emily Warren & The Betters
13. "Punching In A Dream" - The Naked And Famous
14. "Hang With Me" - Robyn
15. "Good for Nothing" - Hard-Fi
16. "Swim Until You Can't See Land" - Frightened Rabbit
17. "Belong" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
18. "Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster the People
19. "Crash Years" - The New Pornographers
20. "The Glitter Prize (Feat. Kay Hanley)" - The Posies
21. "Hit The Ground Running" - These Electric Lives
22. "Medicine" - We Were Promised Jetpacks
23. "Anyone’s Ghost" - The National
24. "Dancing On My Own" - Robyn
25. "Please Ask for Help" - Telekinesis
26. "A Heavy Abacus" - The Joy Formidable
27. "Dear Rosemary" - Foo Fighters
28. "Terrible Love" - The National
29. "Satellite" - The Kills
30. "Naked Kids" - Grouplove
31. "Forced To Love" - Broken Social Scene
32. "Our Whole Lives" - The Hold Steady
33. "Light It Up" - Blood Red Shoes
34. "The Body" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
35. "Chicken Bones" - John Grant
36. "Cruel" - St. Vincent
37. "Future Starts Slow" - The Kills
38. "The Spirit of Jazz" - The Gaslight Anthem
39. "Cradle" - The Joy Formidable
40. "Romance" - Wild Flag
41. "Love Song" - Hard-Fi
42. "Called It Off" - These Electric Lives
43. "Rock Problems" - The Hold Steady
44. "So Lonely" - The Whigs
45. "Crossed Wires" - Superchunk
46. "Fixed" - Stars
47. "Abducted" - Cults
48. "It Is Happening Again" - Blood Red Shoes
49. "Young Blood" - The Naked And Famous
50. "Year Dot" - Sky Larkin
51. "Helena Beat" - Foster the People
52. "Country Lane" - Telekinesis
53. "Heart In Your Heartbreak" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
54. "Don't Ask" - Blood Red Shoes
55. "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
56. "Blue Cassette" - Friendly Fires
57. "Under Cover of Darkness" - The Strokes
58. "Behold the Hurricane" - The Horrible Crowes
59. "Lights" - Ellie Goulding
60. "Tired" - Chikita Violenta
61. "Euphoria, Take My Hand" - Glasvegas
62. "Colours" - Grouplove
63. "Get Away" - Yuck
64. "Dirty Thing" - Telekinesis
65. "World Sick" - Broken Social Scene
66. "DNA" - The Kills
67. "Dressed Sharply" - An Horse
68. "Holing Out" - Yuck
69. "Get Some" - Lykke Li
70. "Lotus Flower" - Radiohead

I'm going to tease out my Top 10 by posting a song a day over the next couple of weeks!

I've decided to update this post with my top 10 so my full list is in one place.

Check out the rest of my best of posts, including my favourite albums of 2010-2011.

My favourite albums: Awesome and cool albums of 2010-2011: Top 30 Albums: My best of list

Since I didn't put up a post for my favourite tunes and albums of 2010, and since it takes me a while for things to grow on me, I'm going to be a little different than other music writers. I'm going to do "best of" posts for 2 year periods. This will allow me to be late to the party, and give albums extra time to germinate in my little brain. So this set of posts will cover 2010 and 2011.

One side effect of iTunes, smart playlists and listening to songs over albums is that I've really become a lot more of a "songs guy" over being an "album guy". I was more of an album guy back when I was buying vinyl and CDs in the 80s and 90s and I'd throw them on the turntable or in the CD player and listen to the whole things end to end.

That's my explanation for why my best albums list is so much shorter than my best songs list, anyway.

1. The National - High Violet
2. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
3. Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
5. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
6. The Whigs - In The Dark
7. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
8. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
9. The New Pornographers - Together
10. Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
11. Robyn - Body Talk
12. Hard Fi - Killer Sounds
13. John Grant - The Queen of Denmark
14. The Black Keys - Brothers
15. Army Navy - The Last Place
16. The Posies - Blood/Candy
17. The Kills - Blood Pressures
18. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
19. Telekinesis - 12 Desparate Straight Lines
20. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
21. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
22. Stars - The Five Ghosts
23. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
24. We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach
25. Kasabian - Velociraptor!
26. The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
27. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
28. Sky Larkin - Kaleide
29. The Thermals - Personal Life
30. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Check out the rest of my best of posts.

New video from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I've put up one or two posts about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart before. Well they recently released another video from their album Belong. This one is for the song "The Body". Lovely tune. It reminds me of some sounds of the 80s without being retro or derivative.

New video for "Heart in your Heartbreak" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I'm really enjoying what I've heard from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new album Belong. Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to be out in Canada yet.

In the meantime, check out this fun video.

Great new tune from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a new album called Belong coming out on March 15 or March 29, depending on who you believe, and they have released a stream of the song "Belong".

Check it out. I think it sounds really good. Loud churning guitars, pounding drums and soothing vocals. Quite a combination and overall a more polished, produced sound for the band. I'll be watching for the album's release.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart "Belong" by Slumberland Records

If you're not familiar with their first, self-titled album, check out "Come Saturday" and "The Tenure Itch" below.