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Photo – Michael Tartaglia

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Photo Credit: Michael Tartaglia

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“The sun-baked, psychedelic carnival that is Pond clearly shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.” ★ ★ ★ ★ – DIY

“Like the best double albums, all rock life is here.” ★ ★ ★ ★ – MOJO

“A strong contender for their best yet.” ★ ★ ★ ★ – FAR OUT MAGAZINE

“Gig of the year 2024!” – AU REVIEW

“8/10”  – CLASH

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Pond and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden are pleased to share their reimagined version of “So Lo” ahead of the UK/EU leg of Pond’s 2024 world tour. The track features in its original form on the beloved band’s latest album, Stung!, which arrived 21 June via Spinning Top Records and debuted at #2 on the ARIA Aus Album Chart the week of release.

“So Lo” is a sizzling slice of art-house funk, now further invigorated by VanWyngarden’s sludgy bass breakdown and unique eye for macabre danceability.

“We asked Andrew if he could take ‘So Lo’ further into the concrete New York late night for us and he went above and beyond,” Pond co-founder Jay Watson explains. “I love the darker chorus he made, it completely changes the feel of the melody. We’ve been MGMT fans and mates with them for such a long time, so we were stoked when he sent this back!”

This reimagined composition arrives with a visualizer created by musician and artist Raissa Pardini.

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21 June saw Pond share their tenth album, Stung!, to critical acclaim across the globe; with Uncut, MOJO, Rolling Stone Aus, DIY, Dork and Clash all publishing 4-star reviews on the LP and the latter calling Stung! “A smorgasbord of ideas brimming in confidence and light”.

STREAM STUNG! NOW

After a fully sold-out run of shows in Australia, Pond continue their Stung! world tour with UK dates starting in Southampton on 24 September, running through until October. The tour features a stop at London’s Electric Ballroom, which has been upgraded due to demand, along with sold out shows in Glasgow and Bristol. EU dates start with a sold-out show in Paris on 5 October and conclude in Copenhagen on 13 October.

Then the party resumes via a run of an additional twelve US dates and two Canadian dates over November and December with support from New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Fazerdaze: thus completing a year in which Pond have travelled over 3 continents in support of their Stung! LP (Spinning Top Records). AU Review affectionately labelled Pond’s Sydney performance as “gig of the year 2024!” while Sydney Morning Herald praised Pond’s musical versatility “proving there’s no lane to which they can’t switch”. Tickets and details for Pond’s UK/EU and North American tour dates are available at pond.band.

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The last four Pond albums have been showcases of tidiness and brevity, 10 ideas always tucked into 40 minutes or so. But on Stung!, they gleefully, madly and willfully lean into double-LP largesse, tapping the spirit of Tusk and Sign ‘O’ the Times by funnelling 14 songs into the most unfettered and splendid hour of their recording career. A band for the better part of two decades, Pond has accepted (with no small joy or relief) that they are no longer beholden to shifting expectations of cool. That idea has empowered them, allowing them to play precisely what they want, to not move toward any goal but being themselves.

On Stung! you’ll find some of Pond’s most glorious rock songs ever and also some of their least rock moments, all psychedelic drapery or funk vim. In that epic, as in Stung! at large, Allbrook speaks to our collective modern paradox of being disappointed in or even disconsolate over a world that we know more about than any prior generation but also being in awe of it and (sometimes) each other, too. There are so many reasons to cry and so many reasons to marvel. Can’t they all, Pond suggests with Stung!, be reasons to sing?

It takes more effort for Pond to make a record these days—not musically, of course, but logistically. They’re all adults with relationships, children, professions, hobbies, side-projects, or some mix of them all. To wit, Allbrook and Jay Watson, or GUM, both released solo albums last year, with GUM just recently releasing a collaborative full-length album with Ambrose Kenny-Smith (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs). Pond began making Stung! in piecemeal fashion, then, a member or two showing up at the little studio in Watson’s back yard to work on a new idea. They’d tinker joyously and endlessly in Watson’s little workshop, trying a panoply of machines and widgets to get the most interesting sounds. What’s more, they were able to let the songs they had sit over time, so that Pond’s deeply democratic process could not only siphon and improve the best ones but also tease out what they might be missing for this very full double-record.

At last, they realized they ran the risk of being stuck in this phase—creation, adjustment, addition—forever. The whole quintet decamped to Dunsborough, the scenic surfing hub on Australia’s southwestern coast where a friend had recently finished a spacious and state-of-the-art studio. Allbrook would run near the shore each morning. They’d all swim during the day, then record until deep in the night. They left most of their ancillary gear at home, forcing them to drill down on the songs, ideas, and sounds they already had, to make them better without getting carried away in endless possibility. After nearly a year of writing and workshopping, they had plenty of material, the makings of a set more expansive than any previous Pond album.

The title Stung! began as a joke in Pond, a reference to having a crush on someone or something that they began to use so often they simply had to make it the name. They still laugh when they hear it now, a silly inside wisecrack suddenly open to the outside world. But it’s kind of a credo, too: despite the bruises, the callousness, and the suffering, they remain stung with music, with the idea of making songs that feel just so and doing it together, as friends. And they are stung with the world, too, even when it bites back. “Well, I’m stung/the bells been rung,” Allbrook sings during the winning title track. “If love’s a game, then I guess you won.” Ten albums in, though, Pond seems to be having more fun playing now than ever before.

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POND
UK/EU TOUR
SEP/OCT 2024

*with special guest Barbagallo
^with special guest The Jürgen Clubs

Tuesday 24 September – Papillon – Southampton, UK*
Tuesday 24 September – Pond DJ set – Heartbreakers – Southampton, UK [LATE]
Thursday 26 September – Gorilla – Manchester, UK* [LOW TICKET WARNING]
Friday 27 September – The Wardrobe – Leeds, UK*
Saturday 28 September – The Grove – Newcastle, UK*
Sunday 29 September – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow, UK* [SOLD OUT]
Tuesday 1 October – XOYO Birmingham – Birmingham, UK*
Wednesday 2 October – Thekla – Bristol, UK* [SOLD OUT]
Thursday 3 October – Electric Ballroom – London, UK* [LOW TICKET WARNING]
Saturday 5 October – Le Trabendo – Paris, FR* [SOLD OUT]
Sunday 6 October – La Grand Salon, Botanique – Brussels, BE*
Monday 7 October – Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL* [LOW TICKET WARNING]
Tuesday 8 October – Bürgerhaus Stollwerck – Cologne, DE*
Thursday 10 October – Hole44 – Berlin, DE*
Friday 11 October – Fabrik – Hamburg, DE*
Sunday 13 October – Vega – Copenhagen, DK^

POND
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
NOV/DEC 2024

With special guest Fazerdaze

Tuesday 12 November 2024 – Royale, Boston, MA
Wednesday 13 November 2024 – Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY
Thursday 14 November 2024 – Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA
Saturday 16 November 2024 – 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
Sunday 17 November 2024 – Mr. Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
Tuesday 19 November 2024 – Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, ON
Wednesday 20 November 2024 – St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit, MI
Friday 22 November 2024 – Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
Saturday 23 November 2024 – First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
Thursday 28 November 2024 – Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
Friday 29 November 2024 – Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
Saturday 30 November 2024 – Revolution Hall, Portland, OR
Tuesday 3 December 2024 – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
Thursday 5 December 2024 – The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA

Tickets on sale now from pond.band

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Photo – Michael Tartaglia

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AMNPLIFY – DB