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Polvo is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band formed in 1990 and is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Steve Popson playing bass guitar and Brian Quast playing drums. Eddie Watkins was the band's original drummer, but did not rejoin the band upon its reunion in 2008, after breaking up in 1998.
The band are widely considered to be standard bearer of a genre which came to be known as math rock, although in interviews the band disavowed that categorization. Their sound was defined by complex and dissonant guitar harmonies and driving rhythm, complementing cryptic, often surrealist lyrics. Their sound was so unpredictable and angular that the band's guitarists were often accused of failing to play with correctly tuned guitars. Polvo's songs and artwork frequently featured Asian/"exotic" themes and references. Additionally, their music had a pronounced Eastern feel that came not only from the Indian and Middle Eastern-style drones in their compositions, but actual Eastern instruments like the sitar as well.
The band was critically acclaimed from the outset, at least among those critics who were into non-traditional/underground rock. The band's name means "octopus" in Portuguese and "powder" or "dust" in Spanish; in Spain it also is a slang word for sex.
Peel played Polvo's music regularly between 1992 and 1996, including two sessions for his programmes. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1993, Peel claimed many of the good bands were coming from America and Canada. He included Polvo as an example of this, where he mentioned that their songs were all out of tune and you sometimes could get the impression that their music have two records played simultaneously. [1]
28 May 1993: ‘Wild Turkey (Various Artists CD - Pyloric Waves )’ (D-Tox)
29 May 1993: ‘Sure Shot (LP - Today’s Active Lifestyle)’ (Touch & Go) (JP: ‘I saw them [Polvo] play this afternoon in Vinyl Experience in Hanway Street London. Seventeen of us actually went along to see them. Fifteen adults and two children. Not sure too sure of the attitude of the two children, but the fifteen adults enjoyed them enormously.’)
11 June 1993: ‘Tilebreaker (LP –Today’s Active Lifestyle)’ (Touch And Go)
19 June 1993: 'Tiara Fetish (7 inch – Tilebreaker)’ (Merge Records)
