The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

I love fuzzy pop music. I really can't help it. Of course I don't like it when it's done badly. It's too noisy or not poppy enough or just bad. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart do it so right though. And there's really no one I know who loves their charming-melancholy-fuzzy-poppy-!!! songs more than Christopher. That's why there really is no better time to write this post since today is his birthday. Happy Birthday!

Why did I first love this band? Well, it's probably sort of obvious to some of you. They've got a pretty great name for an indie-pop band. It's too dramatic, too fitting, and yet so long that people can start calling them just "the pains" or POBPAH and some people get a real kick out of that. I get a real kick out of the fact that people like that exist.

After hearing their name or more likely reading their name in one of the 3000 blogs that I read, I had to actually hear what they sounded like. That's when I got really nervous. What if they sounded like AGSFB (lolz) mixed with SLGTM and AHK plus that last B&S album topped off with 14 Iced Bears?! Okay, I didn't actually think that. I just thought that maybe they were going to be really horrible just to prove me wrong. But when I finally heard "Orchard of My Eye" there was absolutely nothing wrong about it. Here's the part where I really want to say it was "fucking right!" but I think that would be too much. I was just so happy that I was completely right, they were really good.

I was ready to hear more. Everyone was. I listened to the maybe 4/5 songs that I had over and over and daydreamed about how I was going to move to anywhere but here and really start my own perfectly sweet and noisy band. And by the time they finally released their album on Slumberland, I was completely in love with them. Even if I hadn't been, Christopher and everyone else was so in love with them that it was bound to rub off on me.


I've missed this band live probably 3 or 4 times. The truth is that I don't really care about seeing anyone live anymore unless I really love them. And so I even considered going to Pitchfork this year just to hear them and lately I've thought of convincing someone to go with me to Vancouver to see them on my birthday. Surprisingly, the latter is way more probable. But I think it would be really worth it.

Everyone on the internet loves this band already so I really wasn't sure I was ever going to really write this. And since everyone always tries to sum up why this band is so perfect, I figured I'd explain why they are so perfect to me. They are sugary and heartbreaking and completely fuzzed-out on top of it all and that makes ME happy. So if you're into that, start listening.

(This video is a lot like the story of my life with Jillian)

Love, María