As an adult, we have the right to complain about how no one is making any good music anymore. Of course, plenty of people are, but nothing beats the bands that you pine nostalgically for because they don't exist anymore. So excuse us while we revisit another era of live music in NYC. We started this series out with Apes & Androids, the #1 band we miss, and in no order whatsoever, have continued. Last time we revisited The Fever, and up next: Pela.
Pela, amNewYork, 2008
Pela was a band that existed from 2004 to 2009, not a bad run for a band, and as you'll learn, the members are still around creating music (one of them will be performing tonight—details below). Things really all started back in 2001, however, when Eric Sanderson met Christopher Herb busking on a subway platform at 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. Herb left the then-forming band in 2002, but Sanderson and lead vocalist Billy McCarthy continued on, teaming up with guitarist Nate Martinez. They topped the band off with drummer Tomislav Zovich, called themselves Pela, and eventually released an EP in 2005 on the Brassland label, owned by another Brooklyn band, The National.
They later signed with independent label Great Society, who released their debut full-length album, Anytown Graffiti, in 2007. It was around that time we had them keep a tour diary for us during their trip to SXSW, which you can revisit here. Sadly, in 2009, they announced they were breaking up, breaking the hearts of all those who had come to love their energetic shows and pastoral rock sound.
Luckily, the band members have now regrouped as two different bands: We Are Augustines (featuring Billy McCarthy and Eric Sanderson), and Thieving Irons (featuring Nate Martinez). The latter has taken up residency at the Rock Shop this month, with night two happening this evening. In 2010 Martinez talked to us about Pela's demise:
We were cursed with a black cloud over our head. The story of that ending of that band is a pretty long, insane story. What happened, to sort of condense it for a moment, was that we were set to final negotiations for a very big record deal. As if those things even exist nowadays. [Laughs] We had been in those negotiations for a while and it was set to go through but it didn't. And in that time that we were waiting for all this business stuff to happen, there was nothing for us to do. No shows to play. So in the midst of this, that's when I said, "I have time right now, I'm going to dedicate some of it to this side project and grow a little side garden." That's literally how it started. So when things really weren't working out [with Pela], it was like, "Oh, okay, I already have this thing going, I'm going to dedicate all my time to it now."
On top of that, there were physical injuries—"There was a bad situation in Chicago, and then another one in Seattle actually. A cut hand and then a broken foot." But enough of the tough times and timelines, let's move on to the music they created when they did exist.
"Rise" and "Lost To The Lonesome"
Listen to more on their still functional MySpace page.
"The Trouble With River Cities"
