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Passion Pit
By Jan Rosenfeld
del.ico.us
reddit!
The last time I spoke with Mike Angelakos, founder of Cambridge-based electro-pop group Passion Pit, it was at the Lily Pad in Inman Square. He was playing an acoustic solo show for about 15 people, demo-ing material for an EP called Chunk of Change. That record is a now a comet blasting through the music machine, blown-up on everything from blogs to Pitchfork, college radio to newspapers (oh hai!). It's being released on Frenchkiss Records this week as a precursor to a full length due in early 2009. That conversation was just under a year ago—and now we're discussing big ideas like artistic control, the music festival circuit and a major label bidding war. Angelakos is polishing off some ravioli when he seriously asks me, "What the fuck do we do?"
It's a valid question. Passion Pit play the type of pop that taps directly into the joy centers of the brain. Their infectious single "Sleepyhead" would work plastered all over Top 40 radio. But how does one go about handling such a powerful thing? It's a rare, bewildering point for a band: How do you turn all that buzz into a real, tangible career? Passion Pit take it one step at a time. "I just wanted it to sound big," says Angelakos, who was spending 14-hour days in a Brooklyn studio. "It got to the point where my producers were knocking on my door every half an hour asking how my writing was coming. We were all going crazy." Those producers, Landau (an electronic duo heard everywhere from Pan's Labyrinth to Verizon commercials), helped craft a huge, organic sound, sure to delight fans of everything from Hot Chip to Kate Bush.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the entire trip has been a bit surreal. Angelakos and friends have killed at a three-week residency at Pianos in NYC, plus a beach-front jamboree with RJD2 on Martha's Vineyard and a weirdly enormous opening slot for Death Cab for Cutie and the Presidents of the United States of America. At the very least, they won't be short on conversation starters.
[Passion Pit CD release party with Big Digits and Benefit Friends, Thu 9.18.08. Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 617.566.9014. 9pm/18+/$8. greatscottboston.com, myspace.com/passionpitjams]
