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Note to Journalists: If you rely on hearsay, or don't know anything about us & just search old data bases to meet deadline and come up with
old worn out catch phrases that were wrong in the first place (but still seem to roam the Internet like a virus) like "Folk",
"Global" or "Hippie" we will know you are a slack that knows nothing about us, and are just punching the
clock. We will find you, and tease you. We are tired of uninformed deadline copy writers. And, we have been in
the world long enough to see your type coming from a mile off. Yes, you are that predictable. Get current & accurate
or get off. We don't have the time or patience to be casual with you. If you think we have defined you, then stop here
and make some shit up, It will be far more interesting for everyone. PDP
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PDP has never accepted sponsorship money of any kind,
or accepted offers for any of our songs to be used for advertising.
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Critical Praise for "7"
"It's the best album Poi Dog Pondering has yet made..." - AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
"This
is the PDP I first fell in love with and, even though it’s twenty years on, their music takes me to places I never realized
existed." - AUSTIN CHRONICLE
“This record finds the Chicago-based band getting back to basics, performing
14 soulful and neatly arranged pop songs… Orall’s lyrics and musical sensibility have always come directly from
the heart... that peaty poetry continues on “7,” the seventh and latest Poi Dog Pondering record"
– CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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“It's a mighty big, soulful and often dramatic sound” – TUCSON
WEEKLY
"On the band's new album, 7, Frank Orrall and his ever-expanding collective curve toward
classic soul music " - ST. LOUIS RIVERFRONT TIMES
“Guitar, violin, mandolin, keyboards, tambourine,
horns and accordion create a shimmering, fluid, soulful orchestral swell that ebbs and flows as gently as equatorial seas…”
– NEW ORLEANS GAMBIT
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Poi Dog Pondering is currently at work recording a 5 song e.p. to be released spring 2010. |
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To download PDP's bio as word document click here
Poi Dog Pondering' is currently recording a follow up 5 song e.p. to the recently
released full length album "7". BIO:
Poi dog pondering keeps thriving because their ethic has always
been about following their musical heart. Their steadfast independence has allowed them to perennially bloom. Multi Racial,
Omni sexual, and unafraid to be themselves, they prowl the musical landscape with a hungry belly. They seem to live
in a frame of mind more akin to the 30's and 40's Bohemians. Known as "The little big band with the strong back and supple / stubborn heart", PDP has
been following it's intuition for 25 years now. From bohemian street buskers to impossible to market major label sacrificial
lambs... Poi dog pondering have ripened into staunchly independent musical voyagers. They have let every sound that excited
them flow through their music and flood it with ever changing colors; Rock and soul. Orchestral, acoustic and electronic textures.
Americana, rock band disco and international musics. All threaded along the way with lyrics that embrace the beauty and pain
that life can bring.
Poi dog pondering formed in Hawaii in 1986. The first live performance was at the Honolulu
Arts Academy. Filled with youthful imitative exuberance and inspiration from reading about Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground's
'Exploding Plastic inevitable' projected film and music happenings, PDP projected films of lava eruptions, ocean and other
natural environments over the band as they performed. The tradition of projected imagery along with PDP live performances
developed and matured over the years and continues to this day thanks to long time film and video artist/collaborators Luke
Savisky and Marco Ferrari. In 1987 PDP's wanderlust drew them to the mainland where they embarked on a year long bohemian travel tour
across the United States and Canada, playing acoustically on street corners for gas and food money, while sleeping outdoors
all along the way. This experience forged Poi dog pondering's self identity & confidence as a "D.I.Y." entity. PDP was signed to the noble boutique label Texas Hotel who released their
first record in '88. Sony / Columbia released
the next 2 records "Wishing like a mountain..." & "VoloVolo". PDP relocated to Chicago in '92 and formed their own label Platetectonic Music and released
the critically acclaimed "Pomegranate" in '95. For the next ten years PDP delved heavily into developing their orchestration
skills, culminating in major collaborations with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta (with PDP's
Susan Voelz, Paul Mertens, Max Crawford & Frank Orrall doing the arrangements). Band leader Frank Orrall's interest in
electronic music garnered him respect from the Chicago House/Electronic music community for his solo project 8fatfat8, and
lead him to become a member of Thievery Corporation as percussionist and vocalist. All
this influenced PDP's next 2 records "Natural Thing" and "In Seed Comes Fruit" which saw the band experimenting
with electronic textures, beautiful lush arrangements and unhurried, sometimes instrumental song structures, letting musicality
determine the song structure, rather than traditional "verse / chorus / bridge" style song writing. In 2005 PDP combined all of it's experience together and set out to write
and record "a straight up Rock and Soul record", complete with strings and horns. The result is "7". The
band chose this title because it's their 7th record and because "it feels like a benchmark". 20 plus years down the line
there is a bolstered sense of history within the band now. A swagger that comes from having steadfastly carved their own path.
It is quite apparent that PDP has always been, and ever will be in it for the love of it; creating and performing.
Line up changes are par for the course. PDP is an organic
entity, it changes like life does. But there is a core with strong roots, open to new ears and ready to experiment. That's
what keeps it vibrant.
Recent History:
Recently PDP have been working hard on some unique projects
that combine sound and vision:
2005: PDP joined forces with the Chicago
Sinfonietta and composed and performed a "remix" version of Dvorak's "New World Symphony" at the Chicago
Symphony Center and used projected-still and moving imagery with the intent to form a subconscious relationship between the
notion of the hopes of what people associated with starting a new life in the new world and life's passage from birth to death.
(click here to see photo)
2006: PDP began
writing music and lyrics, and recording for what would become the band's 7th full length release due out this Spring. Marco
Ferrari was busy filming the writing and recording process for an upcoming DVD.
Spring 2007:
PDP composed and arranged a re-invention of the music and themes from the opera "Carmen" and performed it live with
the Chicago Sinfonietta. PDP founder Frank Orrall & film maker Marco Ferrari collaborated to make a stream of consciousness
silent film to accompany the performance. The result was a sort impressionistic mini opera. (click here to see photo)
Winter 2007: PDP composed
and performed an original score for the film "Limite" (1930), the preeminent
work of the Brazilian silent era, Directed by Mario Peixoto. This was in conjunction
with the Chicago Cinema Forum & Sonotheque.
(click here to see photo)
2008: PDP finish and release the new record "7" & tour North America.
2009: PDP voted "Best Rock / Pop
Act" in the Chicago Reader's 2009 reader's poll. Begin work on up-coming 5 song E.P.
SOME NOTES ON THE RECORDING
AND PRODUCTION OF THE NEW RECORD:
Every record is a new adventure for us, and on this
outing, we were in the mood to make a 'rock and soul' record. Because
we control the purse strings, we spared no expense. We wanted a warm dynamic sound, so we recorded to analogue tape (when
ever we could) & used old school effects like spring reverb and space echo in place of digital effects. We locked out
the studio and lived in it. We employed every every instrument we had to give each song it's own unique texture. After
having a lot of fun with sequencers and samplers on the last 2 records, we put them aside for this one - we wanted a rougher,
more immediate sound to better serve these new songs. We shied away from click tracks and let the songs speed up if they wanted
to. We wanted a record that would feel good to play live.
INSTRUMENTS USED TO MAKE THIS RECORD:
6 and 12 string acoustic and electric guitar, bass, drums, vibes, charango, guzheng, ukulele,
tambourine, bandoneon, jaw harp, super tarana, xylophone, violin, cello, casio, vocals, trumpet, melotron, stylophone, electric
mando cello, space echo, fender rhodes, wurlitzer, synth, piano, saxophone, trombone, baritone sax, omni chord, shakers, cow
bells and hand claps.
NOTES ON THE ART WORK:
In an age where digital
downloads rule, we still care about the art work. We wanted something the listener could hold and read while listening. The
art work for 7 is loaded. The cover art is by the Chicago artist DZINE, The booklet art is comprised of sculptures by the
Italian artist Virginio Ferrari from his 1960's works. To give that large format album artwork feel we added an additional
poster you can unfold which contains Video stills of various works by Chicago artist (and son of Virginio) Marco Ferrari,
cooking recipes from his mother Marisa Ferrari and a prose piece by Frank Orrall. The complete package was designed by Alberto
Ferrari and Frank Orrall.
NOTES ON FORMAT:
"7" will
be available on L.P., 8 track, cassette, c.d. and digital down load - Cause we're stubborn like
that.
NOTES ON THE MASTERING:
You will notice that "7" is a little quieter than most pop recordings these days. That was intentional. There is
a volume war going on in modern music, because everyone wants to appear louder. This has lead to seriously compressed... even
distorted recordings, that frankly sound bad. We put too much into the quality of recording to let this happen at the final
stage, so we found a mastering house (Chicago Mastering Services) who feel the same way and they did a fantastic job preserving
the integrity of the recording and let it blossom. Produced by: Frank Orrall, Martin Stebbing and Ted Cho
Recorded by: Ted Cho and Martin Stebbing
Mixed by: Martin Stebbing, Ted Cho and Frank Orrall
(assistant at Wall2Wall: Frank Caruso)
String arrangements by: Susan Voelz
Horn arrangements by: Dave Max Crawford
Recorded in Chicago at: Wall2Wall Recording &
4deuces Recording / Clava Studios
Mastering
by: Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Services
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POI DOG
PONDERING UPCOMING SHOWS
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AUGUST 21ST PDP @ WALNUT
ROOM IN DENVER COLORADO SEPTEMBER 3RD FRANK ORRALL SOLO SHOW @ THE HOTEL CAFE, LOS ANGELES CA., SOLD OUT - September 18th PDP @ Schubas CHI-TOWN September 24, 2009 @ Regattabar - Cambridge,
MA 1 Bennett
St, Cambridge, MA - (617) 661-5000
September 25, 2009 PDP @ Tupelo Music Hall -
Londonderry,
NH
2 Young Rd, Londonderry, NH - (603) 437-5100 Oct. 2 - 4th Austin City Limits festival  PDP plays oct 2nd, (Thievery Corporation will also be playing that night) NOVEMBER
20th PDP BIG BAND SHOW @ THE VIC THEATER in CHI-TOWN December 4th:
San Francisco. California PDP @ SLIMS ( 333 11th St)
December 5th: Portland Oregon PDP @ THE DOUG FIR (830 East Burnside Street
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