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The
story of Vitreous Humor is a rather short one. The Harbor single
was followed two years later by a 7-song self-titled EP. Posthumous,
a collection of unreleased tracks, outtakes and live cuts, was released
on Crank! Records in '98, well after the band already had called it
quits and moved onto Pound's next project, The Regrets.
A decade later
and Pound has left Vitreous Humor's jangle-grunge behind in favor
of a more grown-up, sophisticated sound born out of his fondness
for mid-20th century folk and blues.
"After
The Regrets broke up, I discovered Harry Smith's Smithsonian Folkways
recordings, began listening a lot of blues and pulled out The
Basement Tapes," Pound said.
The result
was The Danny Pound Band's 2005 debut on Lawrence label Remedy Records,
Surer Days, a collection of tuneful alt-country rockers that
sounded like a cross between Centro-Matic and The Silos.
But even that
style was short-lived. Since its release, Pound and his band --
bassist Jeremy Sidener (ex-Zoom -- another classic '90s Lawrence
band), guitarist David Swenson, and drummer Ken Pingleton (who replaced
former drummer Dan Benson, who also was in Vitreous Humor) -- have
moved in a whole different direction, creating music that recalls
'70s-era So Cal groove rock. The band's as-yet-unnamed follow-up
to Surer Days was recorded at Black Lodge Studios in Eudora,
Kansas, and is slated for release on Remedy Records sometime in
the near future.
"You
couldn't call our new record rootsy. It's more of an electric rock
record," Pound said. "I get bored quickly. I'm always
trying to find new things to do."
As for Vitreous Humor, Pound said he doesn't understand why the
memory of that band continues to live on in places like Omaha and
Milwaukee -- another city with more than its share of that band's
fans. "It must be a Midwest thing," he said. "We
never toured very much. I don't think we even played in Omaha as
Vitreous Humor."
While he acknowledges
that the band could have influenced someone, Pound is hardly proud
of those early recordings. "I'm not offended by that era, but
it doesn't give me great pleasure to listen to that music,"
he said before immediately correcting himself. "I take that
back. Some of it was interesting, if a bit too earnest. I know there
are those who liked it, and there's nothing wrong with that."
Back to
Published in The Omaha Reader Dec. 6, 2006.
Copyright © 2006 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
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"I
get bored quickly. I'm always trying to find new things to
do."
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