Indie rock stalwarts Matt Pond PA resurrect the previous with the never-before-seen 2005 video for “Halloween,” a wistful, heart-aching standout from 2005’s beloved, autumnal, and quietly aching ‘A number of Arrows Later.’ Launched at present alongside the album’s 20th Anniversary reissue – a lush double-vinyl and digital version that includes new acoustic variations, demos, and rarities – it arrives simply in time for the season’s finest (or worst) Halloween events, in addition to the band’s upcoming U.S. anniversary tour.
Stream: “Halloween” – Matt Pond PA
I heard it’s trendy to be silly. You don’t want to speak to look good…
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Tright here’s an odd magic in nostalgia – in the best way reminiscence blurs and burns, softens and glows.
Matt Pond PA’s newly unearthed video for “Halloween” captures that bittersweet haze completely. Shot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn 20 years in the past and by no means earlier than launched, it’s a young time capsule from the early 2000s – all flickering lights, wood-paneled partitions, and quiet craving beneath the floor of a small-town dance.
Went to the place the folks
had been on a Saturday evening
Looks as if it all the time appears
The place I am going, I need to go away
I assumed we had been doing
positive with our lives
There are individuals who will inform you
There’s all the time one thing higher
For those who don’t know or care, you’ll be alright
I heard it’s trendy to be silly
You don’t want to speak to look good
I shocked myself
as my mouth began talking
There’s nothing left of my nerves
As I lean over to ask her
Atwood Journal is proud to be premiering the music video for “Halloween,” the opening monitor off Matt Pond PA’s sixth studio album A number of Arrows Later. Launched in 2005, A number of Arrows Later stays one of many band’s most beloved and enduring works – a file that captured the angst and surprise of mid-2000s indie rock by way of lush preparations, tender melodies, and lyrical introspection. “Halloween” set the tone for the album’s world of intimate aching and self-reflection, pairing Pond’s heat, wistful vocals with strings, piano, and glowing guitar traces that appeared to radiate between melancholy and hope.
“I wrote ‘Halloween’ after a failed Halloween get together in Brooklyn,” Matt Pond tells Atwood Journal. “The issue wasn’t the get together – it was me. I used to be dressed up as a second-rate reporter in an ill-fitting swimsuit attempting to go away my pores and skin. Later, I went house to my inexperienced room, lay flat on my mattress, and wrote the track whereas staring on the ceiling.”
There’s a weary honesty to the track’s refrain, the place Pond sings, “Pardon the intrusion, may we go away earlier than it will get unhealthy?” It’s a line caught someplace between vulnerability and escape – the confession of somebody who doesn’t fairly match the second they’re in. Beneath its self-deprecating humor lies a longing to attach with out the efficiency of belonging, to step outdoors the noise and discover stillness with somebody who understands. In only a few phrases, Pond captures the awkward poetry of isolation and the delicate, human hope of being seen.
Pardon the intrusion
May we go away earlier than it will get unhealthy?
I would smash up all these home windows
And set hearth to the curtains
Till it goes on and eats it
with its blue and pink orange
Till the hearth burns and eats it
with its blue and pink orange
A haunting time capsule of longing and disconnection, the “Halloween” music video embodies the identical stirring spirit that defines the track itself.
The scene unfolds in an outdated dance corridor. A small disco ball spins lazily on the middle of the room; guitars relaxation towards their amps, the bar glows faintly with twinkling gentle, and streamers dangle half-heartedly from the partitions. Folks filter in for what needs to be a celebration, however the air feels heavy – like everybody’s simply pretending to have a great time. They make small discuss, sip their drinks, and shuffle their toes, each seemingly misplaced. The temper is pressured, a bit awkward, a bit melancholy.
The band performs. {Couples} dance. For a fleeting second – as Pond sings, “I heard it’s trendy to be silly / You don’t want to speak to look good” – the strain breaks. Everybody appears to loosen up, discover connection, or no less than distraction. For a second, the world fades away. However like all good nights, it ends quietly; the gang drifts off, and Pond and his associate stay – the final two souls left within the room, caught between intimacy and isolation.
For those who don’t know or care,
you’ll be alright
I heard it’s trendy to be silly
You don’t want a thought to look good
Pardon the intrusion
May we go away earlier than it will get unhealthy?
I would smash up all of the home windows
And set hearth to the curtains
“I don’t know the way it occurred, however we by no means launched the video for ‘Halloween,’” Pond shares. “We shot it in Williamsburg, simply down the road from my house on the time. Watching it now, it looks like an ideal snapshot of that period – the posturing, the quiet unease, the unusual efficiency of attempting to belong.”
“I beloved residing in New York, however I by no means fairly felt like I measured up. There’s a form of loneliness in that – a crowded room the place you’re feeling invisible. And but, beneath all of it, there’s nonetheless this thread of hope – the assumption that you simply would possibly discover somebody who sees you anyway.”
It’s that thread of hope, comfortable and regular, that offers “Halloween” its enchanting glow. Beneath the melancholy, there’s motion – a stressed pulse that retains the track from collapsing into despair. Pond doesn’t wallow; he observes, he endures, and in doing so, he reminds us that longing itself could be a form of gentle. The track lingers within the in-between, caught between belonging and isolation, connection and detachment, capturing that deeply human need to be seen, even if you’re undecided you should be.
Sonically, “Halloween” stays one in all Matt Pond PA’s most beloved songs – a delicate, dreamy, aching indie rock reverie that floats between self-awareness and sincerity. Pond’s heat, susceptible voice carries each ache and humor, whereas piano, violin, and guitars weave collectively a bittersweet spell of intimacy and reflection. The track feels each zoomed-in and zoomed-out – deeply private and effortlessly common.
There’s a form of loneliness in that – a crowded room the place you’re feeling invisible. And but, beneath all of it, there’s nonetheless this thread of hope – the assumption that you simply would possibly discover somebody who sees you anyway.
* * *
First launched in 2005, A number of Arrows Later marked a defining second for Matt Pond PA – cementing the band’s repute for crafting lush, emotionally clever indie rock that sits someplace between folks introspection and cinematic heat.
Its songs, together with “Halloween,” “So A lot Bother,” and “Spring Gives,” grew to become fixtures within the mid-2000s indie canon, inspiring numerous listeners and songwriters alike.
Now, twenty years later, Pond has revisited the file for a particular anniversary version – a limited-edition double vinyl and digital launch that includes all-new acoustic variations, demos, and beforehand unreleased materials. It’s each a tribute to the previous and an act of renewal: a method of returning to the guts of what made these songs resonate within the first place.
“Philadelphia gave me my first sense of that means, New York carried it additional,” Pond displays. “I ended being born to lose and began believing on this planet round me. Over time, the aim shifted – spinning all the best way again to the place it started – an providing with out pretense, an endeavor with out worrying concerning the casket.
“The unique album wouldn’t have occurred with out Eve Miller, Brian Pearl, Dan Crowell, and Louie Lino. For a few years, we had the correct of friction. I beloved our arguments on the Bearsville Barn, with Turtle Creek murmuring within the background. We had been pushing the songs the place they wanted to go.”
“Lately, Chris Hansen helps carry the songs to life. His musicianship and engineering regular the swerving method I write. Hilary James returns the cello again to the body. Anya Marina and John Braveness add variation and shade.”
Twenty years after A number of Arrows Later first left its mark on the indie panorama, Matt Pond PA are bringing its world again to life onstage.
This November, Pond and his band will embark on the A number of Arrows Later twentieth Anniversary Tour, performing throughout the Northeast and Midwest with assist from longtime collaborators Anya Marina and Bathtub Cig. It’s an opportunity for followers to step again into that world of tender reflection and radiant melancholy, to listen to beloved songs like “Halloween” and “So A lot Bother” tackle new life within the current tense – nonetheless resonant, nonetheless filled with feeling.
Time has a method of deepening the that means of sure songs, and “Halloween” is one in all them. What as soon as felt like a snapshot of loneliness now reads as one thing extra openhearted and forgiving – a portrait of self-awareness, connection, and the seek for grace in imperfection. As Pond revisits these songs twenty years later, there’s a way of gratitude and surprise operating by way of all of it, a recognition of how a lot life can change whereas the feelings that form it stay the identical.
Went to the place the folks
had been on a Saturday evening
Looks as if it all the time appears
The place I am going, I need to go away
I shocked myself as my mouth began talking
There’s nothing left of my nerves
As I lean over to ask her
Pardon the intrusion
May we go away earlier than it will get unhealthy?
I would smash up all these home windows
And set hearth to the curtains
Till it goes on and eats it
with its blue and pink orange
Till the hearth burns and eats it
with its blue and pink orange
“Pardon the intrusion, may we go away earlier than it will get unhealthy?” Pond as soon as sang, half-pleading, half-smiling – a line that feels simply as human now because it did twenty years in the past. But whereas all of us go away the get together finally, the songs persist with us – together with this one. Watch the world premiere of “Halloween,” twenty years late and proper on time, completely on Atwood Journal!
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Stream: “Halloween” – Matt Pond PA
A number of Arrows Later twentieth Anniversary
Tour Dates
11/6 – Fallout Shelter • Norwood, MA
11/7 – Falcon • Marlboro, NY
11/8 – West Artwork • Lancaster, PA
11/9 – The Treelawn • Cleveland, OH
11/10 – SPACE • Evanston, IL
11/12 – Anodyne Espresso Roasting Co • Milwaukee, WI
11/13 – The Parkway Theater • Minneapolis, MN
11/14 – Kiki’s Home of Righteous Music • Madison, WI
1/16 – Spinster Abbott’s • St. Augustine, FL
1/17 – Blue Jay Listening Room • Jacksonville Seaside, FL
1/18 – The Lynx Books • Gainesville, FL
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© Jesse Dufault
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