''Celebrate the New Dark Age'' is an EP by

Polvo Polvo is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band formed in 1990 and is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Steve Popson playing bass guitar and Brian Quast playing drums. Eddie Watkin ...

Background & Release

It was recorded at Duck Kee Studios by Jerry Kee and released on

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

in 1994.

Reception

The ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'' review is quite positive, with reviewer Tracy Frey calling it "filled with the band's chaotic, twisted guitars and sarcastic, witty lyrics." The tracks "Fractured (Like Chandeliers)" and "Tragic Carpet Ride" were singled out as "two amazing guitar songs" and "Every Holy Shroud" was compared to Pavement.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

gave the EP a one-star "honorable mention" indicating "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like", picking "Fractured (Like Chandeliers)" and "Every Holy Shroud" as highlights and writing: "how dark can it be if it's so full of guitars?" David Sprague's assessment of the release for ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' is mixed to mildly positive, writing that "The energy level is a bit higher ..but Bowie and Brylawski still noodle with virtually absolute tunnel vision. The fact that both concentrate on fractured chord disseminations ("progressions" is a bit too linear a description) rather than offer up any tangible leads can create a sort of eustachial whiplash .." He writes, however, that the "band is beginning to show flashes of proficiency at structuring songs" and that the EP is more stylistically consistent in comparison to their previous releases.

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'': "where

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

is thoughtful, Polvo lashes out, surly and cynical. "Every Holy Shroud" ..mocks

rock critic Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

s as it declares, "I know who it sounds like, I hope they care," amid guitar parts that turn tangles into snarls ..Polvo's Sonic Youth roots are clear but unremarkable; Polvo takes the ideas in new directions." Tom Ridge reviewed the EP very positively for ''The Wire'', calling it "vital and engaging music, challenging and accessible once it has beckoned you in" and citing it as proof that guitar-led music was not dead.

Legacy

Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams left ...

listed the EP as one of ten records that changed his life, writing: "Their first record was good, but this was better, because it was so scrappy. People said Polvo sounded like

, but I always thought they had their own thing going on. This was like music from a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

." As of January 2019, ''Celebrate the New Dark Age'' is the second highest ranked EP and the 7th highest ranked release (including all formats) to be classified as

math rock Math rock is a style of progressive and indie rock with roots in bands such as King Crimson and Rush as well as 20th-century minimal music composers such as Steve Reich. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (includi ...

on the user-controlled database

Rate Your Music Rate Your Music (often abbreviated to RYM) is an online collaborative database of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also fea ...

Track listing

#"Fractured (Like Chandeliers)" - 5:19 #"City Spirit" - 2:55 #"Tragic Carpet Ride" - 3:20 #"Solitary Set" - 2:17 #"Every Holy Shroud" - 5:55 #"Old Lystra" - 2:45 #"Virtual Cold" - 3:09

References

1994 EPs Polvo albums Merge Records EPs {{1990s-indie-rock-album-stub