Song of the Day: Matt Pond PA - Louisville

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unrealeased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is "Louisville" by Matt Pond PA from their 2017 single on 131 Records.

Matt Pond PA - Louisville (MP3)Matt Pond is beyond prolific. Now an indie rock veteran, the New Hampshire native has released 11 albums in the past two decades and about as many EPs as well, and still, his inspiration seems inexhaustible. It helps that he's a perpetual traveller of time and space, having lived variously throughout the Northeast and touring worldwide. His most recent album, Winter Lives, is very much of its season, featuring cozy songs with titles like "In Winter", "A Candle and a Deck of Cards", "The Forest of Frost on the Windshield" and "Leggings in the Living Room". But now, as hoary winter seems ready to shed its coat, Matt Pond treats us to a new song, a rather summery one in fact, called "Louisville". Released as a single on his own label, 131 Records, the tune is delightfully nostalgic. To him, Rachel and her friends (of the band Rachels), who Pond recalls "floating on the summer seas", will remain "everything that Louisville will forever be". It's a musical coming of age story, not unlike Strand of Oaks' "Goshen '97", and though more airy and wistful, in it Matt Pond similarly transfers his truths ("How I learned about the truth in a Chevrolet van, sitting in the passenger seat / with your right hand on the radio with the melodies just for me") so that he becomes we, and "Louisville"'s melody becomes ours. Says Matt:

I wrote the song a few years ago, and we reworked it while mixing Winter Lives. It's about touring with Rachel's and driving across the country with Jason Noble. We drove the gear out to Seattle from Louisville to meet the rest of the airborne band, listening to music and talking the best, dumb shit. That man was brilliant in every possible way. And he loved pie so much that he couldn't read a dessert menu without nearly going insane with skyrocketing joy. I cannot help but to think about his love of pie and smile.

You'll soon be able to hum right along beside Matt Pond, as he performs with cellist Shawn Alpay and violinist Mel Guérison live at Fremont Abbey in Seattle on February 17th. Find out more about his current tour on his website and Facebook page, and be sure to watch his most recent video for "Whoa" - the only appropriate response to the Iceland scenery depicted throughout - taken from the recently released Matt Pond PA album, Winter Lives: