The Pains of Being Pure at Heart recently spoke to Stereogum about their influences and Adorable and the House of Love were two of the bands featured. The band recently released their second album ‘Belong’ which was produced by Alan Moulder who worked with Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver in the early 90’s.
Extracts of the article are below:
01 Adorable – “Homeboy”
While most of their British contemporaries were busy layering guitars with innumerable effects, perfecting gentle falsettos and otherwise causing the word “ethereal” to be one of the great cliche adjectives in music journalism, this English band seemed to draw (some) inspiration from the rugged dynamics and vulnerable howls of The Pixies. I can see merit in both schools of thought, but this song is pretty undeniable. Bonus points for the least appropriate appropriation of the term “homeboy.” Also, this track was mixed by Alan Moulder – nice!
03 The House of Love – “Destroy The Heart”
This is another dubious Creation Records band, but at least early on,they were incredible. “Christine” and “Shine On” are hits, sure, but “Destroy the Heart” is probably an accidental influence on any good song we ever wrote (if there are any). It’s weird to cite them as an influence, as they were super hyped and tore up the indie charts, then tried to be the next U2 and made a series of disastrous decisions that found themselves critically and commercially obsolete faster than you can say, “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.”Oh well, we don’t reside on a mountain made of Class A narcotics and take limos on the label’s dime to the recording studio/corner store/everywhere. We should be ok, right?