Passion Pit

Name	Passion Pit
Landscape	Yes
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A
Genre	Electropop, Synthpop Wonky Pop, Indie Pop, Indie Rock
Years active	2007–present
Label	Frenchkiss RecordsSony Music EntertainmentColumbia Records
Associated acts	Aislyn, Shuttle
Url	Official WebsiteMySpaceFacebook
Current members	Michael AngelakosIan HultquistAyad Al AdhamyJeff ApruzzeseNate Donmoyer
Past members	Thom Plasse Adam Lavinsky

Passion Pit is an American electronic/pop band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The group, which formed in 2007, consists of Michael Angelakos (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth/samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass/synth bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums). All of the band members, with the exception of Angelakos, attended Berklee College of Music.

History

Name

The band culled their name from the Variety Slanguage Dictionary, a glossary of Variety's frequently-used slang, which was provided by the Hollywood-insider publication to help not-so-savvy readers decipher its content. The magazine used the term to refer to drive-in theatres, because of their privacy and romantic allure for teenagers. The band shares its name with a pornographic film made in the 80's, starring Traci Lords. Members of the band say they've been asked repeatedly if that film is what inspired their name but they weren't even aware of its existence until the year after their formation.

Formation

The first Passion Pit songs, which would later become the Chunk of Change EP, were written by Angelakos as a belated Valentine's Day gift to his then girlfriend. At first, he wrote and performed all his material alone using a laptop. After one of his solo shows in the Boston area, Ian Hultquist, who was attending Berklee at the time, approached Angelakos and expressed interest in creating and playing music collaboratively.

Chunk of Change (2007–2008)

The band's debut EP, Chunk of Change, was released on September 16, 2008. The first four tracks were those that Angelakos had written as a gift for his girlfriend, which had already become popular throughout the Emerson College campus, where Angelakos was attending classes at the time, and had been passing out his own, self-produced copies. Two tracks, Sleepyhead and Better Things, were added for the commercial release of the EP. The same year of their debut EP's release, the band was chosen as "Best New Local Act in 2008" in the WFNX/Boston Phoenix best music poll. The song contains samples of "Óró Mo Bháidín" by Irish singer and harpist Mary O'Hara.

Other songs from the EP received some exposure as well. Cuddle Fuddle was featured in E4's second series of The Inbetweeners and I've Got Your Number was used in an advertisement for the cash card from O2, Money in the UK.

Manners (2009–present)

The band's first full-length studio album, Manners, was released on May 18, 2009 in the UK and May 19, 2009 in the United States and Canada. In celebration, the band played their record release party on the 18th in New York City on a Rocks Off boat cruise. In a preview article, ClashMusic.com commented that the album "has every chance to rank as one of the year’s best" and that "it reveals additional nuances with each visit: a sure-fire sign of an album with true longevity".

In order to obtain a specific background vocal accompaniment the band was looking for on Manners, Passion Pit enlisted the help of the PS22 chorus, who recorded vocals in-studio for three of the album's songs: "The Reeling", "Little Secrets", and "Let Your Love Grow Tall." The Reeling was the first single to be released from the album and found success on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the Fall of 2009, where it peaked at #34 in October and Little Secrets was the third single to be released and had success on the chart as well, topping out at #39. Let Your Love Grow Tall was never released as a single but had some exposure being used in a season 4 episode of the TV series Ugly Betty.

The album's second single, To Kingdom Come, was used in the Rhapsody commercial for its iPhone application.

Sleepyhead was the only track from Chunk of Change to be included on the album and was made available from iTunes for free as a discovery download in 2009. The song continued to receive additional exposure through its appearances in advertisements. It was used in a season 3 episode of the teen-drama, Skins and most recently in the debut trailer for LittleBigPlanet 2, which led to the band's increased popularity amongst fans and players of the game, who eventually created an in-game instrumental version of the song.

The song Moth's Wings was used in a season 3 episode of the CW teen-drama Gossip Girl and in the closing credits of Episode 36 of HBO's Big Love. It appeared in the FIFA 10 video game and was featured in the film Life As We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. Additionally, the track has been used as a background theme for Sky Sports' coverage of the UEFA Champions League.

In June of 2009, the band performed at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England where they dedicated the final song of their set to festival headliner Jarvis Cocker, who was to perform on the same stage later that same day. Afterwards, NME, while favorably reviewing Passion Pit's performance, incorrectly reported the band as having dedicated their entire set to Cocker.

On April 13th, 2010, the band reissued Manners in a deluxe edition format which contained new artwork and three additional tracks: stripped down versions of Sleepyhead and Moth's Wings and a cover of The Cranberries' song, Dreams. The deluxe release coincided with the extension of their North American headlining tour.

The band released another cover in June of 2010, this time offering up their take on The Smashing Pumpkins hit song "Tonight, Tonight" as part of a promotion with Levi's called "Pioneer Sessions".

In July of 2010, DJ Bahler, a Los Angeles based DJ, released a Passion Pit tribute album entitled Mashin' Pit. The album consists completely of "mashup" tracks centered around either a Passion Pit song or a song from a Passion Pit side project, such as Shuttle or Aislyn, combined with samples of songs from other popular musical artists.

In September 2010, Passion Pit toured with the British band Muse as their opening act for 8 shows during their Fall tour through parts of the U.S. Following those supporting shows, the band headlined the Campus Consciousness Tour, produced by Pretty Polly Productions in collaboration with Guster guitarist Adam Gardner's non-profit organization Reverb. The two week tour featured stops at 12 college campuses and, in addition to the music, focused on promoting eco-friendly lifestyles. Opening acts for the tour included Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and K. Flay.

In a recent interview, Angelakos stated that he was already working on the follow-up to Manners and that the band intends to release the album later this year, in the spring.

Discography

Studio albums

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center; |- ! rowspan=2| Year ! rowspan=2| Album details ! colspan=3| Chart peak positions |- style=font-size:smaller; ! width=30|UK ! width=30|US ! width=30|AUS |- | 2009 | align=left|Manners

Released: May 18, 2009

Label: Columbia Records

Format: Compact Disc, Digital, & Vinyl

|55 |51 |19 |}

Singles

EPs

Chunk of Change (September 16, 2008)

Remixes

References

External links

Official Website

Passion Pit at Alt Rock Now

Passion Pit Interview w/ ARTISTDirect.com

Official Unofficial Fansite

Category:American indie rock groups Category:Wonky Pop acts Category:Musical groups from Massachusetts Category:Musical groups established in 2007 Category:Synthpop Category:Emerson College alumni