Soft Pipes, a moniker that was borrowed from a chapter of the late Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle,” is the solo musical project of Anthony Polcino (pronounced like Al Pacino) and is based in Los Angeles, California, but is usually happening wherever it’s creator physically is at any given time.
Polcino grew up in the southern region of the New Jersey shore on the outskirts of a broken-down Atlantic City. There he lived what most would call a “regular” teenage suburban life: he attended public high school
Read more on Last.fm …read full bio
Soft Pipes, a moniker that was borrowed from a chapter of the late Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle,” is the solo musical project of Anthony Polcino (pronounced like Al Pacino) and is based in Los Angeles, California, but is usually happening wherever it’s creator physically is at any given time.
Polcino grew up in the southern region of the New Jersey shore on the outskirts of a broken-down Atlantic City. There he lived what most would call a “regular” teenage suburban life: he attended public high school, had crushes on female classmates, and acquired a steady outfit of like-minded misfit friends that often talked into the wee hours of the night assuming they’d figured out the answer to humanity at fifteen, when in reality such nights would culminate in (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to buy cigarettes or ordering greasy cuisine at a local diner. It was during this period of his life that he was introduced to a healthy dose of the usual suspects of grunge music, as well as the prominent shoe gaze rock acts of the time (Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized, Brian Jonestown Massacre) by his older sister. He began playing guitar incessantly and quickly identified with the atmospheric guitar styles of virtuosos like Kevin Shields, Jonny Greenwood, and Nick McCabe of The Verve.
After playing guitar for countless nights alone in his bedroom, he discovered a keen intuition for arranging songs and coming up with vocal melodies. He continued to hone his craft through his teen years and into his twenties by recording demos on a four track cassette recorder, at a local 25-dollar an hour studio; eventually learning the ropes of the present day’s standard digital recording software. The knowledge of maneuvering the latter proved to be the most essential, as he could record alone without having to rely on band mates or engineers. This excelled the development of a more refined sonic palette that would eventually grant him the freedom to confidently and efficiently execute fully envisioned original songs.
Polcino left college early in 2002 and moved to Boston, dabbling in the music scene there for a brief period, and in mid 2005 moved to Los Angeles. A year later he found a niche as the lead guitarist and back up vocalist for indie pop rock act Low Vs Diamond. It was with Low Vs Diamond that he was able to get his first true taste of success in the music business, respectively; signing to a major label, performing on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” touring endlessly, and in 2008, was featured in Rolling Stone magazine for the song “Don’t Forget Sister,” one of the only songs on Low Vs Diamond’s debut of which he shares co-writing credit.
Once Low Vs Diamond eventually disbanded in early 2010, Polcino had built up so much of his own material that he immediately went to work on what would become Soft Pipes’ debut album, “When You’re Done Here You Get To Go Home.” Made almost entirely in an Old Hollywood apartment building, it clearly worked on a level much deeper than the usual contrived "cool" that might plague that type of do-it-yourself musical project; relying heavily on elegant vocal melodies paired with an overall washed-out aesthetic that set "the mood." Soft Pipes' debut is an intoxicatingly eclectic collection of honest indie pop songs, rich with texture. Kevin Bronson of Buzz Bands LA said “[the album]…shimmers with melody and atmospherics…in fact, it’s a lovely dream-pop excursion in general.”
Currently, Polcino has assembled a full lineup for Soft Pipes and has been playing live regularly in the LA circuit, and has recently finished the “Stay Pretty EP,” the follow up to “When You’re Done Here…” digitally released in September 2011. This time properly recorded but with intentionally added grit, attitude, and vulnerability, the “Stay Pretty EP” is audibly more imperturbable yet personally more progressive, most notably in the title track, in which the vocal performance almost warrants a comparison to an early era Julian Casablancas-esque swagger.
A "digital 7 inch" featuring two songs, "Unpaid Holiday" and "Don't Act Dumb" was released on May 1st, 2012 via Pulse Code Modulations, a Los Angeles label operated by producer Dave Trumfio (Built To Spill), who also mixed the songs.
Given the climate of today's seemingly oversaturated indie rock scene, it seems more often than we'd like to admit that the material being dug up by new projects such as this either isn't believable, lacks a feeling that might at least make it musically interesting, or worse- both. Nevertheless, Soft Pipes manages to capture a definite vibe that will no doubt be welcomed to the burgeoning family of up and coming indie rock acts. It also doesn't hurt to mention that because of the self-sufficient nature of a project like Soft Pipes, new material is always in the making. Hopefully for our sake, we'll hear it more often than not.
Polcino is also a founding member of the band Beat Club, whose debut release is also due in 2012.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
…shrink me down again