I was totally unfamiliar with this band until yesterday…and that makes me really sad.  My buddy, Mike, was looking at the North Side Festival line up, and was like The Van Pelt are playing?  At the time I didn’t realize who that was, and he was like it’s Ted Leo’s brother…Chris Leo.

I didn’t think much of this initially, but it sat in my head a couple hours…I remembered that two of the Leo’s, and not Ted, were in one of my favorite emo bands: Native Nod.  Now this isn’t the type of emo that people think of today (that combination of candy coated punk-core that has both pretty singing and screaming), but rather when emo actually meant something…I guess in simple terms a sub-sub genre of post-punk or post-hardcore.  Native Nod were contemporaries of Moss Icon, The Hated, Cap n’ Jazz, Heroin, and Antioch Arrow.  Well, some people might not say that but growing up in the south far away from where that music was happening…I feel that it is pretty accurate.

What truly made Native Nod unique was the singer, and that was complemented by the music perfectly.  Chris Leo’s vocals ranged from spoken word to adolescent screaming.  To this day their discography titled Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World is still an album I go back to when making mix tapes.  Listening to Native Nod brings be back to when I was younger, but at the same time I still find it timeless.

[mp3] Native Nod- “Tangled”
(from Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World. Buy it here)

The Van Pelt formed in 1993 and played music until about 1997.  The band consisted of Christ Leo, as previously mentioned,  Brian Maryansky (who went on to play in Jets to Brazil), Toko Yasuda (ex-member of Blonde Redhead, who also played in The Lapse with Chris Leo in the late ’90s), and Neil O’Brian.

This year they reformed and started playing out at a couple of shows including South By South West, another date in DC with Frodus, and this Saturday as part of the North Side Fest.

The Van Pelt remind me a lot of a matured Native Nod but where the adolescent screaming had been there is now singing (not knocking Native Nod at all, that is just how it is).  I have only been able to grab a couple of mp3s, but right now it looks like I might be ditching Kurt Vile for The Van Pelt.  Check it:

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “The Speeding Train”
(from the s/t EP.  But it here.)

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “His Saxophone is my Guitar”
(from Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves. Buy it here.)

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “My Bouts With Pouncing”
(from The Sultans of Sentiment. Buy it here.)

According to North Side Festival, The Van Pelt will play their first ever Brooklyn show (despite being from the New York/New Jersey area) this weekend! The show has also been curated by The Van Pelt.

This Saturday, June 11th:

The Van Pelt @ 11pm
The Holy Childhood @ 10pm
Ghost Gamblers @ 9pm
Coco 66
Doors at 8pm
$10

If you need a guide to the festivities check out my North Side Fest schedule here.