Back in the early summer of 2009, I played drums in a band here in Columbus. We were sort of in our last throes at the time, with one member getting ready to move out of state. We’d stalled out in terms of writing new songs, my wife and I were getting ready to move into a new house and to consider starting our family. We were, in some respects, running out the clock.
On of the guys in that band (Steve) has always been one of my go-tos for new music that I probably haven’t heard. He seems to have a pretty good track record for things that I like, and he often times would reach out to smaller, indie bands on tour to play shows with us in Columbus. This was cool for a couple of reasons: first, he’d get to hang out and play with some of the musicians he loved to listen to, and second, on a rare occasion it was the perfect storm of getting to see a band that hadn’t quite gotten big enough yet to be “priced out of the market” so to speak, and to get to see them in an intimate setting.
In the case of Moving Mountains in that summer of 2009, it was also a chance for me to be completely blown away.
Steve came to us and said we could set up a show with Moving Mountains for that July, when they were on a midwestern tour in support of their new EP “Foreword”. We all basically said, sure, whatever man. Like I said, running out the clock.
Then, I started to learn more about the band. Formed in high school by Gregory Dunn and Nick Pizzolato, their debut album Pneuma sprang from Greg losing a very close friend. He wrote Pneuma in response, and he and Nick–still in frigging high school–recorded it. Greg mixed, mastered, and produced it. In high school. They never intended to be a band; it was just a project. Then, it got out onto the Internet, and the rest is history. At one point, an end-of-season Mad Men trailer used one of the songs (“Aphelion”) in the background.
Back to that 2009 gig. Steve gave me the hard sell, but I will admit to having not once listened to any of their music prior to them taking the stage. If you’ve ever been down to Scarlet and Grey Cafe on north campus, that was our old haunt, and that’s where this show took place. When listening to the album below, if you’ve been in that space, try to imagine seeing that band in that room.
I bought both of their albums (at the time; they since released two more before disbanding in 2013) at the show, and then my band had to follow them. It was an impossible task. But, it was still one of my favorite shows, and I played harder and better because of having seen them right beforehand.
So, knowing all of this about Pneuma–their age, the subject matter, and the fact that it was never intended to be “a band”–if you can listen to the final three tracks of this album and not be, well, moved, I don’t know that you and I can be friends.*
*of course we can. I was just being hyperbolic
So, take a listen. This dates back to 2007. It is magnificent from front to back, and I hope you love it as much as I do.
Someday the trees will sing.