Pop. 1280 are the hardest working scumbags in New York City. The leaders of the “nü-pigfuck” as coined by the Village Voice, these post-cyberpunks have been terrorizing unassuming audience members for the last four years. Band leaders Chris Bug and Ivan Lip formed the band in late 2008, and since then have released three seven inches, for Badmaster and Blind Prophet, in addition to two albums on Sacred Bones. read more…
Imps of Perversion, Pop. 1280’s second full-length for Sacred Bones, finds the four-piece shaking off the hangover that was their critically acclaimed LP The Horror, and diving back down into the basement to enjoy the depravity. Recorded at BC Studio with legendary producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Cop Shoot Cop, Swans),Pop. 1280 has created their most cohesive and powerful statement to date. Woven together with stories of lust, sexual confusion, temptation, and debauchery, Imps forms a tight web of manic synth-punk, bad-trip acid jams and bludgeoning industrial beats. This is the sound of a band having fun and pushing the limits of their brand of industrial-punk with tighter songwriting and more dynamic musicianship. On Imps of Perversion, Gary Numan-esque analog synths bubble across acrid, blistering guitars, driving bass lines and crushing rhythms. From the opening noise-rock blast of “Lights Out” to the industrial groove of “Human Probe II” through to the synth-punk ripper “Do the Anglerfish,” this new album is a celebration of making bad decisions again and again. Pop. 1280knows the party’s going to have to end, but they’re going to get their kicks before the drones lock in for the finale.
“If the ray-gunned synth-punk stylings of the band’s debut 2010 EP, The Grid, suggested a certain fondness for cheeky, B-movie thrills, The Horror is a far more traumatic experience, conjuring all the dystopian futurism of an early David Cronenberg film, but delivered with merciless, medieval brute force. The first words we hear on the album are “two dogs fucking”; it proves to be The Horror’s most romantic lyric.” —Pitchfork
“After some pretty flawlessly disgusting 12“s, NYC scumsuckers Pop. 1280 have finally returned for their debut slab of synth-tweaked, gutter-gazing, jeans-pissing noise-rock. The upcoming The Horror, released next Tuesday on Sacred Bones, starts with the sublimely bleak lyric “Two dogs fucking,” and then just gets exponentially savage with the filthy animal metaphors as the album unravels into madness, demanding you “beg like a human.” Fans of Suicide, Birthday Party, Chrome, Jesus Lizard, Swans, and Pussy Galore take notice — and get some therapy!” —Spin
“If the hardest thing for a new rock band to do is be original, then the second hardest is to be scary……. The Horror is traumatic experience, conjuring all the dystopian futurism of an early David Cronenberg film, but delivered with merciless, medieval brute force. The line between singer and subject is blurred, and sound and fury coalesce into a vivid, very real portrait of violent psychosis.” —Pitchfork
“NYC’s hardest-working scumbags in the scuzzfuckery business, Pop. 1280, are back with their best work yet. Their long-awaited first full-length The Horror(due January 24 via Sacred Bones) moves our anti-heroes from gazing into the void to practically assaulting it; a new rhythm section gives chief muckmakers Ivan Lip and Chris Bug a robo-sex swagger somewhere between Devo and Pussy Galore.” —Village Voice
