Listen: Pond - '(I'm) Stung'

27 March 2024 | 7:00 pm | Will Backler
Originally Appeared In

Local psych rock legends announce their tenth studio album with jangly new single and nostalgic music video.

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Image credit: Michael Tartaglia

After making us shiver in the Neon River a few months ago, today the news Pond fans have been waiting for is upon us, with the longtime fave five-piece today announcing album number ten, Stung!, alongside a new single and music video.

Their forthcoming album’s quasi-title track, (I’m) Stung opens with ethereal synths and heavenly vocal melodies, giving way to dueling guitar strums and lead before the rhythm section enters the fold, underpinning Nick Allbrook’s distinctive vocals that explore the concept of an unrequited crush through a relatable bee sting analogy.

Nick explains how (I’m) Stung came together “I wrote most of this while mowing someone’s lawn. I went home and put my fingers on the piano and pretty much played the base of it first go. This is a very rare and special treat and buoyed me for weeks. It’s funny because I had a mad crush on someone, and they dropped me like a sack of shit and this song just flew down and clocked me right in the forehead and I felt totally better. Then Gin and Gum added all their magic - cool sounds, passing chords. It's about being totally pathetically stung by someone and just having to be cool with it being unrequited. Being resilient, accepting that you are a bit of a goose, but life goes on.

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As with many Pond music videos, the clip for (I’m) Stung sees the band out in nature, this time in the iconic sand dunes of Lancelin in Western Australia. “We went to Lancelin, one of the most stereotypically Western Australian looking places in Western Australia, armed with a super 8 camera, 12 tubes of silver body paint and a rock eisteddfod wardrobe.” Pond say of the video.

Nothing but the blistering heat and dehydration and a battalion of legendary holidaymakers in ATVs stood between us and cinema history. Our friend Chris Adams also put on his little “filmic auteur” cap and carried our shit around while we cavorted among the dunes dressed like a knock off NSYNC. Omg and the bee!! The bee obviously makes it. Nick kind of lost his mind in the endless whiteness and started fearfully battling the beast in the sky. Probably all the paint fumes.”

With Stung! set for a June 21 release, Pond will be hitting the road with a run of North American shows before returning home to play Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Fremantle and Byron Bay for Splendour in the Grass 2024 - all dates below.

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POND AUS TOUR JUNE/JULY 2024

Friday, 14 June 2024 - VIVID Sydney at Carriageworks - Sydney, NSW
Saturday, 15 June 2024 - Altar - Hobart, TAS
Thursday, 27 June 2024 - Lion Arts Factory - Adelaide, SA
Friday, 28 June 2024 - Northcote Theatre - Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, 29 June 2024 - Princess Theatre - Brisbane, QLD  
Saturday, 6 July 2024 - Freo Social - Fremantle, WA
Saturday, 20 July 2024 - Splendour in the Grass, Byron Bay NSW

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