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Making 'catchy and memorable' music

The band has a few scattered shows this summer, including a free one Saturday at Morgan's Pier.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart playing here.

By Steve Klinge, For The Inquirer

Posted: July 13, 2012

'Honestly, even if you love a band, how many records by the same band do you want to hear?" asks Kip Berman.

An existential question coming from someone contemplating making a third album. Berman's band, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, have made two excellent records of bright and buzzy indie-pop, overtly indebted to the '80s bands on small labels such as Creation, Sarah, and Postcard. Songs like "Heart in Your Heartbreak" and "Teenager in Love" are succinct and immediate gems, unabashedly melodic but noisy with brash guitars.

"I think our attitude toward writing is like the Ramones': Sing some stuff, then the chorus, then sing some other stuff then sing the chorus again and then have a little bridge and then sing the chorus twice," Berman says. It's the day after the Brooklyn band played the CBGB Festival at a free show in Central Park with Guided by Voices and Philly's War on Drugs. "I know that sounds almost anticreative, but I think what makes pop music great is that it does have a form and you can play around with things within that framework, as long as you can get 31/2 minutes of music that's catchy and memorable."

Belong, their second album of catchy and memorable songs, came out in March 2011, and they spent most of the following year touring the world. Now, the quintet is mulling its next record ("Nothing's booked; we don't want to Guns N' Roses it," Berman says). They're playing a few scattered shows this summer, including a free gig Saturday night at Morgan's Pier, the new Delaware Avenue waterfront beer garden.

Located at the site of the former Rock Lobster, Morgan's Pier features music booked by R5's Sean Agnew and Making Time's Dave Pianka. It offers free outdoor shows early on Saturday evenings: Fang Island and Jukebox the Ghost are soon to be appearing. Guest DJs do sets on weekends; Canada's Junior Boys spin Friday; the Roots' ?uestlove comes next week.

Berman grew up in the Philly suburbs and says he's been going to shows Sean Agnew's put on since he was in high school, and he's eager to play the free outdoor show. He's also eager to have band practice again, to "just work on new songs and see if they're good or bad." There's that third album to worry about.

"You want to make sure the ones that you make are really good and different enough and special enough and are worthwhile," Berman says. "Even some of my favorite bands, I just come back to one or two records over and over again. It seems unfair, but I think that's how a lot of people digest music. They'll like a band and they love two records and maybe a handful of singles, but you can't be so presumptuous that anyone's going to care about your every thought or action."

But one of the joys of pop music is that there's always a new way to write a catchy, memorable song - and the hope that the next song will be even better than the last.

"I don't think we've written a perfect one yet," Berman says.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play 5 p.m. Saturday at Morgan's Pier, 221 N. Columbus Blvd. Free. Information: 215-279-7134, www.morganspier.com.