Pretendo

Consisting of members who have done time with Enon, Skeleton Key, Mono Puff, the DaoSon For, Creedle, Lesser Dog, Rugburns, Rust, and Morricone Youth, the N.Y.C. trio Pretendo are a minor supergroup that spouts out loud and tense rootsy indie rock with all the rawness of Mission of Burma or Superchunk. Teetering away from the strange experimentalism that propelled their prior projects, their songs are straightforward, albeit slightly angular and atonal, and the veterans are decidedly more in tune with the craft of constructing the perfect indie rock song, hook and all. John Castro and Devon E. Levins met as kids, and got their musical starts as teenagers in Las Vegas punk band aBeyance. Both moved to San Diego and played in separate bands before traveling to New York to form Morricone Youth and later the DaoSon For. They met Steve Calhoon, who had been drummer for Skeleton Key, a band known for its off-the-wall junkyard percussion sound, and had played drums on Enon's Believo! album. After Castro and Levins bribed him with some rare bootleg tapes to join the band, in 2005 the trio recorded its self-titled album, Pretendo. A year later, they started a six-month analog recording session for ][ (pronounced "two") with producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Helmet), released in 2007.