Pond Announce New Album ‘9’, Share New Single ‘America’s Cup’

May 20, 2021

Fremantle psych-rockers and Tame Impala associates Pond have returned with news of their ninth studio album – aptly titled 9. The new record will arrive Friday, 1st October via Spinning Top.

Produced by the band themselves, and it looks like it’ll see the quintet wriggling out of their comfort zone a little. “We sort of gave ourselves permission to make something stuffed this time,” explains frontman Nick Allbrook.

“We’d settled into a pretty tight routine with the last few albums and wanted to shake a boat with this so we started off with filling a few tape reels with some absolutely heinous improvised sonic babble which, after much sifting, became the first few songs of the album.”

To coincide with the news, the band have shared new single ‘America’s Cup’. Similar to previous single ‘Pink Lunettes’, it’s a groove-heavy cut that veers closer into funk territory than the sprawling psychedelia of 2017’s The Weather.

Allbrook says the latest is “about Fremantle before Alan Bond gave the big ball of gentrification its final shove, when it was cheap and harsh… It’s also about blokes being different versions of whatever the hell we’ve been taught we’re supposed to be.”

‘America’s Cup’ arrives alongside a striking video directed by frequent collaborator Kristofski – watch that below. The band have also announced they’ll head over to the east coast for a handful of headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne next month before returning home for a pair of rescheduled co-headline dates with Methyl Ethel in Perth.

See tour dates below. Tickets go on sale next Friday, 28th May. If you pre-order 9 from the band’s online store this week, you’ll also be registered for a pre-sale kicking off 9am on Wednesday, 26 May.