Pardoner

Bay Area quartet Pardoner fuses jagged, heavily distorted guitars with the tuneful drive of traditional indie rock, frequently pitting those elements against each other. Their balanced affection for melody and abrasion turned increasingly eccentric and daring with every recording, peaking in bold eccentricity on the third album, Came Down Different, issued in 2021, before exploring a turbulent clash of Devo-style riffs, slacker-pop melodies, and traces of abrasive hardcore on the 2023 release Peace Loving People.

School friends at San Francisco State University launched Pardoner in 2015. Guitarist-vocalists Max Freeland and Trey Flanigan joined drummer River van den Berghe and bassist Will Mervau in the first configuration. They began by performing at house shows and parties, crafting songs that echoed the noisy-yet-melodic approach of Sonic Youth, Polvo, and the Swirlies. Their first album, Uncontrollable Salvation, appeared in 2017, with the follow-up Playin' on a Cloud arriving two years later. Soon after that record’s release, Freeland moved from the United States to Canada, leaving the group inactive.

The musicians soon reconvened, adding bassist Colin Burris and devoting two studio days to expanding demos Freeland had created alongside the Vancouver band Dumb. Those sessions produced Came Down Different, which Bar/None issued in 2021. Pardoner delivered its fourth album, the 14-track Peace Loving People, in 2023; the set runs slightly longer than thirty minutes and features guest vocals by Sinclair Riley of the She's on multiple tracks.