Artist description Minneapolis-based noise-pop pioneers Polara recently released Jetpack Blues on the Susstones label, and its experimental textured songcraft is gathering critical lauds nationwide. Polara is led by noted songwriter / producer Ed Ackerson, whose deft hand has graced the boards on recent work from the Jayhawks, Juliana Hatfield, Matthew, Golden Smog and many others. The group, also featuring Jennifer Jurgens on keyboard, vocals and guitar, and Dan Boen on bass, specializes in delicious paradox: noise and melody, rock and electronic, pop and not-pop.

Music Style Rock

Musical Influences Rock

Artist History When Polara began in 1994 in Minneapolis, it was Ed Ackerson, a boy and his four track. Working with some bits of ancient electronics in a 9x11' front porch, he forged the unique partnership between a perfectly broken heart and a futurist pop vision. Over the successive years, Ackerson's travels have lent him new techniques, colleagues and gadgetry. But songs, experimentation and soul are still the center from which Polara radiate. Like their contemporaries, Polara specialize in delicious paradox: noise and melody, rock and electronic, pop and not-pop. They're part of a rich and varied international group of pop alchemists, melding emotion with ideas, traditional form and melody with sounds beamed back from the A.M. of the Future - think Spiritualized and Mercury Rev, Super Furry Animals and the Dandy Warhols. Polara have ridden a moebius strip from the very beginning, doing major league work on an indie budget, then creating indie-spirited music on a major label. They've been through the corporate funhouse of "modern rock"; they've also sold records out of the back of their van. With Jetpack Blues, they've jumped beyond the paradoxes, embracing noise and melody, artistry and emotion in the same coherent package. "Can't Get Over You," the first song on Jetpack Blues, sends the opening salvo, and it's a fresh, furious blast of hummable heartbreak. Tremolo and texture coat soaring pop and pummeling beats. It's clear a couple years in (not-so) quiet contemplation have given them not only a renewed sense of purpose, but a mission and a suite of songs that rank with the best. On the eve of the release of their fourth album, Polara's future looks as wide open as it did from Ed's front porch back in the day. A perpetual beginning. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Some background: After Ackerson's previous group the 27 Various dissolved, Ackerson went into a period of intense creativity. Freely experimenting with his 4-track and vintage gear, he started to sense a new direction. Ackerson invited some friends over to participate, including current Polara member Jennifer Jurgens, as well as Trip Shakespeare's Matt Wilson. A number of well-received 7" singles on the Minneapolis indie label Generator followed, and word began to spread. Their full-length debut LP, released on Clean/Restless in 1995, was widely hailed as a low-fi pop masterpiece. Soon enough, A&R scouts were flocking to the band. Caught right in the middle of the post-Nirvana "alternative rock" mania, Polara was pulled into a year-long major label bidding war. Signing with Interscope, the band saw its three releases for that label top college radio charts and win critical acclaim across the board. But Interscope submerged into its corporate parent and Polara moved into the studio to collect their thoughts and plan the next move. Off the road for the first time in a few years, Ackerson concentrated on bolstering his growing reputation as a record producer, working on a series of major label and indie projects. In 1998 he opened Flowers, a professional recording facility that has attracted clients such as the Jayhawks (with Ackerson working with classic rock legend Bob Ezrin on their most recent release Smile), the Blake Babies' John Strohm and Juliana Hatfield, Matthew, Golden Smog, and the Mason Jennings Band, as well as countless local Minneapolis acts. Ackerson has also developed his indie label Susstones into a cutting edge multimedia cooperative, http://www.susstones.com. Susstones is dedicated to nurturing and promoting ahead-of-the-curve music, video and animation in today's strangely exciting post-major label environment. Susstones also serves as Polara's Internet base and showcases artists such as Astronaut Wife, Robert Skoro, Basement Apartment, Sideways, and Christian Erickson. In every other waking minute, Ackerson and bandmates Jennifer Jurgens and Dan Boen have been fashioning the songs of Jetpack Blues. On the propulsive single "Is This It," a grandly catchy pop hook rides a cresting wave of guitars and a heady undercurrent of beats. Its compelling mix of pop songwriting, psychedelic textures and electronic music evokes the best of Creation Records' releases. And on the "Jetpack Blues" single, Ackerson uses the power of soul to transcend alienation within a shifting background of noise and groove. Song by song, the record is simultaneously deeply evocative and defiantly modern. No longer in the slow motion world of a big label, Polara has proven free again to experiment, dream, and dare. The new album is made up of the resulting spontaneous sounds and ideas, collected and embedded in Ackerson's strongest songwriting yet. Diverse yet coherent, it's a pop masterwork, as refined in its sonic scope as it's rough around the edges. It is, finally, uniquely and singularly Polara.

Group Members Ed Ackerson (vocals, guitar, bass, organ, piano, synth, programming, loops, percussion), Jennifer Jurgens (vocals, guitars, piano, organ, synthesizers), Dan Boen (bass, synthesizers, programming)

Location Minneapolis, Minnesota - USA

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