Mount Pleasant isn’t…just a location.
A recent post on Altered Zones featured a New Zealand group sporting the same name as one of D.C.’s most charming neighborhoods. The band’s acoustic cover of Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams”—spacey and droney with high-pitched vocals—is what caught the attention of the Pitchfork sister site, which focuses on “leftfield pop, experimental, and home-recorded sounds.” I’d tell you why the site liked it, but the post is in French.
Other Mount Pleasant tracks sound sorta like their website looks: ambient and washed-out (with strange graphics and tiny font). “Summer Cut” is almost three minutes of looped, shimmery noise while “Sussudio” is a little more upbeat (but still fuzzy).
I declare no resemblance between our Mount Pleasant and the one from New Zealand. The latter can’t boast Pica Taco, the 42 bus, or Ian MacKaye. New Zealand’s Mount Pleasant could not be reached explain how it chose its name, but it might have borrowed it from a suburb of Christchurch.