Pontius Pilate Sales Pitch was started in April 2004 by Morgan Y. Evans, former singer for Hudson Valley, NY rock juggernaut Divest, and Nate Kelley, former drummer for Shabutie. Nate was also a former band mate of Morgan's in Divest, off and on, throughout the years. Divest worked with Dr. Know of Bad Brains when they were signed to his record label, FKM, and finished work on a full length LP, Ghost Town Reckoning, with Coheed and Cambria/The Sleeping producers Mike Birnbaum and Chris Bittner in 2003 before ultimately disbanding. Nate did not participate in that incarnation of the band, however. Nate and Morgan had been friends since 1990 and their earliest bands played side-by-side for nearly a decade within the Woodstock/Kingston music scene, and although they had previously worked together in Divest, PPSP was the first project in which the two embarked on realizing a vision that was completely their own.
The initial goal of PPSP was to write and record a mainly acoustic LP, Sense and Judgment (When the Body is Cold). Each of the songs were told through the eyes of each of the key witnesses in a noir-themed homicide story taking place in a tenement. The main characters that surface throughout the record are the wife of the deceased, the landlord/slumlord of the building, the murderer himself, and an alcoholic, love-sick detective.
However, when both of the bands that Morgan and Nate were playing in split up in 2005, their focus turned to expanding, both, the material and the line-up for PPSP in order to morph the the once acoustic project into a full-fledged band. Kirk Hansen was the first to join, helping to fill out the sound by adding additional guitars to the mix. Nate and Kirk had previous musical experience together in a band called The Eviction Directive, so Kirk was a natural choice. Then the task of finding a fitting rhythm section was tackled when Justin Zipperle joined on drums and newfound friend, Seth Bulkin, completed the line-up on bass in 2006. Justin and PPSP parted ways in 2008 and Nate drummed for the band briefly until officially calling it quits in early 2009.
Kirk Hansen, Morgan Evans, and Zac Shaw now play together in a project called Acid Arrow and Morgan has also been working on a completely solo venture called Walking Bombs. Nate Kelley releases solo material under the project name Friend vs. Faux and also with his fiance, Deena, in The Widow Capet in the off-time from finishing his degree in Mathematics. Kirk Hansen also plays with ex-Eviction Directive bassist Brandon Annabel in a band called Ball Turret and Seth Bulkin now plays with the Brooklyn-based band Blackbells. Justin Zipperle also has a newly formed project called The Blind Ambassadors.
Photo by Yvonne Allaway.
BUY PPSP SHIRTS!!!
"Sense And Judgment" Tee (Green)
"I Am The Perfect Neighbor" Tee (Black)
$12 + $3 shipping.
Make sure to specify which size you want!
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Here's us covering "Willoughbe" by Dripping Goss with them last April!
