Passion Pit

Rocketship to Mars

By DAVID DAY

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"By the end of the summer, I think we're making an appearance on late night TV," says Passion Pit member Ayad Al Adhamy, hinting at the big big things ahead for our locally grown supergroup. "I'm not sure about it, but I think we're gonna be making a late night appearance before the summer's up."

As he repeats himself, it's obvious the stunning rise of Cambridge's Passion Pit has taken the entire band by surprise. Since the release of their full length, Manners, it is safe to say the group is the hottest, most-hyped band on earth. It's not an understatement, either. "I guess the hypemeter is kind of really shocking, but we're working hard," he says from a diner in San Francisco where the group has stopped to eat breakfast. Naturally, the band found out pretty quickly touring the world is in fact very hard work. "One time, while they were loading in, we wandered off by accident and I got my ass kicked. It's, like, a real job," he says. "You have to be places, but then you get to have fun and get drunk on duty, so it works out."

Lead singer and songwriter Michael Angelakos is saving his voice, so the jovial Al Adhamy is taking up a lot of interview duties. "I was on London radio, on XFM," he says of a station he worshipped as a child growing up in London. "They were like, 'Yeah, you have an interview with them, you're on in five seconds.' I was just like, 'OK!'"

As another sign of their ascent, Al Adhamy had not even been to an outdoor music festival until the band was playing at the huge Sasquatch! festival. "Playing it then hanging out was just amazing," he says. "I just walked around, went to the back and looked at the beautiful view. I stayed for the whole time and was the last person to leave."

Drummer Nate Donmoyer (aka Shuttle) has already remixed the group's lead single, "The Reeling," to massive effect, and, like fellow electro-popsters Hot Chip, they all plan on doing remixes under the Passion Pit moniker. The Dig was allowed access to a recent hair-raising rework of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll," and Al Adhamy is noodling with some remixes on the road. "That'll probably be done in April of next year," he says. "The next time I have three weeks off."

The exposure has led to some very high-profile reviews. Rolling Stone called it "a shiny bouquet of synth-pop roses," indie site Pitchfork gave it an 8.1 and, much to Al Adhamy's glee, they got dissed by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker ("This is basically Justice ... as played by born-again Christians"). When I tell him Time Out New York compared them to the Bee Gees, he's delighted. "That's amazing, man, the Bee Gees are one of my favorite bands of all time. That's a huge compliment."

The group has hastily made plans to move their homebase to Brooklyn, for the sake of travel, TV appearances and the like, but the window to do so lasts about 10 days at the end of June. "Then hit the road and the airplanes for another ... until March, maybe?" he says.

"I think the only time we have off is on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day."

PASSION PIT

WITH HARLEM SHAKES

AND CALE PARKS

THURSDAY 6.19.09

PARADISE ROCK CLUB

967 COMM. AVE.

BOSTON

617.562.8800

8PM/18+/SOLD OUT

THEDISE.COM

MYSPACE.COM/PASSIONPITJAMS