Biography

Purling Hiss grew from a scuzzy solo project from Philadelphia guitarist and songwriter Mike Polizze into a full-on band, bringing new dimensions to Polizze's screaming but surprisingly catchy updates to '90s grunge pop. In its power trio form, Purling Hiss tapped into post-Nirvana slacker guitar rock on 2013's Water on Mars, more classic rock sounds on 2016's High Bias, and returned with a rollicking and high-energy synthesis of the two for 2023 album Drag On Girard. Polizze first appeared under the name Purling Hiss in 2009 with a self-released, self-titled CD-R. He played all the instruments and recorded the six fuzzy, corrosive pop songs himself at home as a recording-only project. As part of the heavy psych group Birds of Maya, Polizze played in and around the Philly indie scene, sharing stages with contemporaries like Kurt Vile and the War on Drugs while working on Purling Hiss songs in his basement studio. Following his debut recordings, Polizze went on to release records with various indie labels, including 2010's Public Service Announcement on Woodsist Records, 2011's Lounge Lizards EP on Mexican Summer, and a handful of other cassette and EP releases. In 2013, Polizze expanded Purling Hiss into a power trio, and the newly collaborative three-piece entered a proper studio to record Water on Mars. The album's distorted, introspective tunes were more pop-oriented than anything the band had done before, and the album was released in 2013 on Drag City. The next year, while fans waited for a new album, Drag City reissued the early tour CD Dizzy Polizzy on vinyl, going as far back into Polizze's archive as possible for songs recorded between 2004 and 2009, a time just predating Purling Hiss. A proper follow-up to Water on Mars arrived in September 2014 in the form of Weirdon. That record continued the band's lovingly bent appropriation of '90s grunge and melodic slacker pop. High Bias, another set of noisy but melodic, FM radio-informed rock, was released by Drag City in 2016. From there, Purling Hiss went silent for a time while Polizze regrouped with his Birds of Maya cohort for the release of 2019's Valdez, their first album in six years. In 2020, Polizze released Long Lost Solace Find, a beautiful set of acoustic folk tunes and his first album issued under his given name. It wasn't long before Purling Hiss picked back up, however, returning in 2023 with fourth studio-recorded album Drag On Girard. The band worked again with Drag City to release the album, and they built on their now-standard grunge pop template, bringing more of a Dinosaur Jr.-styled guitar attack to the eight rowdy and upbeat songs. Drag On Girard was released in late March of 2023. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi