Pontius Pilate Sales Pitch

Pontius Pilate Sales Pitch is a radical noir group featuring Nate Kelley (Divest/solo project) and Morgan Evans (vocalist for Divest).

PPSP's songs for the debut "Sense & Judgement" tell the story of a murder in an apartment tenement, an alcoholic lovesick detective with a Don Quixote-like heroic complex and the people in the building; dead man, widow, murderer and slumlord. Somehow mostly all composed in April of '04 in a blitzkrieg weekend, it defies banality. The music is heartfelt, progressive and an emotional synthesis of Morgan and Nate's long friendship and struggles. A blend of powerpop, punk, emo and the best elements of conceptual storytelling, it is the work of experienced and longtime members of the Kingston-Woodstock, NY rock scene.

Morgan Evans booked shows there for years featuring bands like 3, Dripping Goss and Shabutie and Nate Kelley was the five year drummer for Shabutie/Coheed before leaving under the pressures of fatherhood (fyi: Hear Nate play on the "Delirium Trigger" and "33" tracks on the debut CoCa EVR cd "The Second Stage Turbine Blade").

Eventually, though, Nate realized he couldn't stop making music and joined Morgan first in DIVEST and then Pontius Pilate Sales Pitch.

Recently guitarist Kirk Hansen has been added to the fold of official band members, an indie rock-savant who brings yet another level of completion, craftsmanship and intensity to these songs.

Drummer Justin Zipperle is a superb drummer who previously beat the skins in the popular underground band Apolline.

PPSP have recorded most of a debut, Sense And Judgment, at Dark World Studio in Upstate NY. The rest is forthcoming.

Morgan and Nate's past band DIVEST were the first group picked and produced by Dr Know of the legendary BAD BRAINS for his FKM Records label, an enterprise which never got off the ground financially. An unreleased debut was recorded at Applehead Studios (Codeseven, Coheed, Straylight Run). Nate used to intern there and even played drums with George Clinton once during a session up there. Dr Know did put out a DIVEST 7" though, available at FKMrecords.com. This line up did not feature Nate however who rejoined DIVEST later as he had left that band as well for a few years.

DIVEST played with Bad Brains, Murphy's Law, Red Tape, Nora, 3, Coheed, Unearth, Boysetsfire, Crisis, Vaux, All Out War, Codeseven, Anadivine, The SmashUp and Cipher to name a few.

The DIVEST/FKM contract eventually defaulted and all parties parted amicably as the investment money originally hoped for from Caroline never materialized. PPSP are still friendly with Dr Know, however.

DIVEST then went on hiatus and the guitarist Dave Parker (also of Weerd Science) joined Coheed & Cambria as their touring keyboardist for the Good Apollo LP.

The band name Pontius Pilate Sales Pitch is not anti-Jesus, more an examination of the weight and wake of daily social decisions. Nate was thinking about the film the Passion and how you didn't even have to sell the idea of crucifying people (and similarities in non-analytical types and torture today). The name choice was also influenced by Morgan's rabid appreciation of the famed Novel "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov, which features Pontius Pilate and was the book Jagger read when he wrote "Sympathy For The Devil."

Welcome to the scene of the crime...the start of something special.