Sam Kogon was born in Poughkeepsie New York; a native of New York’s mid-Hudson valley (site of the currently hopping Kingston and Hudson scenes), Kogon’s family has owned a pawn shop for over 100 years, perhaps accounting for the unstable and fritzed out guitar tones in evidence all over Psychic Tears. The record balances its embarrassment of exquisite melodies with a nasty punk urgency and lots of sonic horseplay, speaking to the rich contradictions