Ponytail

If you could bottle Ponytail’s essence and sell it you would be sure to make millions. Their music is incredibly infectious and uplifting with a high wire intensity that leaves the listener gasping just from listening to the band’s madcap antics. Antics that include marrying classic rock riffs with experimental rock blow outs and Molly Siegel’s demented screeching, wailing, whooping and hollering.

Their just released second album ‘Ice Cream Spiritual’ is as colourful as its cover. The noise they make is a mass of happy contradictions. They are as accessible and catchy as they are weird and unpredictable. Ponytail are as tight as they are spontaneously freewheeling. At their very best they are a pure sonic sugar rush but without all the tooth rotting nastiness of Coca Cola and Mars Bars. It really wouldn’t be surprising if the genre skewing four-piece “were randomly put together by a professor at the art school where we all went” as they claim. Randomness or perceived randomness is an important aspect of Ponytail. Alongside Siegel is drummer Jeremy Hyman and the twin guitar assault of Ken Seeno and (Ecstatic Sunshine member) Dustin Wong.

Candy coloured shards of Perspex fly about with reckless abandon. And yet it isn’t completely reckless or abandoned. The impressive intricacy of the band never sounds contrived or laboured, just another aspect of the bands wondrously joyful sound. Ponytail are a supremely proficient band in total control of their art. Amongst Seeno and Wong’s duelling guitars and Siegel’s vocalising lies Hyman’s rumbling, tumbling drumming that switches rapidly from thudding to tricksy in the blink of an eye. Molly Siegel’s presence could be a deal breaker for many people repelling as many as it attracts. What she does and why she does makes no sense and every sense even if you think she is an integral part of the band.

The band’s hometown Baltimore is very important to them, “it is our home! It's very important and we also have many friends in Baltimore.” Baltimore seems to be the new US indie-rock mecca. Dan Deacon, Ecstatic Sunshine, Beach House and Thank You just a sample of the diverse talent oozing out of the place. Ponytail worked with fellow Baltimore resident and punk rock legend J. Robbins on their latest album. J. Robbins is “an incredibly humble and hardworking person - we love him. It was great!” Robbins typically clean production allows every nuance, pretty little melody and the exuberantly spazzy rhythms to shine.

Ponytail’s boundless energy and enthusiasm will provide an instant hit, both musical and physical, to anyone fortunate enough to succumb to the band’s countless charms. Fall enthralled to the ‘Ice Cream Spiritual’.