Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Ponytail

Ice Cream Spiritual

Label: We Are Free Release Date: 21/06/2008

40376
TinPanAl by Alex Denney July 25th, 2008

Apparently gathered together in 2005 at the behest of a local poet without prior introduction, Ponytail’s creation story – mythical or otherwise – bypasses the usual tale of like-minded souls hunkered down in the face of adversity in a way that either portends directionless drivel or improbable genius.

Whatever their original intentions, the Baltimore quartet have certainly struck upon an apposite title for their second album, Ice Cream Spiritual. At once mystical and irredeemably silly, their sound invokes a more transcendentally-inclined Deerhoof or, for the obscurists, a more expansive Agaskodo Teliverek.

Like an unexpected fist in the face from a five-year-old, Ponytail’s boisterous pop-punk jams are saved from saccharine overkill with some unexpectedly tight hooks, plus a paradoxical, feathery lightness of touch that makes their music feel orgasmically flush even at its churningest and most densely impenetrable.

For this we have to thank a certain limber sketchiness evident in Ken Seeno’s guitar work, which occasionally resembles Sunset Rubdown’s finickier moments, plus Molly Siegel’s non-verbalised vocal whoops and hollers, which seem exclamatory rather than interpretive in any premeditated way and convey the excitement inherent in the music surprisingly well.

The opening one-two of ‘Beg Waves’ and ‘G Shock’ strike a solid balance between fitful noise and concise melodies, while unusually for ones so obviously schooled in the wayward art of messthetics they remember to close out on a high, ‘Die Allman Bruder’’s exuberantly marshalled tumult bringing to mind a hippy-dippy counterpart to Trans Am’s abstract post-punk.

Ecstatically de trop in the stickiest possible sense, Ice Cream Spiritual’s breathless harping on a somewhat peripheral vision goes to show that, while a little forethought wouldn’t go amiss, it’s sometimes best just to give the baby the rattle and shake well before consuming.

  • 7
    Alex Denney's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

CSS

Donkey

Mobback
40364
40365

One Day As A Lion

One Day As A Lion EP

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND