Remember the "modern rock" hit "Little Bastard" by the Ass Ponys from some time in the mid-1990s? It was one of those quirky songs you couldn't believe they were playing on your favorite "alternative" radio station. This was in the time before Limp Bizkit and Godsmack and Crazy Town.
It was a cool song from a cool album on a major-label. It's been a while, but Ass Ponys are back with an album called Some Stupid With A Flare Gun ( Checkered Past ) . They're on an indie label now, but the music is still good ( no surprise there ) and still very much out there ( no surprise there either ) . When Chuck Cleaver sings "Walking in an open field/she comes across an ankle bone/takes it home and drills a hole/and wears it on a leather thong," the element of surprise doesn't exist. That's what makes the Ass Ponys so unique—the fact that these kinds of images find their way into their songs. When you get to potentially classic tracks, such as the moody "Your Amazing Life," the twangy "Swallow You Down," the bizarre and bouncy "X-tra Nipple," and the instrumental "Love Tractor," you know that the Ass Ponys' individuality is just one of the things that make them so special.
There must be something about bands from states that begin with the letter "O." The Ass Ponys are from Ohio and King Black Acid and the Starseed Transmission are from Oregon. On their album King Black Acid Loves A Love Song ( Cavity Search ) , they produce a sharp-edged pop that lulls you in and then hits you over the head until you're silly with sonic distortion, as is the case with all of the nearly nine and a half minutes of "Butterfly Bomber." King Black Acid tends to work in near-epic terms; half of the albums eight tracks are more than eight minutes in length ( with the longest clocking in at almost 12 and a quarter minutes ) . A shorter track, such as "Colorado ( Wherever You Are ) ," works well to balance the more massive musical moments.
With the exception of "The Albatross," the 10-minute opus that closes their album The Winter Is Coming ( Sugar Free ) , Elf Power tends to keep their songs short, if not necessarily sweet. In a variety of incarnations, over the course of almost 17 years, Elf Power is currently a quintet, with original members Laura Carter and Andrew Rieger still present. With a sprinkling of the Velvet Underground ( "Wings Of Light" ) , a dash of '60s British Invasion retro ( "The Naughty Villain" ) , and a scoop of '80s new wave ( "Skeleton" ) , Elf Power simultaneously warms and chills us.
Orbiter's Mini LP ( Loveless ) has an unintentional cruelty about it. It's a tease, with only six songs ( seven, including the reprise of the instrumental opening track "3 A.M." ) . So, why is it, that the albums on which you always skip tracks appear to be seemingly endless, when a disc as enjoyable as this one by Orbiter is over too soon. Orbiters Fiia McGann and Harris Thurmond have a distinctive way of getting their songs ( such as "Stray Dogs," "You," "Bribery," and "Paper Tiger" ) across with what sounds like a modest amount of effort, leaving us wanting more.
On Never You Mind ( Heroes & Villains/Vagrant ) by The New Amsterdams, acoustic emo isn't just a possibility, it's a reality. The proof is in tracks such as "Proceed With Caution," "Every Double Life," and "Slow Down," to name a few. Even when they plug in and rock out, as they do on "Goodbye," it doesn't diminish the grace of songs such as "Drama Queen," "Make Me Change My Mind," or their cover of the Afghan Whigs' "When We Two Parted."
Easily the most experimental album by the most experimental band in this column, Standards ( Thrill Jockey ) by Tortoise takes a couple of distracting minutes to get to what it was that made the band's previous disc, TNT, such a treasure. Call it post-rock or call it electronic fusion, whatever you do, just listen to it. It's the sound of the present being bounced off of the future. This is the kind of music that makes you want to jump up and down on your bed or dance on your next door neighbor's roof. It's like a rave on a subway car. Songs such as "Seneca" and "Eros" sound equally planned and improvised. "Six Pack" is sexy and satisfying, while "Eden 2" is what Adam and Eve might listen to before biting the apple again, while "Eden 1" is meant for the digestion dance.
