Tom Lynch

Last year's "Laced with Romance," Chicago-based sixties-infused garage-rock quartet The Ponys' first full-length, took everything we had to give for a local band making its rise to the top of the heap of hipster bands that probably formed after a night of drinking at the Rainbo Club.

Sure, we support our neighborhood talent, we attend countless shows at the Empty Bottle or Double Door, we tell all of our friends about the next big record. But the best part of The Ponys, what is making it a Chicago jewel, garnering critical salutes from high sailors like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, and sending it on tour with climbers Bloc Party? The band's good. Really good.

"I don't know, when you're on tour with a whole record you get tired of playing the songs over and over again," says guitarist/vocalist Jered Gummere of The Ponys' new record, "Celebration Castle," released just one year after its predecessor. "A lot of bands wait too long to release a record. We just wanted to get it out there." "Celebration Castle," a raw, garage-heavy ten-song laser that burns a wound-hole only to heal it up instantly with its heat, was recorded with Steve Albini. "It was pretty awesome," says Gummere of the experience. "[He had] the most awesome mics I'd ever seen in my whole life, and probably ever will."

The Ponys took a hit recently when original guitarist/keyboardist Ian Adams decided to leave the group a few months ago. "We definitely panicked," Gummere says. Especially when people were like, `You have a new record coming out, you gotta get this and that done,' I was like, `What? We're out a member!'" But after a night at Rainbo, Brian Case of 90 Day Men enlisted. "The first time we practiced with Brian we were pretty stoked," says Gummere. "The Metro show [with Bloc Party in March] was only his second show with us, and that was a big one, you know, and it went really well."

Has the local music scene changed for him between records? "I don't know, I enjoy Chicago," Gummere says. "I meet a lot of people. For me, you just go out, the scene blends together. I haven't really noticed anything different. Bands come and go."

With "Celebration Castle," The Ponys won't go anywhere but up.

The Ponys play a CD-release party at Double Door on April 29.

(2005-04-26)

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