Tom Lynch

Only a few years ago, local post-punk foursome The Ponys were the absolute toast of the town with its inventive, effortlessly impressive brand of danceable, garage-tinted rock. The band's 2004 debut, "Laced with Romance," on Los Angeles label In the Red, was remarkably thrilling. Rich in texture and straight-up rock `n' roll formula, it found its way onto several best-of lists and made the band the one to watch.

There were changes. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Ian Adams (previously of glorious pop duo Happy Supply) decided to leave the band and the empty spot was eventually filled by 90 Day Men man Brian Case. The band released its follow-up, "Celebration Castle," also on In the Red, and while it didn't garner as much acclaim--or attention--as its predecessor, the record was still very strong in its instincts and flavor, more of a party record than the first and, as sophomore records go, a fine growth for the band, even if at times it felt a little disjointed.

The band grabbed the attention of New York label Matador Records, and late last year signed, with the release of its third record, "Turn the Lights Out," hitting shelves this upcoming March. The marriage is perfect--the venerable indie label, made famous by the early-nineties success of Pavement and Guided by Voices and still harboring indie-rock godfathers Yo La Tengo, Belle and Sebastian and Cat Power, is a fantastic counterpart for The Ponys' breathless, personality-filled style and substance. It's also the first band from Chicago to sign to Matador in, like, forever.

"Why not?" responds leader Jered Gummere when asked why the band decided to go with the label. "For us it was a great opportunity--they definitely have a lot more skills to help us move our band forward. Instead of going to a major and having our records never released, we wanted to go bigger, but maintain our band, still be our band, and get [records] put out."

"Turn the Lights Out," with its roaring and fun single "Double Vision," has the same exciting twists and turns of "Laced with Romance," but also the maturity of "Celebration Castle," plus more elemental, subdued bits, haunting moments and straightforward dance-your-ass-off pleasures. "I don't know if we had a set plan, but we had a lot of songs," Gummere says. "We wanted to make it sound really clean, but not overproduced--keep some balls to it, but add some quieter, different textures. Keep doing what we're doing."

He says being on the new label helps. "With Matador, we had more time to spend in the studio. The last record we did in five days. This one we had a little more than two weeks. We've never had a budget [before] where we could really go into a studio. It was great. You don't feel so rushed. If your voice doesn't feel [right], you can come back to it."

Gummere says the band doesn't feel any added pressure now that they've jumped labels. "Maybe we should," he laughs. "I definitely didn't want to turn in a bad record. I try not to think about those things--just make the record and see what would happen."

They are happy with the results, of course. "Right now, it's my favorite record," Gummere says. "We finally got to write new songs with Brian. But, you play the record, you get excited, and then you play it 150 times and you're sick of the songs."

The band has planned a big tour come March to coincide with the record's release, but play as part of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival, mostly in an effort to learn how to present the new songs live.

Gummere looks forward to the tour. "I get sick of Chicago, so we go on tour. But then we come back and I love it again."

The Rest of the Fest:

Along with the first Ponys performance in Chicago in more than six months, the Tomorrow Never Knows festival offers a few other fine bills to fill out the weekend. On Thursday Indianapolis' Margot & the Nuclear So and So's headline with its emotive alt-pop (Dr. Dog opens); Saturday sees local marching, near-vaudevillian act Mucca Pazza (the live show is feverishly entertaining) and indie-pop darlings Office; Sunday features Bound Stems in the headlining slot, whose "Appreciation Night" deserves much appreciation (Dirty on Purpose opens). All together, a nice weekend to check out some premier midwestern acts.

The Ponys play January 12 at Schubas, 3159 North Southport, (773)525-2508, at 9pm. $15.

(2007-01-09)

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