I saw Ponytail at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday. On the way home, I walked into the N/R Canal train station, and saw:

I watched these hieroglyphs, let their untranslatable code broadcast to me, tattoo my brain, ignoring the impulse to make it all mean. They impacted me, in a way I can’t articulate, those blue wriggles, shapes, lines; their motion, design. I stood there a long time, happy.

It was much like what I had just seen onstage at the Knit: Ponytail’s Molly Siegel reveling in pure throated sound — no discernible words, just grinning yowl. Relieving me of the need for mouthed sound to mean, to be locked in language. The band’s restless tumult lodging in a wild knot inside me, unraveling throughout my torso in warm ribbons.

Seeing Ponytail live tosses the reins of reason out of your hands, suspends thought, replaces it with inarticulate joy.

I stood in the pit & let sound & shout dapple me, like I was a giant window collecting thousands of multicolored leaves, asking not to be washed, becoming such wild autumn.

(click for detail)

Four bands played Mercury Lounge last night: War on Drugs, Abe Vigoda, Ponytail, and Titus Andronicus (in that order). One band was just competent, one veered from boring to embarrassing, and the other two made me deeply, ecstatically grateful to have ears & eyes.

I won’t waste much time on the two bands that didn’t much move me (sorry Titus & W.O.D. fans) — the net’s clogged full of enough art-venom and musicblog-spew as it is. If an artist has at least a small talent and some passion, no matter how misguided or tired the product is, least I can do is hold back on snark and say (next to) nothing at all. Let blogo-Sneerers do the rest.

Abe V came on second. I was all grins as the L.A. foursome powered into their set with spiky change-up prunk. Love the delay & reverb on the rhythm guitar, the disjunct & nervy lead lines, the elemental, fragmented imagery & hail of language (”men from the boys I’m a girl I’m a tree”, “hope is a white hand that moves through my body”), and the drumming, the drumming, the drumming. With all the hyper time changes this band puts your ear through, it’s important for them to have someone behind a drumset who can lead the time spasms — and Vigoda’s drummer, Reggie Guerrero, does. He’s the band’s calm, focused storm-eye. Such a kinetic set. Left my ears in static blizzard and my feet sore from bouncing.

Ears & feet got no rest once Ponytail came on. If yr gush-sensitive, stop reading now, since anything I say about this band is going to seem ridiculously hyperbolic unless you’ve seen Molly Siegel, beaming & transported, her face alive with expressions as wild and uninhibited as the band’s raucous-joyous assault — her vocal chords too, swooping all over wordless terrain — and her body facing you in half-crouch stance, mixing challenge & grateful embrace of the band’s sound with arms held out, palms up.

Arms out, palms up. Like she’s offering her band’s galeforce sound out of her body to you in some giant neon yarn-boulder — or summoning the same from the sky to catch. Ponytail made me really fucking glad to be alive. If you want a band to tornado you into exhaustion and then smile really sweetly over your panting body, find these folks in a town near you & come ready to play. You’ll be shaky with wild magic; you’ll be ready to pull teats down from clouds & make them give up their secret mango milk.

Hope is a white hand.
Arms out, palms up.
   

Hear Ponytail: www.myspace.com/jreamteam
Hear Abe Vigoda: www.myspace.com/abevigoda
Hear Titus Andronicus: www.myspace.com/titusandronicus
Hear War on Drugs: www.myspace.com/thewarondrugs

   
C. Way/ SnailCrow.com © 2008

Recorded percussion (foot taps on base of mic stand + tapping on guitar body) first, then played with some slide over that. Topped it with egg shaker and some vocals and whistling at the end. I had fun playing with this piece.

Hope you enjoy –
   

C. Way - Semi-Impromptu No. 6

Thought I’d bundle two new exercises in one post.

Impromptu No. 5 (”Never Know”) is fairly upbeat. As is typical for me lately, some spontaneous vocalizing right away.

Semi-Impromptu No. 5 (”Nests”) is a darker affair. First track was totally improvised, me on rhythm, spontaneous vocals, tapping the microphone stand with my foot to create the bass-effects. Then I overlaid the guitar line, added some echo, edited a little, and tripled the initial track to end up with what I have below.

Thanks for listening!

C.Way - Impromptu No. 5 (”Never Know”)
   

C.Way - Semi-Impromptu No. 5 (”Nests”)

All recorded in one take. The only manipulation was a fade out at the end and tripling the original track for more depth.

Lots of music tumbling out lately. Thanks for all your support.

C. Way - Impromptu No. 4 (”Red Sun”)

I worked out the theme to this last night and immediately set to recording it. I doubled the track, added some foot-stomps and eggshaking, and a little vocal, cleaned up some errors (again, thus the “semi”). I hope to do some actual impromptus, warts and all, soon.

Feel free to download and share. Let me know what you think! Stay out of the sun, it’s blistering out here in upper Manhattan.

C. Way - Semi-Impromptu No.4 - (”Rising, not Waking”)