Ponytail

• Kamehameha [Creative Capitalism, 2007] A-
• Ice Cream Spiritual! [We Are Free, 2008] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Kamehameha [Creative Capitalism, 2007]
From B-more, careening off the shimmering artsy guitar compositions and blatting artsy guitar noises of Dustin Wong's "Ecstatic Sunshine," comes 26 minutes of kiddie-pop hardcore no wave assault/playground game/initiation ritual fronted by the reportedly tiny young Molly Siegel tinily shrieking what the band claims to be lyrics even though only Siegel knows what they are (we hope). If you're thinking Deerhoof, so have others, all of whom are wrong. If you're thinking annoying brats, they could make you testy. They make me chuckle, in amusement and aesthetic delight. A-

Ice Cream Spiritual! [We Are Free, 2008]
Statistics, statistics. DIY debut: 10 songs, 27 minutes. Yeasayer-financed follow-up: eight songs in 34 minutes. So even excluding the 7:00-exactly "Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)," means track length here is up 32 seconds. The sound is bigger too, strengthening a band that's all guitars-drums-vocals sonics--including Molly Siegel's yelping vocables, without which the sound's faux-tween soul and wise-ass tempo shifts would evanesce into abstraction. But down in the basement, prog is building a playhouse. And if the band catches on the way it deserves, that hideout will start looking like a castle. A-