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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Song / Upcoming Pony Time - "What If You Caught Me"

Posted by Kathy Fennessy on Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 1:39 PM

Per Se Records
Credit: Emily Denton

It's been awhile since a local band has captured my fancy quite like Pony Time. The new single, "What If You Caught Me," explains why better than I ever could. He may look like a guy, but guitar player Luke Beetham sings like a girl, and I mean that in the best possible way. Not a girly-girl, but a tough, leather-clad lady like Cherie Currie or Joan Jett.

"Androgynous" might be the more appropriate term—and Jett once covered the minor-key Replacements ballad of the same name—except I honestly thought a woman was singing the first time I heard the PT song, and I find no shame in that game. It certainly didn't hold Jimmy Scott back.

In any case, Beetham and drummer Stacy Peck don't actually recall the Runaways, but I could just as easily see them playing with that band at a Sunset Strip dive in the '70s as a London club with the Milkshakes in the '80s as a sold-out stadium with the White Stripes in the '90s. And yeah, it's partly the two-person configuration, since they otherwise eschew Jack White's blues-based constructs in favor of a Link Wray-like fuzzy, driving beat, which means they'd fit as comfortably on the In the Red roster as Thee Oh Sees or the Dirtbombs.

My favorite part of the press release for their new album:

Sure, Pony Time shows are sticky, good time dance parties, but
the band also cares a lot about: Star Trek: The Next Generation,
LGBTQ rights, feminism, hair pomade, cats, and candy.

If you missed it the first time around, Emily posted the video for "Geordie" here.

Per Se Records releases Go Find Your Own on Feb 19. Record release show takes place at Black Lodge on Feb 22 with Ononos, Haunted Horses, and Chastity Belt.

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@6 Pretty much. In the press notes, Beetham is credited with bass and baritone guitar.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy

on February 13, 2013 at 5:36 PM

The new record is still mostly bass and drums, right?

Posted by Bree Mckenna on February 13, 2013 at 4:22 PM

@2 @3 You know (I think) how much I worship that band. Hadn't made the connection, but now I'm even more curious to hear the whole record.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy

on February 13, 2013 at 10:26 AM

Heh. Yep.

Posted by Estey on February 13, 2013 at 6:08 AM

Or just Sweet!

Posted by ratzkywatzky on February 12, 2013 at 3:10 PM

God, I love how it could be from the 60s (beat group bomp, brevity, and cymbal bash), 70s (near-bubblegum early-glamminess), 80s (drum cracks and post-punk pout), and ... um, that's plenty of decades' greatness distilled right there. Sweeeeet.

Posted by Estey on February 12, 2013 at 2:42 PM