Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Melodic Post-Punk noise with screeching? Go on then., 6 Jan 2009
Having read the previous review I had some reservations about this one, but decided to plump for it anyway, and feel quite vindicated and not a little titillated. I'll agree that the two latter tracks in that review probably do test your patience, but given that 'Celebrate...' is by far the longest track on the album and still keeps me riveted despite sounding periodically like the shrill, brutal soundtrack to some anime commercial for a Japanese kids' cereal, if you like your punk breathless, pounding and intermittently melodic, welcome! For those of you still trepid: imagine if you will a frantic Life Without Buildings jamming with Boredoms and the Pixies aboard a Shinkansen, and consider yourselves sufficiently warned. Enjoy.
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5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
While i admire the bands singular approach i cannot warm to the music, 15 Sep 2008
Those of us who have kids can probably imagine this analogy better than those who don't but bear with me here. It's pertinent...honestly. Imagine if you will -you have a house full of screaming skittish brats running around everywhere .That noise they make. The discordant , chaotic aural assault that makes you feel like you would physically hug the next bout of silence if only you could .That's what it's like listening to Ice Cream Spiritual ( the noisiness not the silence) It made me long for silence.
The pandemonium largely emanates from singer Molly Siegel's non-traditional vocal style (essentially a series of shrieks, coos, howls and whinnies, screeches and falsetto yelps), while the rest of the band (two guitarists and a drummer, no bass) flagellate stop-start tempos that swoop and career around very rarely coming to rest. You could try singing along but I wouldn't recommend it as you would probably dislocate your lips.
I found the lack of bass to be a problem for a start. The music is consequently extremely trebly with no rhythmic grounding so it, scurries round the high range riffs and arrangements in a blur of high range clanging cacophonous chords that leave no impression other than a metallic taste in your mouth and a piercing ache behind the eyeballs.
Occasionally some indiscriminate element grabs the attention away from the drill bit shenanigans. "Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From An Angel)" has discernible backing harmonies and recalls The Pixies circaSurfer Rosa when they were at their most elemental and wired. The frenzied riffs on the charmingly monikered "Sky Drool" are invigorating as well. Then you hear a complete mess like "Late For School" which sounds like the band rehearsing next to a torture chamber from the film "Quentin Tarantino Presents : Hostel [2005] [2006]" and your ear drums wince while "Small Wevs" would make a ferret itch.
I can admire the bands singular approach and total lack of compromise in making in their music, In fact I do admire it ..greatly .Unfortunately the end result is more likely to result in increased sales for "Advil" than increased sales for Ponytail.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Petulant Punk, 7 May 2009
If unintelligible noise-pop, peculiar samples and indiscernible shrieks and bubbles of vocal are your thing, you may enjoy Ice Cream Spiritual! Conversely, you may not. These cooler-than-you Americans come on like musical terrorists Deerhoof, splicing the odd hook into their brand of arty and generally aimless post-punk and punk-funk (Die Allman Bruder, for example). The expected cowbell accompaniment never arrives however, for that was then and Ponytail aim for now.
Sadly, they fail to create a niche of their own, recalling (m)any Japanese noise-rockers, and the yelping and pointy guitars that pique the interest early on quickly become wearisome. That said, there are plus points: the album's energy and its refusal to kowtow to being anything other than it wants. Siegel's vocal is a condensation of petulance, her musical backdrop a collection of art-punk whimsy. It all clatters in discordance, yet just keeps its head above water, and that is an art in itself.
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