UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/01/2013.
Enjoy, NØ.
Another band that would eventually be a member of the Trance Syndicate family was the criminally overlooked Distorted Pony. Their earlier records were with BOMP!.
Formed in 1986 with members David Uskovich (vocals, guitar), Dora Jahr (bass, vocals), & Robert Hammer (guitars), Distorted Pony went through several drummers before relegating the drumming duties to a drum machine, until their first full-length LP, which was recorded in January 1992 with the help of Steve Albini.. There is an obvious comparison to Hammer Party era Big Black, but the heavy, sorrowful, enchanting sound is not Chicago, but creeps out of the grit & smog of Los Angeles. By this time, Distorted Pony had recruited London May (ex-Dag Nasty/ Samhain) as their drummer. Although this opened up their sound & allowed for more structured song writing, their 5-song EP is some of my favorite work by this band. Punishment Room & Instant Winner are both great albums, but Work Makes Freedom is still epic.
With a total disregard for their 'carbon footprint', DP dared to waste vinyl by releasing this 5-song ep. on one side of a standard 12" 33 1/3rpm record. The lyrics are etched into the B-side. Also etched in the run-out on the A-side is the reason??? perhaps - "Excess = Wisdom"
Distorted Pony - Work Makes Freedom ep,Bomp Records BMP 4040, 1991.
all decryption codes in comments
Side A -
Fee Schedule
Sinners Prayer
Forensic Interest
Blare
Pillar of Salt
Enjoy,
NØ
UPDATE: Due to repeated requests, I am posting the links to Distorted Pony's two album releases. They were posted last December over at Shark Fin Blog. I don't know if that blog is active or not anymore as the last posting was 23 May 2008, but the links are still good, so I'd advise getting them while you can.
Instant Winner on Trance Syndicate.
Update Update:
A suggestion from a friend from France...
Distorted Pony - Jahr Null, The Big One comp.,Flipside flip30,1991.
A suggestion from a friend from France...
Distorted Pony - Jahr Null, The Big One comp.,Flipside flip30,1991.
Enjoy,
NØ
NØ
Full-on, bludgeoning excellence.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of Distorted Pony, nate, - which is strange given Albini's assistance on their later LP - so thank you for this introduction, and for providing the datail.
"Pillar Of Salt" was the one I dipped into first, but "Blare" had me completely hooked. Great.
Up the Ponies! Thanks for this entry Nathan (see: told you I'd be back ;)). During the 90s in France, we had a whole scene that was very influenced by bands like them, Unsane and so on... One of these French Bands was Portobello Bones, they made a 'Portobello Amigos' album with lots of guests & covers on which they covered "Hod" from Distorted Pony's Punishment Room,
ReplyDeleteHere it is : http://www.sendspace.com/file/s867m3
(Another French band called Hint – friends of Portobello bones – plays on the tune as their guests)
www.myspace.com/portobellobones
www.myspace.com/hintfansite
Again, was nice reading you on the other side of the pond, thank you & bye for now!
Elodie,
ReplyDeleteTwo comments, you're getting to be a regular. Thanks for the link, I'm downloading the song as I write this.
Also thanks for the heads-up about Portobello Bones. I'm going to see if I can find more of their music. I'm a big fan of noise (NOISE!!!)
NØ
Thanks for the link, I added yours. I feel like we must have met at some point. I was the drummer of the Fuckboyz and Hickey and I know Craig Parrotte as well.
ReplyDeleteHello again! I sent the cover ‘cause I thought that might interest you to hear about the overseas influence (and to listen to the Distorted Pony song ‘with da French touch’ you know :)) but, I don’t know... I think part of these bands were not as good as their American influences, some others were good live but years after, I realize I don’t really listen to the records that much (their studio works don’t pass the test of time?)... Portobello Bones were good but not personal fave of mine, I preferred Tantrum (www.myspace.com/thefrontierbursts) Heliogabale (these are only live tracks: www.myspace.com/heliogabale), Basement (www.myspace.com/furianoise), Kill the Thrill (more industrial, they worked with Michael Gira: www.myspace.com/killthethrill), Condense (www.myspace.com/condense), Bästard (www.myspace.com/bastardfrance), early-Sleeppers (their last discs are not good)... Doppler also (but it’s a more recent band: www.myspace.com/personnenedanse)
ReplyDeleteOk, so these are some names & links if you’ve some time to kill some day and wanna have a French musical/web-journey.
About Distorted Pony, I read on the web about a early track of them that you can only get on some compilation, ‘Jahr Null’, and that is very different from the rest (‘psychedelic and close to bands like Loop and Ride’ I read). Have you heard it?
Nathan, you rock harder than the Flinstones and you're quicker than instant coffee!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a strange and cool track of them, I love it! And I was very curious to hear it after reading about it...
Merci mon ami,
Elodie.
I put up a show for these guys way back in the early 90's,they just put out the "Punishment Room"LP.Great show,lots of kids showed up.I think the drummer was in Samhain for a bit...Mike
ReplyDeleteA few corrections:
ReplyDeleteLondon May, Not London Day was the drummer. Albini recorded both albums Theodore Jackson played drums/percussion on all the recordings..including Work Makes Freedom..London joined in additon to TJackson
It's ironic to find two things - tonight was listening to Distorted Pony "Instant Winner" and went blog searching for some more and here I come across my good friend
ReplyDeleteNØ's blog with a rare Distorted Pony EP and excellent writeup. Thanks for also reposting the other DP stuff too.
MEGA decryption codes
ReplyDeleteWorks Makes Freedom
fIC02RpD4SbNTAjr5akJPUtjGK5YeiuqvrZ8W64O-i0
Instant Winner
SxNYRnm3Yt3May6nMEtp60NGAWlDj8BcnaUgvS3ejXU
Punishment Room
OnUC0iuP1TN4W_lm6oeKZkkEo_o-z-pCSCk2qq4pT9U
Jahr Null
N72pQg7D5S27xkEevltdtBG509wAm66nlJnRjNUmGvs
holy shit! thank you so much for this! these guys and the Cherubs are the main reason my band and i moved to Austin back in the mid-90s! only to find out that all those heavy/ugly noise bands had either broken up or moved to san francisco and the scene was fractured to say the least... oh, well. it came back around a few years later.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the key?
ReplyDeletethe keys are listed in the comment above that begins:
DeleteMEGA decryption codes
just cut & paste the decryption codes for the title you want