The Oxygen Ponies - Finger Trigger

“You and I and everyone are waiting for a brighter sun to shine. We’re wasting time.” I admit this sounds a bit pessimistic for a good party song, but the music surrounding these words is pure magic. The guitars enter the ether between the neurons and allow for a full escape into an experience that thrills. I’ve been holding to this CD for about a month, shouting out ½ of it last month and the other ½ this month, because it’s not being released until now. It can finally be pre-ordered on Amazon, and it’s worth every penny. It’s not very often a band can come up with a brand new sound that fulfils the promise of rock and roll yet sounds like nothing that came before.

The slow dirge Tryna Get To Heaven “through the cellar door, but everything I do, it’s all been done before” turns into a party ½ way through with a reminder “what’s the point of fighting wars you cannot win?” At the end, the beautiful dirge returns momentarily to remind us this is a fully composed story with a musical purpose, not simply a pathway into a private journey. Well done. Villains is another beautiful tune, and is totally up-to-date when it talks about the folks “in the white house” who “hate your family.” It truly doesn’t matter who is in the white house, if your family is in Afghanistan or a small town in Ohio, or anywhere else that rich people do not control the inevitable, you are indeed hated. Just listen with open ears. The point of this composition is that we should not be prepared for the government to help the poor and needy, that indeed, “we have a long drive home.” Tasty bass guitar picking enhances the flavors of the other guitars.

“I don’t care what you say ‘cause you don’t listen anyway. Everyone around me is on trial, so smile.” The calliope has last a few belts but is running anyway in the tender dreams of Smile. “Don’t you tell me I’m acting like a child when I smile.” A Bottle Marked The Enemy is a brutally honest look at American Christianity. The Oxygen Ponies supply more of an experience than a party; but then every great experience is a party and I have felt totally fulfilled when listening through this CD, and anyone who puts up with my daily meanderings will have the fortitude to listen to these folks and make them a part of their daily consciousness with joy. It’s difficult looking ahead to November already, but I feel really secure in picking this CD as one of the most important releases of 2009. The Oxygen Ponies

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The Oxygen Ponies on Eartaste

Added 5/11/09:
The Oxygen Ponies on Amplified Magazine

The Oxygen Ponies - Love Yr Way

“I sold my soul for education, every day I pay the debt. My entire generation better find a tourniquet.” A reminder, but a powerful one, of what young people are facing these days when the government bails out the rich, It can only get worse, unfortunately. “I don't know why I even bother, one black sheep can't kill the herd. Now I understand why father drank and drank without a word.” The narrator reminds us that times have been rough before, and he can see is father through new eyes. Is there any hope? “I'm alive and my hearts still beating, should have stopped so long ago. I'm so tired of retreating, all this movement takes its toll.” That’s slender hope, but as the poet says, “at least my heart’s still beating.” Wait! Wait! Is there more? Can it be? Is there a person who can bring the narrator out of the depths of despair? “Then there's you Miss Sugarsunsmile, coating me in heaven's light. Almost makes it all worthwhile.” Ouch! Keyword, “almost”. But that almost speaks volumes. “I don't know how to build no palace, if I did you could be queen. You and I would raise a chalice to everyone who dared to dream! God I love your way - it brightens up my day! Will I ever say the words to make you love me?” The narrator, though still not quite reaching unconditional love in his plea, at least recognizes that love will see us though whatever financial straits the rich and the government force upon us from their lofty heights. Because there are loftier heights they will never know that we are able to experience because our love is not of money. Can I hear an amen?

The party continues with lots of great shoutouts. The Oxygen Ponies delight with Fevered Cyclone (“we live like clones in our suburban homes substituting plastic to get by”), The War Is Over (“if God made models of his best creations you'd be on display”), Harmony Handgrenade (“nothing's worse than a land where the free are enslaved”), and Grab Yr Gun (“Faith, she's the mirror I lose myself in. As the image gets clearer the struggle begins.”)

The CD won’t be out for awhile yet, but I couldn’t wait to tell you about it. It’s definitely one to add to your wish list or simply pre-order. Oxygen Ponies = rock and roll with a message of love for the world. “Grab your gun, choose your side. Let your love be your guide.” The Oxygen Ponies

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Eartaste 2009 Albums of the Year

Randy Brecker – Nostalgic Journey
Femi Kuti – Day By Day
Skidmore Fountain - Cloudless Blue
The XX – The XX
Willie Nile – House Of A Thousand Guitars
Sarah Jane Morris
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
Booker T Jones – Potato Hole
Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand
Conor Oberst- Outer South
Band Of Skulls - Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
The Oxygen Ponies – Harmony Handgrenade
Willie Nelson with Asleep at the Wheel
Maria Muldaur – Garden Of Joy