Release Date: (2002)
Label: Velvet Blue Music
Producer:

December  Hotel 
Overall Rating:  +++-

(Debbies Operating System)

You'd think that after working as a librarian for six years, I'd learn not to judge a book by its cover. Still, the most important lessons remain the most difficult to learn, which is why I approached Pony Express's Becoming What You Hate with a little trepidation. How could I know? The album art screams "Virgin Megastore cut-out bin circa 1993," and the one-page fact sheet that came with the album uses poor grammar! Doesn't that mean whatever's inside is, itself, discountable?

Well, of course not - not unless you're one of those chumps with the white belts that keeps telling me about form over function and spilling imported beer on my sleeve at shows while the rest of us are trying to actually listen to the actual music. I don't care how you spell "Kurious Oranj," just like I never cared how to spell "Mayonaise" in middle school, just as long as I get to listen to it. Becoming What You Hate could come wrapped in old butcher's paper, for all I care - it's a fantastic album either way. (Good thing this reviewing gig requires me to listen to the records I get.)

"So, what's so great about this album," you're thinking, "that you're making me wade through two paragraphs of yelling and books to get to it?" Well - before someone taught Mark Linkhous what "album-wide consistency" meant, remember how Sparklehorse had this wonderful knack for mid-album juxtapositions that only made sense five listens in? Maybe it's just me, but listening to Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot always made me feel like I was rummaging through someone's hope chest in a fever dream. Becoming What You Hate feels like that, except with less derivation into audio experimentation and songs that just chase their tails - somehow, with a Quaalude-hazed veneer over the whole thing, Pony Express manage to nail together what feel like 18 ideas into less than a dozen songs, without sounding schizophrenic or pretentious, and whilte maintaining their pop sensibility. Take, for example, "GPA;" some 45 seconds into the song, someone strikes a wrong chord, innocently, and just as you're wondering whether or not it was intentional, the song dissolves into a ridiculous pile of distortion. Haven't we seen Malkmus and Elvrum doing similar things? Sure - but where ol' "S followed by a T" would've lit a cigarette and started picking through the dictionary, and Elvrum would've bounced the whole thing between speakers and thrown a choir on top, Pony Express sound as though they've discovered something about writing a pop album that the rest of us haven't caught onto - some fantastic mix of irreverence and varied taste and sweet tooths that always feels like it shouldn't be as cohesive and effective as it is.

Which is not to say that these are unlistenable experiments in four-tracking; sometimes the juxtapositions are simple and subtle. Placing the fingerpicking-and-singing "Teenagers & Fire" in front of the overbombastic, you've-got-your-Spiritualized-in-my-Sabbath "Headlights are the Answers" is so jarring, it's almost genius. Even the band's choices in instrumentation and arrangement avoid treading upon cliche; the refrain of "Long Island" wafts up from the tremelo-dazed too-many-Margueritas chorus - "You're just too drunk to drive home / You're just drunk enough to drive home" - and then comes down to a sarcastic, farty guitar line as though it were a hangover. And I can't possibly finish this review without mentioning the last track - a "Sister Ray" -namechecking lo-lo-fi piece that halfway through gains what I like to call the Muppet Hell International Choir. I cannot possibly do it justice with words alone. In the name of grossly-underdesigned albums everywhere, I implore you to find out on your own exactly how good power-pop can be when it's disassembled and reconstructed by Pony Express. Or do you have some hand-silkscreened LP covers to drink vermouth at?

~ Stephen

One of my first experiences with independent music was Artcore Volume Two (1996) put out by Tooth & Nail in its heyday. For the first time I heard great bands like Starflyer 59, Joy Electric, Morella's Forest, Roseblossom Punch, Velour 100, Phantasmic, and Sage (a band I wish I knew more about). It was an eye opener at the age of 13. But I always hated one song off that compilation: "She Thinks I'm Nothing" by Pony Express. Oh it was so incredibly boring. It still is. The guitar is out of tune, Jeff Cloud sounds like he's had a bad bout with Nyquil, and the song in general needs a six pack of Geritol.

Fast forward to 2002 (well, 2003 when I received the album) and Jeff Cloud has released a number of albums under the Pony Express moniker. All have come with critical acclaim, but I ignored them all because of my previous experience with "She Thinks I'm Nothing." I am sure that this is my mistake as Becoming What You Hate is one of the finer Brit-pop influenced albums I've heard in a while.

Since "She Thinks I'm Nothing," Pony Express has gone from a trio (Jeff Cloud on vocals/guitar, Jyro Xhan on bass, and Jason Martin on drums) to a five-piece all-star line-up: Jeff Cloud (Velvet Blue Music), Richard Swift, Jason Martin (Starflyer 59), Frank Lenz (ex-Lassie Foundation, ex-Fold Zandura, The Hot Stuff), and Josh Dooley (MAP). Cloud has commented that this latest Pony X album is more like a band than previous albums where it was basically just him and some friends on accompaniment.

The tunes lend themselves to an array of pop genres. "Debbies Operating System" features a bouncy rhythm with cute synth lines (which, for some reason, reminds me of Weezer, but really the song sounds nothing like them). "Queens of Beruit" follows after with a country tinge and church organ that fades into Cloud with his acoustic guitar accompanied by light cymbals. Richard Swift's electronic piano is unmistakable (see Swift's "Lady Day" for his great piano style) and adds a drunken honky tonk to the underlying western feel to the song.

"Teenagers & Fire" is a folk song through and through. A fingerpicked guitar in the foreground compliments Cloud's lazy vocals. A heavenly gurgle comes from the synth and the hammond lays down calming chords. When the organ climaxes it's like walking alone on the beach boardwalk during the summer.

"Headlights are the Answers" completely took me by surprise. Are those Black Sabbath riffs at the intro? The guitars then palm-mute with a punk rock intensity and blast into those great riffs again. I love it. "Long Island" sounds almost like it could be a Starflyer 59 song from Leave Here A Stranger, but drum-heavy and more country-influenced. No complaints here, though.

I'm glad I got another chance to hear Pony Express after "She Thinks I'm Nothing" because Becoming What You Hate is an infectious, thoughtful, and fun pop album. Those wary before should have no fear.

~ Lars Gotrich

Pony Express (homepage)