Ponytail: Do Whatever You Want All the Time

Label: We Are Free

Ponytail's third album is called Do Whatever You Want All the Time, it's out on a label called We Are Free, and frontperson Willy (formerly Molly) Siegel recently gave one of the coolest, most frank and open interviews ever on gender, orientation and, you know, being free. Basically, we love this band to pieces. Oh yeah -- and the music! Ponytail, if you haven't heard the Baltimore quartet before, is almost literally the sound of rock & roll joy, a high-octane blend of brittle guitar melodies, crunching drums and Siegel's unique chirps and averbal calls and cries. The new record really doesn't mess much with the formula that's made Ponytail one of the most entertaining bands on the Eastern Seaboard: "Honey Touches" features the kind of tricky guitar work that wouldn't sound out of place on SST in the late '80s, with roiling drumwork and Siegel being just explosively radiant -- as always. Playful and powerful, Ponytail is one group you absolutely need to know.