Ponytail: “Easy Peasy”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01-Easy-Peasy.mp3|titles=Ponytail: “Easy Peasy”]After a brief hiatus in 2010, Baltimore art-rock band Ponytail released its third album, Do Whatever You Want All the Time, on longtime record label We Are Free. Its psychedelic artwork, created by Yamantaka Eye of Japanese rock band Boredoms, is matched by the band’s manic vocals and guitar-driven melodies.
In honor of the changing seasons, Ponytail guitarist Ken Seeno shows the band’s more chilled-out side with this ultra laid-back playlist.
A Warm Spring Breeze Blowing Through My Window
by Ken Seeno of Ponytail
1. The Revolutionaries: “Leftist”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04-Leftist.mp3|titles=The Revolutionaries: “Leftist”]A deep, smooth, bouncy groove made by the masters of Channel One. All sway and smiles. Today is a good day.
2. Edgar Froese: “Specific Gravity of Smile”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01-Specific-Gravity-of-Smile.mp3|titles=Edgar Froese: “Specific Gravity of Smile”]On recent train rides, this is my gazing music. Café car. Light cutting through. Out though the wilderness effortlessly rushing by.
3. Johnny Smith: “Where or When”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01-Where-Or-When.mp3|titles=Johnny Smith: “Where Or When”]One of my all-time favorite records. Such warmth and finesse. Stan Getz is smooth, and Johnny Smith‘s playing is unreal. Music for fireplaces. Highly recommended.
4. Santo & Johnny: “Tenderly”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/24-Tenderly.mp3|titles=Santo & Johnny: “Tenderly”]One of my all-time favorite versions of this standard. Swoon central. Mornings in Hawaii, looking at the bay…
5. Sanford Ponder: “Oly”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/11-Oly.mp3|titles=Sanford Ponder: “Oly”]This song reminds me of my friends, Matt and Ben, and laughter through the evening.
6. Roger Eno: “Reflection of I.K.B.”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/07-Reflections-on-I.K.B.mp3|titles=Roger Eno: “Reflections on I.K.B.”]I truly love this record. I don’t know how he does it, but the space is deeply moving and thoughtful. He makes you wait for each note, each change, with bated breath.
7. Mark Isham: “Raffles in Rio”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/05-Raffles-in-Rio.mp3|titles=Mark Isham: “Raffles in Rio”]Chill breezes under moonlit palms swishing to the sound of your life. Life is all about the little moments.
8. Emeralds: “Genetic”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/05-Genetic.mp3|titles=Emeralds: “Genetic”]Driving past Arlington at dusk, the lights in the office building were flickering on, and the sun was settling into the darkness. The colors and lights refracted and reflected off the mirrored glass and shattered into a thousands pinpoints of the light in my rear-view mirror as I drove 90 MPH back home.
9. Eroc & Hans Reichel: “Hattnatten”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/06-Hattnatten.mp3|titles=Eroc & Hans Reichel: “Hattnatten”]My ultimate woodsy-daydream-stony anthem.
10. Sugar Minott: “Never Gonna Give Jah Up”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/06-Never-Gonna-Give-Jah-Up.mp3|titles=Sugar Minott: “Never Gonna Give Jah Up”]I can’t stop listening to reggae these days. I can’t stop.
11. Chet Atkins: “Armen’s Theme”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01-Armens-Theme.mp3|titles=Chet Atkins: “Armen’s Theme”]More like Ken’s theme.
12. Iasos: “The Angels of Comfort”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01-The-Angels-of-Comfort.mp3|titles=Iasos: “The Angels of Comfort”]The moment that you realize who you are. A beautiful galaxy. Dust with your eyes closed. Breathe.