Ass Ponys - Some Stupid With A Flare Gun

  by Geraint Jones

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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Review

Beset by problems, mostly relating to distribution, personnel and record labels (I guess for a band, that’s about as difficult as it gets!) since their inception back in 1988, the Ass Ponys, from Cincinnati, Ohio, have stubbornly refused to throw in the towel. Whilst the band’s output has until now eluded me, the recent arrival of their fifth album, the bizarrely entitled’ Some Stupid With A Flare Gun’ has made me more than grateful for their persistence in the face of adversity and indifference. The hub of the band is undoubtedly Chuck Cleaver, whose darkly comic tales of the absurd and unpleasant are given greater indelibility by his wonderfully eccentric voice, which sounds like a hybrid of that of Pere Ubu’s David Thomas and early Michael Stipe. Tales of suicide, psychosis, iced tea and extra nipples have never sounded so enticing. Chuck Cleaver and the other Ass Ponys, Bill Alletzhauser, Randy Cheek and Dave Morrison have conjured an exuberant and irresistible album of strange, catchy-as-hell songs, all superbly produced by the talented and prolific Brad Jones. The Ass Ponys’ ‘Some Stupid With A Flare Gun’ is an absolute revelation and amongst the best albums I’ve heard this, or indeed any year.

Track Listing:-

1 Pretty As You Please
2 Astronaut
3 Fighter Pilot
4 Love Tractor
5 Your Amazing Life
6 Sidewinder
7 Swallow You Down
8 X-Tra Nipple
9 Magnus
10 Casper's Coming Home
11 Kitten
12 Between The Trees