If you are not familiar with the Toronto duo PONY, I strongly urge you to get familiar. Sam Bielanski and Matt Morand make shimmery, catchy, extremely fun crunch-pop. It’s sleek and hooky, but it always feels charmingly homespun. If PONY have ever made a bad song, I haven’t heard it. The band release their sophomore album Velveteen in 2023, and it’s a banger. Since then, they’ve released a bunch of one-off singles — “Freezer,” “Every Little Crumb,” “Superglue” — and those are all bangers, too. Early next year, they’ll drop a full-length called Clearly Cursed. Be on alert for further bangers.
Sam Bielanski and Matt Morand recorded Clearly Cursed with touring members Christian Beale and Joey Ginald, and past collaborator Alex Gamble produced it. “Freezer,” “Every Little Crumb,” and “Superglue” are all on the album, as is the shimmering, bittersweet new song “Middle Of Summer.” The album title has a story behind it. Bielanski says it’s based on a time that she was 21 and she went to see a psychic: “She read my tarot cards and told me boyfriend was cheating on me. That was true. She also told me that I had a dark spirit attachment which she could easily vanquish if I paid her $1500. That was obviously out of my budget, so I left and decided I would have to coexist with this dark spirit for the rest of my life.”
“Middle Of Summer” is the kind of bulletproof shimmer-stomp that I’ve come to expect from this band. Here’s the story behind it, as told by Sam Bielanski in a press release:
“Middle Of Summer” is a song about the worst summer of my life, when my cat Frep passed away. When I first wrote this song on my phone, it was just a little synthy pop song, and I didn’t have any intentions of releasing it. I was looking for a way to honor my best friend and heal from the pain of losing him. When we started working on it together, Matty added all these beautiful guitar parts, and the song became one of my favorites we have ever written together. I realized we needed to put this song on the record. I like the juxtaposition of this song being kind of upbeat and dancy, but it’s about one of the saddest times in my life.
Around the time that Clearly Cursed comes out, PONY will head out on tour with Star 99. Below, check out the “Middle Of Summer” video, the Clearly Cursed tracklist, and the band’s tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Superglue”
02 “Freezer”
03 “Sunny Something”
04 “Middle Of Summer”
05 “Hot And Mean”
06 “Blame Me”
07 “Clearly Cursed”
08 “Brilliant Blue”
09 “Every Little Crumb”
10 “Swallowing Stars”
TOUR DATES:
2/18 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House *
2/19 – Windsor, ON @ Meteor *
2/20 – Toronto, ON @ Drake Underground *
2/21 – Montreal, QC @ L’Escogriffe *
2/23 – Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar *
2/24 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom *
2/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse on Watts *
2/27 – New York, NY @ Trans Pecos *
2/28 – Boston, MA @ 939 Cafe *
3/01 – Washington, DC @ Pearl Street *
3/03 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall *
3/04 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Crafthouse *
3/05 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop *
3/06 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement *
3/07 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway *
3/08 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas *
* with Star 99
Clearly Cursed is out 2/13 on Take This To Heart.
