Thursday, June 28th
With their endearingly wonky keyborads and the sort of easy to relate to lyrics that The Research would be proud of, Lardpony are going from strength to strength, both on record and with their increasingly impressive live shows. This album is undeniably fun. Tom, Pod, Mandy and Nathan are clearly on a creative roll. These new tracks exude all of the energy and edge of their live sets and perfectly showcase their ramshackle synthpop style. You really can't go wrong with this wonderful release from Derby's finest.
Hannah Webster
Tom on 06.28.07 @ 07:16 AM GMT [link]ENTER the NEWS ARCHIVES!
Sandman Review
Derby four piece Lardpony offer up 11 fabulously squidgy lo-fi electropop gems on The Greatest Invention Ever, follow up to last year's tremendous This Is Lardcore. Never short of a catchy hook or a thrilling chorus, these often short but always sweet pop snippets make the heart soar. From the bittersweet tweeness of 'The Gog' ('I met a girl I liked her face / she added me to her myspace / she said she didn't like my shoes / I cried into my rucksack / I liked the badges that she wore / she shared my taste in emocore / I bought a brand new cardigan / but it was not enough') to the comedy genius of 'Teenwolf' (featuring the brilliant 'I used to be a werewolf / but I'm alright noooooooooow' howl), with glorious hints of Cinerama thrown in for good measure on tracks such as the beguiling 'Trance Anthem' ('I met a girl / her eyes shone / I became convinced / she was the one').With their endearingly wonky keyborads and the sort of easy to relate to lyrics that The Research would be proud of, Lardpony are going from strength to strength, both on record and with their increasingly impressive live shows. This album is undeniably fun. Tom, Pod, Mandy and Nathan are clearly on a creative roll. These new tracks exude all of the energy and edge of their live sets and perfectly showcase their ramshackle synthpop style. You really can't go wrong with this wonderful release from Derby's finest.
Hannah Webster
Tom on 06.28.07 @ 07:16 AM GMT [link]
Wednesday, June 27th
look, this is happening a month from today:
also we're recording new songs with working titles that don't reflect the content. hooray!
STUDIO GAMES:
#1: "Space God of War"
#2: "Everyone's Fault But Mine"
#3: "Inflammable Means Flammable"
and hopefully soon another new one that is too new to even have a name.
AND THEN COMES THE EXPLOSION.
Tom on 06.27.07 @ 05:44 PM GMT [link]
Lardpennui
WE HAVEN'T ALL DIED. YET.look, this is happening a month from today:
also we're recording new songs with working titles that don't reflect the content. hooray!
STUDIO GAMES:
#1: "Space God of War"
#2: "Everyone's Fault But Mine"
#3: "Inflammable Means Flammable"
and hopefully soon another new one that is too new to even have a name.
AND THEN COMES THE EXPLOSION.
Tom on 06.27.07 @ 05:44 PM GMT [link]
Friday, June 8th
Lardpony, Horowitz, The Parallelograms @ The Glebe, Stoke-on-Trent
A small show that brought big pleasure to all that turned up. First on were The Parallelograms, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band who smile so much when they’re on-stage. Their enjoyment transmits through their music to the crowd, infectious smiles all round in fact. Their sound is straight ahead C-86 revivalism and none the poorer for being such a thing, they’re enormous fun. Simplicity, cuteness, pop tunes, fun and laughter and a wide range of hairstyles – they’re rather scrumptious actually.
Next on were Horowitz, the local boys-made-good. Currently they’re without a drummer it seems and resort to a drum machine, this hardly matters when guitars are wielded so deftly in pursuit of the most jangle-some of pop ideals. Lovely tunes and super songs, they can push things along with plenty of energy to get the audience dancing but might really be at their best when they ease back and let their cartoon creations unfold in leisurely manner. To be honest though, I think they enjoy a bit of a rock-out really – and nobody’s complaining about that tonight.
Finally we get Lardpony, who display an impressive range of material and appear determined to cram as much creativity as they can into their set. At one point and seemingly completely off the cuff they decide to do one song with two basses which leads to a bit of scrabbling about for the required extra instrument, their set lurches about a bit as they show us all the things that they can do. Maybe they over complicate things a bit? They’re undeniably talented and have lots of good tunes at their disposal but one feels that they’ve not quite settled into themselves yet, that they’re still developing. I bet their shows vary a lot and are wonderfully unpredictable. I make a mental note to catch them again sometime.
Tonight even the DJ is good, it turns out that he’s Rocker from The Flatmates and The Rosehips who the more senior readers may remember from the 80’s. Nowadays it seems he’s running an enterprise called Dandelion Radio whose main purpose is to keep alive the flame that was nurtured for so long by the late John Peel. Check out the website on www.dandelionradio.com when you get the chance. Laurence, Robots & Electric Brains
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REVIEWS: ALBUM!
Local band Lardpony present us with their second album ‘The Greatest Invention Ever’ a sparkling slice of indie-pop goodness filled with clever songs that deal with the important issues of the day, such as the weather, telly addiction, unrequited emo love, maths and, erm, robot children. On this album the Derby based band have created a light and airy sound that’s slightly rough around the edges especially in the vocals in a way that is endearing rather than shoddy, reminiscent of the early Ash material. All the songs on the album create their own tales of strangeness; opening track ‘Teenwolf’ tells the tale of an adolescent with a bit of a problem. ‘I used to be a werewolf but I’m alright noooooooooow’ howls singer Tom Morton, while ‘The Gog’ is a somewhat comical, yet pretty accurate portrayal of the trials and tribulations of an emo in love. Throughout there are some great one liners to be found such songs as ‘Who Loves the Sol’; the first line laments: ‘Feeling under the weather is no joke when the weather is this fat’ (Lardpony note: It's "bad", not "fat", but never mind!).
Overall a promising album filled with original topics and witty lyrics that paint entire stories for the listener to create fun and intelligent songs, light hearted genius. Leftlion.co.uk
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Erm some band names are bad but some are on another level altogether. Lardpony is one such example. Seriously, I know Die Shellsuit, Die is strange but what sort of oregano where you smoking when you decided to come up with this little beauty?! I know this is superficial and a tad prejudice but if the music doesn’t compensate for the name then Lardpony are in a whole world of trouble.
There is redemption of sorts; the songs remain unpolished pop treats. Or at least some of them do. ‘Teenwolf’ comes with complementary howls but sounds like it has been composed with the help of a Fisher Price ‘My First Keyboard’ but I suppose if you’re not a grump you can see the funny side and at least an ounce of potential. ‘Trance Anthem’ is passable but on the border of irritating. ‘Memory Man’ is another track which forecasts some of the potential but it remains a little too much like it has been recorded in an empty can of baked beans for my liking.
‘TV Song’ is dangerous especially with all the electronic beeps and combining this with the swirling visualisation of Windows Media Player. It’s almost hypnotic but the frenzied style in which it is released is a bit Help She Can’t Swim. Elsewhere tracks like ‘Yesterday’s Technology’ make up for ones which fall a bit flat. I think Lardpony really depend on your level of patience. There is something to be found here but it is whether you will give enough time to find it. Otherwise you might be all too ready to write the band off much like I was on the basis of the name. Which is a shame; I had some good lines about fat horses needing to be put down. 6/10 - Die Shellsuit Die
-----=====-----
I find it hard to believe that anyone could fail to love Lardpony and that’s not because they’re local and perhaps our closest contemporary’s in the world of East Midlands Indie Pop, instead because their songs are so good, “I know this isn’t love/ this is hypnosis/ but I can’t figure how to reverse the process” the lyrics a so easy to relate to, the songs in themselves so triumphant, just like The Research they have a euphoric ability to get you through a bad time, to help you out of a bad mood, to get it off your chest.
“I made her out of yesterdays technology/ the stuff that didn’t pass the test/ her heart ossicillated wildly/ until it burst out of her chest”
I sometimes wonder where these bands go though, what place they have in the bigger picture, their contemporaries being in my eyes Airport Girl, MJ Hibbett, Mistys Big Adventure, bands that share that great sound and lyrics so clever, so relevant you find yourself quoting them almost as often as those annoying people at work who spend the whole day recreating Peter Kaye and Lee Evans sketches. Maybe they will never make it onto the cover of the NME but they really should have a more special place in your life, don’t say you weren’t warned.
“I met a girl I liked her face/ she added me to her myspace/ she said she didn’t like my shoes/ I cried into my rucksack/ I liked the badges that she wore/ she shared my taste in emocore/ I bought a brand new cardigan/ but it was not enough”
Tales of rejection by a boy with a beard, catchy arpeggios and wonky Envelopes-esque keyboards, what is there not to love?
“you say that you love maths/ well I predicted it/ when you tried to join the dots and drew a line of best fit/ you thinking hexadecimal/ which starts to explain why you put two and two together and got pi...well I tried to use a compass to draw rings around your heart/ bit you expressed the probability on a series of charts/ and if I understand correctly what your trying to say/ its no way no way no way” - I'd Rather Be Fat Than Confused
Tom on 06.08.07 @ 07:21 PM GMT [link]
Various Review STUFF
REVIEW: GIG!Lardpony, Horowitz, The Parallelograms @ The Glebe, Stoke-on-Trent
A small show that brought big pleasure to all that turned up. First on were The Parallelograms, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band who smile so much when they’re on-stage. Their enjoyment transmits through their music to the crowd, infectious smiles all round in fact. Their sound is straight ahead C-86 revivalism and none the poorer for being such a thing, they’re enormous fun. Simplicity, cuteness, pop tunes, fun and laughter and a wide range of hairstyles – they’re rather scrumptious actually.
Next on were Horowitz, the local boys-made-good. Currently they’re without a drummer it seems and resort to a drum machine, this hardly matters when guitars are wielded so deftly in pursuit of the most jangle-some of pop ideals. Lovely tunes and super songs, they can push things along with plenty of energy to get the audience dancing but might really be at their best when they ease back and let their cartoon creations unfold in leisurely manner. To be honest though, I think they enjoy a bit of a rock-out really – and nobody’s complaining about that tonight.
Finally we get Lardpony, who display an impressive range of material and appear determined to cram as much creativity as they can into their set. At one point and seemingly completely off the cuff they decide to do one song with two basses which leads to a bit of scrabbling about for the required extra instrument, their set lurches about a bit as they show us all the things that they can do. Maybe they over complicate things a bit? They’re undeniably talented and have lots of good tunes at their disposal but one feels that they’ve not quite settled into themselves yet, that they’re still developing. I bet their shows vary a lot and are wonderfully unpredictable. I make a mental note to catch them again sometime.
Tonight even the DJ is good, it turns out that he’s Rocker from The Flatmates and The Rosehips who the more senior readers may remember from the 80’s. Nowadays it seems he’s running an enterprise called Dandelion Radio whose main purpose is to keep alive the flame that was nurtured for so long by the late John Peel. Check out the website on www.dandelionradio.com when you get the chance. Laurence, Robots & Electric Brains
-----=====-----
REVIEWS: ALBUM!
Local band Lardpony present us with their second album ‘The Greatest Invention Ever’ a sparkling slice of indie-pop goodness filled with clever songs that deal with the important issues of the day, such as the weather, telly addiction, unrequited emo love, maths and, erm, robot children. On this album the Derby based band have created a light and airy sound that’s slightly rough around the edges especially in the vocals in a way that is endearing rather than shoddy, reminiscent of the early Ash material. All the songs on the album create their own tales of strangeness; opening track ‘Teenwolf’ tells the tale of an adolescent with a bit of a problem. ‘I used to be a werewolf but I’m alright noooooooooow’ howls singer Tom Morton, while ‘The Gog’ is a somewhat comical, yet pretty accurate portrayal of the trials and tribulations of an emo in love. Throughout there are some great one liners to be found such songs as ‘Who Loves the Sol’; the first line laments: ‘Feeling under the weather is no joke when the weather is this fat’ (Lardpony note: It's "bad", not "fat", but never mind!).
Overall a promising album filled with original topics and witty lyrics that paint entire stories for the listener to create fun and intelligent songs, light hearted genius. Leftlion.co.uk
-----=====-----
Erm some band names are bad but some are on another level altogether. Lardpony is one such example. Seriously, I know Die Shellsuit, Die is strange but what sort of oregano where you smoking when you decided to come up with this little beauty?! I know this is superficial and a tad prejudice but if the music doesn’t compensate for the name then Lardpony are in a whole world of trouble.
There is redemption of sorts; the songs remain unpolished pop treats. Or at least some of them do. ‘Teenwolf’ comes with complementary howls but sounds like it has been composed with the help of a Fisher Price ‘My First Keyboard’ but I suppose if you’re not a grump you can see the funny side and at least an ounce of potential. ‘Trance Anthem’ is passable but on the border of irritating. ‘Memory Man’ is another track which forecasts some of the potential but it remains a little too much like it has been recorded in an empty can of baked beans for my liking.
‘TV Song’ is dangerous especially with all the electronic beeps and combining this with the swirling visualisation of Windows Media Player. It’s almost hypnotic but the frenzied style in which it is released is a bit Help She Can’t Swim. Elsewhere tracks like ‘Yesterday’s Technology’ make up for ones which fall a bit flat. I think Lardpony really depend on your level of patience. There is something to be found here but it is whether you will give enough time to find it. Otherwise you might be all too ready to write the band off much like I was on the basis of the name. Which is a shame; I had some good lines about fat horses needing to be put down. 6/10 - Die Shellsuit Die
-----=====-----
I find it hard to believe that anyone could fail to love Lardpony and that’s not because they’re local and perhaps our closest contemporary’s in the world of East Midlands Indie Pop, instead because their songs are so good, “I know this isn’t love/ this is hypnosis/ but I can’t figure how to reverse the process” the lyrics a so easy to relate to, the songs in themselves so triumphant, just like The Research they have a euphoric ability to get you through a bad time, to help you out of a bad mood, to get it off your chest.
“I made her out of yesterdays technology/ the stuff that didn’t pass the test/ her heart ossicillated wildly/ until it burst out of her chest”
I sometimes wonder where these bands go though, what place they have in the bigger picture, their contemporaries being in my eyes Airport Girl, MJ Hibbett, Mistys Big Adventure, bands that share that great sound and lyrics so clever, so relevant you find yourself quoting them almost as often as those annoying people at work who spend the whole day recreating Peter Kaye and Lee Evans sketches. Maybe they will never make it onto the cover of the NME but they really should have a more special place in your life, don’t say you weren’t warned.
“I met a girl I liked her face/ she added me to her myspace/ she said she didn’t like my shoes/ I cried into my rucksack/ I liked the badges that she wore/ she shared my taste in emocore/ I bought a brand new cardigan/ but it was not enough”
Tales of rejection by a boy with a beard, catchy arpeggios and wonky Envelopes-esque keyboards, what is there not to love?
“you say that you love maths/ well I predicted it/ when you tried to join the dots and drew a line of best fit/ you thinking hexadecimal/ which starts to explain why you put two and two together and got pi...well I tried to use a compass to draw rings around your heart/ bit you expressed the probability on a series of charts/ and if I understand correctly what your trying to say/ its no way no way no way” - I'd Rather Be Fat Than Confused
Tom on 06.08.07 @ 07:21 PM GMT [link]
