Snowpony

in Slow Motion

by Brian Greene

Starting a rock band, when you've previously been in other well-known bands, can be a tricky thing; the namedropping helps to get people-- and labels-- to listen to you, but will they ever stop referring to you as "Ex-______" or "The one who used to be in..."

Katharine Gifford, former keyboardist for Stereolab and the vocalist for Moonshake, knows this predicament well.

She's got her own band now, Snowpony, and her bassist, Debbie Googe, is formerly from My Bloody Valentine."People who come to us expecting to hear Stereolab or My Bloody Valentine are going to be very disappointed," Gifford says, sounding like she's already been asked about this ad nauseum. "We don't sound like either of them at all."

Agreed. The opening track of Snowpony's debut, The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony, blasts out with a straight-ahead, rockin' guitar riff that you wouldn't likely find (at least not without some considerable effects) on either of Googe / Gifford's bands' albums.

Nor would you be apt to spot a sample from '60's punk icons, The Sonics. ("One of the first records I ever owned was by the Sonics, " relates Gifford. "I had to borrow the money off my dad for it, and it took six months to pay him back").

This is not to suggest that Snowpony are a garage band. A good many of the 11 tracks on Slow-Motion are lazy grooves with plenty of texture to them.

Gifford, who writes and sings, has such a commanding voice-- deep and rich in that way that only a few (mostly British) female vocalists can be-- that it's hard to imagine her carrying on as the one who played the (rather simplistic) organ parts for Stereolab.

"I love their music," she says of her former group, "but being in (Stereolab) wasn't for me. I only joined them because the band I had going prior to that split up and they needed somebody. We all knew I wasn't going to stay forever."

Showpony's debut was produced by sometime-Stereolab producer, indie god John McEntire, at his Chicago Studio. Gifford calls McEntire "an old friend and a great guy," and says that he brought a lot to Snowpony's studio work-- not just with his knob-twiddling but also by playing an odd Brazilian percussion instrument on one of the songs.

The Slow Motion World of Snowpony is set for release in late August '98. A U.S. tour is expected soon thereafter.

---- Brian Greene