"Afraid To Leave"
High Pony's Facebook page says the band was "born in 2015," but their bio implies that they've been at it for a lot longer:
"5 shitty athletes that didn't get picked for any teams in highschool decided to start a band.
they liked ponies and spent a good deal of their time getting stoned.
they made a promise that they would make music full of resilience and pretty sadness until a career picked them.
15 years later
they are still waiting
only not quite as stoned and not quite as cute"
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| High Pony at The Saint |
We'll leave it to future rock historians to pinpoint the exact beginnings of High Pony. One thing we can say for sure is that the band will release their debut full-length, Seen A Change, on December 1st, 2017. Today, they're sharing the album's first single in the form of "Afraid To Leave." I asked singer / guitarist, Seth Goldman, for some thoughts on the song. He was very forthcoming.
"Jay Fox, our guitarist, brought this gift of a song to us. We were all ecstatic to hear the epic outro riff. We have played this song hundreds of times, and it still just feels so damn good.
I was walking around Park Slope, my old neighborhood, when I saw my old neighbor Joe. I hadn't seen him for years, and I could barely recognize him. He looked like he had aged about a hundred years in just a short time. It broke my heart, and I was too afraid to say hello. I was ashamed of myself, and that image still haunts me.
When I used to take LSD all the time, I had a bad trip on my friends stoop where I felt like leaving through the front gate was acceptance of death. It was mid-winter and freezing, but I had to leave. I opened the old creaky gate and started running. All the street signs, with numbers I'd grown up looking at, became unrecognizable and melted into nonsense. It was terrifying but strangely soothing.
Years later, when my dad and I eventually got priced out of Park Slope and moved to Kensington, my newfound sobriety time was spent running to Brighton Beach. I found peace staring out into the dark ocean; and, in my most painful moments, wondered what would happen if I just went out into the ocean and swam as far as I possibly could. The lights out at sea looked so serene and mysterious, but I realized I was now too scared to leave for some reason.
I was so happy with that fear because I realized how much was back on land."
"Afraid To Leave" melds indie rock and power pop influences like Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, and Superchunk with some raw, emotionally delivered lyrics and artfully applied noise (including that epic outro riff). It's honest and cathartic.
Check out "Afraid To Leave" right here. Look for Seen A Change on Friday, December 1st.
High Pony follow the album's release with a party at Brooklyn's King Killer Studios (69 2nd Ave) on December 2nd. Filling out that stacked bill are Yazan and DC's Two Inch Astronaut. $5 for that one gets you inside where you can enjoy free beer and a free copy of Seen A Change on vinyl.
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