Analog dreams The Ponys debut ShiShiMuMu BY JOSH ROGERS

It’s a safe bet that never before has a Maine band released a double-LP. In fact, debut albums are historically single-platter affairs, rare exceptions being Frank Zappa’s and Modest Mouse’s sprawling initial offerings. But the Ponys don’t necessarily go about things the easy way (canceling opening gigs at the State Theatre, substituting original drawings instead of snapping band photos, not notifying the press about their shows) and they’re all the better for it. It took them two long years, after forming the band in 1998 when they were freshmen at MECA, to actually start playing shows in front of people, so the vinyl version (yes, it comes on CD, too) of their album is a formal reflection of their substance; ShiShiMuMu was clearly intended to hark back to a time when music took an investment of time, before it could be ripped or burned, before music came in little plastic cases that you could take anywhere — in the shower, in the car, while jogging. One heft of the one-foot square double-LP, with its duo-toned liner notes and two discs of 180-gram virgin vinyl, and you realize this is something you lug home, put on the turntable (lift with the legs, not the back), and LISTEN TO.

In true Ponys fashion, the album starts off with " Golden Finish, " beginning slowly and maintaining a stately pace throughout, building itself in an additive process much like one of the band’s collaborative paintings that adorn the sleeve — first a lonely guitar, then singer Jon Balzano-Brookes’s plaintive voice, followed by squalling guitars, and finally marching drums and bass. Four minutes into the track, over a slowly oscillating Moog, Balzano-Brookes switches into a sort of schoolyard-rhyme incantation, repeating " If you want to go this slowly/ Let the ocean pull your body, " lulling the listener into the band’s dream world.

The song was aided by the " liberal knob twisting " of Nemo Bidstrup, whose Time-Lag Records has released the album and who provided artistic guidance throughout the project, most importantly in the decision to go with an analog recording process.

" He was really the one who explained what the difference was, " says Balzano-Brookes, of analog vs. digital. " He’s big into vinyl and he explained that it would sound really cool if it was analog and then onto record — it would be a total analog experience. With digital, it’s like zeros and ones and so there are some missing frequencies, so we were really interested in that. "

Take a look at the Time-Lag Records catalogue and it’s clear that high-quality vinyl and visually stunning artwork are Bidstrup’s twin passions. Bidstrup says, " Once they got involved with me I was really pushing for vinyl, pushing for all that stuff. " They got more than they bargained for, too, in terms of fidelity, when, through a chance coincidence, the album ended up being mastered by Dave Cheppa at Better Quality Sound in California. Not only did Cheppa use his retrofitted castoffs from the Mobile Fidelity label (back when they used to cut vinyl), but he was able to use a state-of-the-art analog-transfer computer on loan from one of those clandestine three-letter government agencies (before they took it back), guaranteeing that ShiShiMuMu may be the only record on the planet to be of such high fidelity.

While ShiShiMuMu is not a retro throwback, the recording process was very true to that of the 1960s; the whole record, for the most part, was recorded live with the full band, only vocals and the occasional auxiliary instruments punched in later. The entire first side — " Golden Finish " segueing seamlessly into " Silverfish " sliding into " A Hilly Town " — is, for example, no cut-and-paste ProTools job. They recorded the three songs altogether in one take and it shows in the energy.

The Ponys share their interest in the ’60s with Belle & Sebastian, a band it would be impossible not to mention when talking about the Ponys. Both groups are fronted by a fey-voiced singer, write about their respective " hilly " hometowns, and pen jangly, catchy indie-rock tunes. ShiShiMuMu’s penultimate track, " Cheer Up My Man, " sounds like it could be an outtake from Tigermilk, with its singsong vocals, springy guitar sounds, and lyrics like " 1965/ You were barely alive, a boy of 15/ So, cheer up, my man/ Those happy times will be here again . . . you know you didn’t break up the band. "

But where Belle & Sebastian have become mired in trying to recreate Love’s Forever Changes on their last couple of releases, the Ponys are generally a much more creative group, both sonically and lyrically. To listen to ShiShiMuMu is to enter another world complete with its own logic, language, and wildlife. Balzano-Brookes has a gift for writing lyrics that are as strange and outlandish as his paintings — in fact, some of the creatures in his visual art wander through the Ponys’ songs.

On " Wilamena, " over a rainy-day drizzle of guitar reminiscent of the Youngbloods’ " Get Together, " Balzano-Brookes begins singing, " Wilamena, you’re a bug crawling on my knee. " Lest anyone think otherwise, he continues, " It’s not a metaphor/ I mean it quite literally. " There’s a potential with lyrics like this to tread too close to the line of absurdity and meaninglessness. The Ponys never cross this line, though they may make you crack a smile.

" Parasitic Wedding Vows " keeps with the insect theme and is easily one of the best and most ambitious cuts on the record. A widower flea relates his sad tale while dramatically keening guitars wail in the background: " My wife and I were traveling by way of border collie/ When we crossed the railway tracks of a southbound evening trolley/ I heard the bells, I could not spy my wife — the collie’s foot was cut and I wept. " From there the song lurches into an Eastern European Gypsy sound, drunkenly syncopated and getting progressively faster and more harried as the protagonist, in his agony, repeats " Use a hammer, use a fork/ Cut me with a razor, feed me bad pork/ Hang me on a clothesline, burn me in a stove/ Bring me to the front line, drown me in a cove. " For all the cute drawings, there’s definitely an eerie side to the Ponys, if not a sinister one.

There’s no shortage of fun moments on ShiShiMuMu, however. " Domestic Pet Growing Seeds, " a live favorite of mine, includes a character who claims, in a letter, that he’s been eaten by a Welsh corned beef. The cowbell oompah and kazoo solo drive the song with the same manic energy of one of Benny Hill’s double-speed chase scenes on the verses before breaking into one of the most beautifully sung choruses I’ve heard in a long while.

" Ask Your Grandmother " is an alarmingly earnest song about grandparents with lyrics like " Even if you smoke cigarettes/ Paint your nails black . . . Doesn’t mean they weren’t like that/ In their own way/ at your age. " There’s a disarming Shaggs-like naiveté when the song rocks out during " They love you/ You love them, too/ So tell them/ And mean it, too. " It may sound silly, but the song works and is one of the most poignant songs about grandparents since Nirvana’s " Sliver. " Tough subject matter, rarely approached by a rock group.

Finally, " Anywhere with Oxygen " is a swinging, sweet song about love and money. Jangly guitar chords propel the song, allowing bending guitar notes to sail through the air above. " Let’s go!, " Balzano-Brookes repeats in super-catchy melody as guitars burst like rockets around him.

Whether by CD or vinyl or border collie, the Ponys’ ShiShiMuMu promises a scenic journey through a landscape, at times comfortingly familiar, and, at many others strangely beautiful.

Josh Rogers can be reached at jrogers@phx.com

The Ponys play a CD/LP-release show at SPACE in Portland, April 11. Call (207) 828-5600.