More Rare Than a Unicorn, Distorted Pony...

Another band that would eventually be a member of the Trance Syndicate family was the criminally overlooked Distorted Pony. Formed in 1986 with members David Uskovich (vocals, guitar), Dora Jahr (bass, vocals), and Robert Hammer (guitars). The drumming duties were left to a drum machine up until their first full-length. During their time together, which extended until around 1995, the band released two amazing full-length albums that fully embraced the idea of “noise rock”. Using pieces of scrap metal and even a gas tank to add to the abrasiveness to the already ear piercing guitars. Distorted Pony, while being primarily a noise band, had a slight industrial and partly gothic tinged element to their sound and style. The vocal styling of Uskovich lent itself to the small gothic influence the band carried, sounding a bit deranged and possibly unstable at times.

Initially releasing a 7 inch and then an EP (Work Makes Freedom) as a trio the band would eventually recruit drummer London May who played some with Samhain in the mid eighties. He would drum on the bands following two albums. Unsurprisingly to bands of this nature, noise rock aficionado himself, Steve Albini worked on both of Distorted Pony’s releases.

In 1992 the band put out Punishment Room through Bomp! Records, which featured the band with a much larger sound due to the new addition of an actual drummer. However, driven primarily by the rattling bass of Dora Jahr, the other instruments seemingly just fill out the rest of the sound for the band on Punishment Room. The band moved to Trance Syndicate for their second album Instant Winner in 1994. Unfortunately the band was much on its way out, if not already dead at that point. Instant Winner followed suit with much of the traditional sound the band had worked with on all previous releases. However, the album proves to be their landmark album in my opinion, as everything seems a bit more evenly focused throughout. There seemed to be a bit more overall inclusion to the drumming, seeing it become slightly more advanced as opposed to the repetitiveness that sort of plagued it on Punishment Room. The songs in general on Instant Winner are structured with a bit more maturity in terms of songwriting, incorporating a bit more intricate guitar work to the mix.

Punishment Room:
Distorted Pony – Castration Anxiety [MP3]
Distorted Pony – Down Where the Dirt Collects [MP3]

Instant Winner:
Distorted Pony – Smitten [MP3]
Distorted Pony – Cripple [MP3]

It doesn’t seem that either of these releases are available any more. So, I think most of you know what to do when something like this happens. Yep, hopefully come across someones horribly mistaken castaway through various sources.

Also, if you’re a fan, David Uskovich later went on to form the band Switchhitter, which shares many similarities to Distorted Pony. However, I would be surprised if this project was still together as well. They released an album through Framed Records titled Academy. Seeing as how the record label no longer has a working website I would be surprised to see if this was still available anywhere as well. So to those who are interested, you might have to do some work tracking it down as well.