March 16th 2009

recordBar
w/ witch and hare & me and my arrow (MN) & loveLikeFire (CA)
kansas city, missouri

March 19th 2009

all ages show @ Troost Haus
w/ sump pumps (IN) & mannequin skywalker
kansas city, missouri

April 1st 2009

davey’s uptown
w/ the beautiful nothings
kansas city, missouri

April 6th 2009

chomp womp family night @ the taproom
lawrence, Kansas

April 18th 2009

tornado bait fest @ the shamrock lounge w/ Peerless Princess, Norway Agenda, Hell City Rollers, Virgin Mary Satellite, Dream Supreme
wichita, Kansas

May 12th 2009

the pistol
w/ Felix and Demon Horse
kansas city, Missouri

June 19th 2009

CHOMP WOMP SODA FEST @ THE PISTOL | FOUNDATION
w/ burger kingdom, the calamity cubes, fortuning, rooftop vigilantes, boo and boo too, goodwillies, spell master, the factory workers, bleachbloodz, nonreturner, and echo of the elms. 13 bands, free soda, free cake, free freedom.
kansas city, Missouri

June 26th 2009

uptown bar
w/ sharp teeth
minneapolis, Minnesota

July 24th 2009

cafe berlin
w/ burger kingdom
columbia, Missouri

August 1st 2009

the brick
w/ goodwilles, wrong crowd, calamity cubes
kansas city, Missouri

August 21st 2009

FOUNDATION
w/ deah top, n.nomasuri, holy mother exhaust, matt dill
kansas city, Missouri

August 30th 2009

eighth st taproom
w/ juffage and i love you
lawrence, Kansas

October 2nd 2009

LEMP
w/ .e, luxora, the zapruder soundtrack ( all ages)
st. louis, missouri

October 3rd 2009

emerald space
w/ baby birds dont drink milk, mr history, burger kingdom
kansas city, missouri

October 17th 2009

recordBar
w/ the life and times
kansas city, missouri

November 14th 2009

the brick
w/ cpt. captain
kansas city, missouri

March 27th 2010

replay lounge
w/ tre orsi (TX) & karma vision
lawrence, kansas

March 29th 2010

recordBar
w/ brasstronaut (Vancouver) & camera
kansas city, missouri

May 1st 2010

replay lounge
w/ noah's ark was a spaceship
lawrence, kansas

May 4th 2010

riot room
w/ pharmacy spirits (NE) & lite loins
kansas city, missouri

If The Pixies and My Bloody Valentine double-dated with The Beatles and The Shangri-Las, then a mashup of them all making out would sound like "Muppets." ~ present magazine

Traditional song craft, melody and structure stand hand in hand with anarchy and chaos. ~ the tripwire

The song "Muppets" features a slowly evolving guitar riff with a 90's angular, early Built to Spill feel and the fuzzy, distant vocal melodies familiar to fans of My Bloody Valentine. The stellar pop-gem "I Smell Like Smoke" could be a Guided By Voices b-side with its addictive lo-fi melody that rises above punky acoustic guitar strumming ~ the rathaus

...it's safe to say the seven-piece band is successful in producing controlled chaos. At a perfectly portioned 24 minutes and 48 seconds, Casino Economy is local shoegaze at its finest.
~ from album review of CASINO ECONOMY in the Pitch.

Casino Economy from Kansas City's High Diving Ponies takes me back to my own musical awakening. It is a record that is drenched in the sweat of the bands that taught me that rock and roll didn't have to sound safe and fun to be good...High Diving Ponies have put together a fine collection of short songs which remind us that not all music is made for pretty people. It's a record that serves the purpose of affirming that not all is well with us, and with the world. But if that's not what you need out of your rock and roll, there are plenty of other records out there for that.
~ from present magazine's review of CASINO ECONOMY.

High Diving Ponies is a post-shoegaze noise pop band from kansas city, missouri. Inspired equally by off-tempo, angular ealry 90's guitar rock and 60's girl pop, High Diving Ponies mask their poppy melodies with layers of feedback and cello.

a brief history of High Diving Ponies:

Justin Piatt (drummer for spidermums) likes to drink whiskey, so does Justin Brooks.

Before Piatt's legal problems forced him to leave kansas city, he used to go out a lot... to drink whiskey. on one of these adventures, he met justin brooks. soon justin brooks became a regular at spidermums shows. Justin's band (The Factory Workers, a two piece blues-core band) was an obvious choice for an opening act at one of the last spidermums shows.

Shortly after that show, all the spidermums but Josh left kansas city. for a few months, Josh wrote new songs inspired by dreams of trips of omaha, playing house parties on ayahuasca with radiohead, doing smack, and watching Fraggle Rock. Josh eventually got lonely and bored with the limitations of Fruity Loops as a drummer, or maybe more accurately, his inability to use the software properly. He also missed playing shows and touring.

He went through his phone looking for drummers and found Justin's name. One phone call and he was in. Al (gtr/vocals/songwriter for The Factory Workers) was interested in playing bass. Steve Williams, who had been playing cello on Josh's home demos for a while, was talked into being in the band too, even though his work schedule leaves him out of town for weeks at a time.

In January 2009, High Diving Ponies was decided on as a name, beating out Skinwalker, Dogwelder, and Chemical Bags. After a few practices working out bass and drums parts to Josh's demos, High Diving Ponies started recording sessions on fifteen songs.

Over the last four years, Josh Thomas has quietly released over 60 songs under 5 different bands names (high diving ponies, spidermums, bodisartha, moonwatcherrr, loud hands).

RECORDINGS:

The first album (fractals in heat) was written and recorded within a few months of the spidermums breakup. In 2008, Spidermums released 3 EPs, toured the North Eastern United States, and got random mentions in Pitchfork and NY Magazine in its six months of existence (january 2008 - july 2008). Although this first recording session started in early 2009, other projects * and the writing of what would become the second High Diving Ponies album pushed the release date further and further back.

After recieving an offer they couldn't refuse from Chris Cosgrove, the second album was recorded in September 2009. The basic tracking (guitar/vox/bass/drums) was recorded in one afternoon. In the following months, cello, noise, more guitars, theremin, and piano overdubs were recorded in Josh's basement. Cosgrove was too busy to mix the album, so Josh did it. Around this time, Josh finally finished mixing the first High Diving Ponies album he'd started recording nearly a year earlier. Both these albums and a remix version of fractals in heat are avialable at shows, on bandcamp,, and from the band by email.

LIVE SHOW:

The High Diving Ponies live show is different from night to night. The only permanent members are Justin Brooks (drums), Alheim Amador (bass), and Josh Thomas (guitar/vocals). For some shows, this is the complete lineup. For other shows, depending on who's on tour and who's in town, there can be up to seven people on stage. When available, the following people play live with High Diving Ponies: James Capps (The Girl is a Ghost, Spidermums) on noise guitar, Steve Williams on cello, Tim Goodwillie (GOODWILLIES) on oscilators/noise machines, Joey Henry (The Calamity Cubes) on noise banjo, and Erik (Burger Kingdom, Umbros) on noise guitar.

In April 2010, High Diving Ponies released all three albums as free downloads from their website, blog, and myspace. The albums are also available on lightscribe CDR and tape at live shows, a few KC/Lawrence independent music outlets, iTunes, and bandcamp.

14 songs have been written for the fourth release, which will be recorded in the summer of 2010 with chris cosgrove.

A compilation of demos and unreleased material from high diving ponies and spidermums will be released, for free, on bandcamp in May 2010.

High Diving Ponies is:

Josh Thomas - guitars, vocals, noise, recording
Alheim Amador - bass
Justin Brooks - drums
Steve Williams - cello
Joey Henry - noise banjo
Tim Goodwilie - noise everything

 

other projects
spidermums
bodisartha
the factory workers
moonwatcherrr
calamity cubes
the girl is a ghost
goodwillies

 

©2009 Circleview Records