Hello all,
We are pleased to welcome Kim Walvisch to the Black Pony Express family. She will be taking over pianola duties as Lilith Lane is moving on to focus on her solo work. This has been a very painless process and Lil departs with all our love and support.
We have finally finished our 2nd album 'HOME' and this will be released one way or another early 2009.
Plans for our next Euro tour are well underway - we will land in Paris on Feb 25th and head to Portugal, then a couple of weeks in Spain followed by a couple of weeks in France. If you're in any of those countries drop us a line & lets have a drink.
 
JX
 
 

Greetings all,

I have not posted a blog for ages & the autumn mists are rolling in...

well whats up?

Our tour of Spain & France was quite a success and we humbly thank everyone who came out and danced and drunk with us. Especially the Black Milk crew in Renne and all those intense poetic girls who treated us so kindly - Im sure you know who you are.

Also cheers to our new Spanish friends especially Tanya in A Coruna - thanks for nursing my spirit and holding my hand. And the Pamplona crew and of course El Beasto for all and all. Juan thanks for stealing Cliffs beer & Gorka it was a real delight to meet you finally. Anyway...

We will be heading back in November/December for a longer one - especially we will move through France a bit more extensively and enter into Germany & Holland.

While in Gijon we recorded a couple of songs - a BPX version of Running Dry & an organ heavy version of Ropemakers Daughter - we will be launching it at The Tote at the end of May.

We will then be out of action for a couple of months as we finally finish the difficult second album (tentatively entitled HOME)...this record is 95% done - just a few tweeks & Mr Ron Penot will be singing on a song (I am so excited about that) and art work etc etc then we are done.

Our next gig after single launch will be at the BANG! festival in August - I am organising all that right now and its gonna be huge so keep yr ears posted for updates.

In other news our very own Lilith Lane is launching her excellent solo album on May 10th @ The Empress - its an arvo show and starts about 4 o clock.

I have started a side project called Monty Sparrow - we are playing a mix of my solo stuff and some wall of sound improvised stuff and a few covers, people like Hank Williams & LOW & Nathan Hollywood and stuff. Check out the MySpace - it should have songs up soon ish. Also we are playing all over town so come have a shandy why don't you?

Also as of May 8th I will be joining Andrew McCubbin & The Hope Addicts on guitar so thats exciting - his MySpace is on our friends list for the uninitiated so have a listen.

What else?

I am still trying to memorise Shakespeare monologues and am thinking about learning interprative dance - its been on my mind ever since some reviewer compared my dancing style to that crazy guy from Joy Division. Respect.


Justin

bpx

Black Pony Express Q&A

Your name:
Justin Cusack.

The name of your band/act etc:
Black Pony Express.

Where are you from (city/country)?
Melbourne, Australia.

Your sound can be described as?
This is a tricky one… Johnny Cash if he was born in the Ukraine? Nick Cave sodomizing David Bowie? A little bit like the ocean hopefully.

Fill us in on the history – where did your band/act start, what changes and developments have happened along the way and where are you now?
Greg and I gave up drinking together and to fill in the time we went to Augie March shows and listened to Sparklehorse and Beatles records. We also started jamming and going to see lots of bad bands. We felt like we weren't seeing many bands playing the sort of music we liked and figured we would give it a bash. It was also a way to deal with the cold, bright shock of sobriety.

Along the way we have added and subtracted members and played a few hundred shows. At the moment we have our most solid and capable line-up: Alan "the mallet" Murphy on drums/percussion, Lilith Lane on keys/vocals, Katrina Morgan on violin and Cliffy Davis on bass; and of course Greg Bukshtyn on guitar/organ and my good self on guitar and lead vocals.

We released our debut album Love in a Cold Place on Spanish label BANG! Records in December 2006 both here and around the world. At the moment we are playing lots of shows before a tour of Europe in May 2007. We will come back from there and record our next record, tentatively entitled Home, with local mystic/producer Simon Grounds.

What's your earliest memory of developing a passion for music?
As a child I carried a Fisher Price music box around with me everywhere. It played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which was mesmerising. Also, my Mum used to play the album Broken English by Marianne Faithful over and over when we drove back to Adelaide to see the family. This record shocked and delighted me. I recall being ten-years-old and completely transfixed with these feelings and the fact that a record could do this to me. That it was possible to be scared and uplifted and happy and sad and angry all at once. Also around that time my Dad was always playing old [Bob] Dylan vinyl, particularly Highway 61 and Desire. Ballad of a Thin Man and One More Cup of Coffee are two songs that both changed the way I looked at the world… Oh, there are so many more examples I could go on and on but will exercise some restraint.

Your influences (musical, political etc) and why?
People who aren't defined by the vagaries of fashion and what others are doing. I am not influenced by those who mostly just demonstrate they can see and hear what others can see and hear. Haircuts and sneakers leave me completely disinterested and kind of sad.

Anyone who has the courage to express what it's like to be here and awake and a long way from home.
I like Tom Waits, Beethoven, Henry Miller, Hank Williams, Low, Dylan, Mr. Cohen, Dostoyevsky, Marianne Faithful, that guy who has an old junkyard drum kit and busks on Swanston St., Hunter S Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Nabakov, Sex Pistols, Dirty Three, Mr. Coltrane, Rudolph Steiner, Sparklehorse, Wil Oldham, Billie Holiday.

Also lots of our comrades here in Melbourne – Nathan Hollywood, James McCann, The Dumb Earth, The Spoils, Clinkerfield, My Disco, Khancoban, Blessington, Silver Ray; the list goes on and on. People who are connected and soulful and don't give a fuck about what people are wearing on Chapel St.

Most memorable gig you've played and why?
There's been plenty. Probably [our] first one, which was Greg and I playing as a duo at some shitty bar in St Kilda to 30 people eating dinner. I can still remember sweating up there and the sound of knives and forks clattering on china plates.

Our album launch was also a highlight – a full house on a hot Friday night at The Tote. That's kind of my idea of heaven.

Every time we play the Grace Emily in Adelaide I always think that it can't get any better than that. Everyone all packed in and boozed up dancing and smiles. Hmmm… I wish I was there now.

Also supporting Silver Ray at The Retreat was a special show. We had looked up to them, musically, for ages and it was a goal to play with them somewhere. Now we have to work on the Augie March support.

What's the naughtiest thing you and/or the band have gotten up to on tour?
Jesus… I don't know what to tell you. I once cheated in a game of pool with Cliff [Davis, bassist] at The Grace. Actually Cliffy is the real hell raiser, you would have to ask him for details though as he is notoriously tight lipped. Greg once had extra cheese on his post gig pizza, which I felt was a little excessive. That was in Ballarat, I think.

Do you drink? And if so what's you're favourite rock 'n' roll recipe? If you don't drink would you care to elaborate as to why?
No. I am an alcoholic. If I drink I usually wake up a year later living another man's life. And it looks a lot more chaotic than the one I currently lead.

What was the first record that you ever owned and tell us the story of how it came into your possession and why you loved it?
Hallowed Ground - The Violent Femmes.

Some friend of my older sister gave it to me, I think. I was young and impressionable. This is another record that is kind of terrifying but you can tap your feet to it. Country Death Song and Black Girls are both beautiful songs. This was an album that taught me that it's possible to be scared and want to dance at the same time; that a song has the power to make you horny and sad and exultant and angry all at once.

Also records like this made me feel that this was something I could do. Something I would want to do. To make music that was, to me, quite dangerous and exposed. This was the sound of a man opening up his head and chest fearlessly and showing me what was inside. That's the punk ethos that I sometimes talk about. You can say what you want to say, you can impart the feelings that you have. This is your right as an artist and as an individual. I felt like I owned this record and these songs. No one else I knew was listening to this stuff and it certainly wasn't on the radio or TV. Perhaps this was my first taste of the underground?

What's the best thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?
Well it's fun and it isn't corporate. It feels genuine to me and that seems to be a rare thing. It is so inspiring to be part of a community of artists who all work really hard for little financial gain; for the love of it – to use that old cliché. We all work day jobs and scrimp and save to make records and play shows and we all do it together. It's a very comforting thing. I have such a tendency to feel disconnected by the aspirations of my generation and the community at large. It is part of the wonderful positive qualities of music really. That it can make you feel like life is worthwhile. This is a serious thing.

What's the worst thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?
I'm not sure. That we don't get the recognition we sorely deserve? (Laughs softly.)

I suppose the fact that we don't live in a landscape that is rich with government funding or recognition of non-mainstream art is a bit of a drag. But you just get on with it, don't you?

How did you get involved in the music scene you find yourself in now?
A combination of naivety and good luck. When we started out we targeted the bands we loved and went to all their gigs and gave them demos and helped them with their gear and eventually they just got used to us I suppose. The scene found us really. This is a hard question because I'm not sure I really feel part of a scene. I mean there is a bunch of bands I love and we all play together often so I suppose that is a scene. I guess the word scene implies fashion or some passing fad or something and that makes me a little uncomfortable.

Any parting words?
Maintain the rage. Try shutting your eyes and listening to the music. Keep supporting local bands and local radio

 

Black Pony Express

"Love In A Cold Place" (Bang! Records)

 

Nancy Mitford's novel Love In A Cold Climate (in concert with its companions The Pursuit Of Love and Don't Tell Albert) is a classic, and pseudo auto-biographical narrative and analysis of the quirks and idiosyncratic social practices that underpinned the English class system in the early 20th century.  Black Pony Express' album, Love In A Cold Place, is about as reminiscent of the English class system as the front bar of the Tote looks like a gentleman's club. Yet the album sits neatly in the genealogical structure of Melbourne music which - as all parochial Melbournians understand without a skerrick of self-indulgence - is as rich and blue blooded as any example of the English aristocracy, and a helluva more pleasant to witness.

In one respect the genealogical reference is more than simply metaphorical: Love In A Cold Place features the Sons of Ruination, a collective nom de plume for the appearance of children of members of Melbourne blues-punk legends Blue Ruin on backing vocals. But in other respects it's useful in locating Black Pony Express in a local cultural context - Resurrection Blues, for example, exudes the driving blues and swamp punk attitude of the Birthday Party and the Scientists (without for a moment suggesting derivation or imitation), and the skeletal intensity of Midnight Song, Where Is The Love? and Vera Lynn bring to mind the Bad Seeds at their most honest and romantic. In contrast, Home is pretty and content, a soundtrack for the honeymoon in a new domestic residence (before the harsh reality of mortgage payments dampen the light of hope) and Nocturne and Poor Boy are laden with the Romany beauty. But while the influences might be loitering in the background, the band's delivery is distinctive, precise and engrossing.

It's frequently claimed that Melbourne's idiosyncratic climatic character lies at the heart of the vibrant local music scene.  If you're ever stuck inside, at home or in the pub, on a cold winter's evening (rain seems to be a thing of the past in Melbourne), Black Pony Express will keep you warm.

Patrick Emery

BLACK PONY EXPRESS
Love in a Cold Place
(Bang!)
8.5/10

Swinging with the dusty lilt of a saloon door, Melbourne's Black Pony Express play an Australian strand of carnivalesque, countrified blues that occasionally warms itself on the sun-dappled side of the bar with the Go-Betweens and the Triffids, but feels more at home drowning its sorrows in the dank corners with the Bad Seeds and the Dirty Three. From the titles alone ('Resurrection Blues,' 'nocturne'), this is an album of hard drinkin', hard luck stories set to an expansive, cinematic ensemble featuring violin, piano, accordion and gospel backing vocals. 'Home' and 'Silver Pennies' are as poppy and bittersweet as these guys get, with tinkling xylophone and gentle acoustic arpeggios; but for the most part, these are dark tunes with a slow-burning intensity. 'Where is the Love?' and 'Poor Boy' are drunken gypsy waltzes, while 'Vera Lynn' ends things on an achingly sad note with its mournful descending piano line and the stinging howl of its guitar solo. The sense of tension and drama created by Alan 'the mallet' Murphy's thumping drums, Katrina Morgan's sawing violin, and the howling guitar feedback of Greg Bukshtyn is complimented by Justin Cusack's cracked, plaintive voice that lends a weary tenderness to this material (Strom).

Tsunami review

Black Pony Express - Love In A Cold Place
(Bang! / Sonic)

black_pony_express-love_in_a_cold_place.jpgNoorwegen 2004, de aangekondigde camping aan de hoofdweg bleek na vijftien kilometer fietsen "just a sign." Het was al aan het eind van de middag. De volgende camping was 40 kilometer fietsen te ver. Er was wel een simpel hotel dat vol was, maar niet te beroerd was om voor alles en nog wat een poot uit te trekken. Het alternatief was kamperen op de hoogvlakte aan een kleine snel stromende rivier of groot uitgevallen beek met steenkoud water, maar prachtig omgeven door statige bergen. Na het koken en eten werd het fris en de duisternis viel in. De maan schitterde, maar het was tijd om de slaapzak op te zoeken. Daar zat ik dan op een geweldige plek ergens aan het eind van de wereld. Thermo-ondergoed en de dikke slaapzak voorkwamen niet dat ik klappertandend wakker werd. Een overnachting in een tent is voor mij nooit meer zo koud geweest. De volgende ochtend was het wassen, de tent afbreken, de fiets optuigen en weer verder. Dit niet zonder intens te genieten van de rit terug naar de hoofdweg. Gek genoeg moest ik hier aan denken bij het beluisteren van Love In A Cold Place van het Australische vijftal Black Pony Express. De stem van Justin Custack gaat door merg en been. De muziek klinkt geheimzinnig, desolaat, maar ook weer zo intens. Alsof Nick Cave en Tom Waits samen aan het kamperen zijn in een indrukwekkend omgeving met moerassen en bergen. Ik sta er met mijn tent vlakbij, uiteraard.

Melbourne six-piece Black Pony Express are another one of those local acts that seem to be more popular overseas than they are in their home country.  Their debut album, Love In A Cold Place, released on Spanish label Bang!, leaves no hint as to why the band are not more appreciated here.  Filled with soulful, melancholy music, it's more than a mere pleasure to listen to; it is a downright honour.

Singer Justin Cusack, surely the possessor of one of the brownest, most delicious voices in this town, has been quoted as saying that the album is simply the kind of music the band itself would want to listen to, and I must surmise from this that they all have very good taste.  Genre hopping like it was about to go out of fashion, Love...treats us to everything from blues, (opening track and personal favourite Resurrection Blues), to country, (the sublime Home), and a world of sounds poised delicately and not so delicately in-between and somewhere off to the side.  In fact, one needs to consult Black Pony Express' Myspace influences box to get a true handle on this bunch.  There, lazily, one finds names as diverse as Pink Floyd, Will Oldham, The Bad Seeds and Augie March, and things begin to make a little more sense.  But forget all that, really, and just play the bloody record.  It may take a good listen or two, like anything worthwhile, but with a little luck, you'll be as impressed as I was, and you'll tell some friends, who will in turn tell others.  You get the picture.  Then, hopefully, a year or two down the track, I won't find myself writing about how Melbourne is losing yet another great band to a permanent overseas relocation.

- Tony McMahon 

"De muy difícil digestión inicial pero placentera siesta" sería un buen antetítulo en la descripción ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />del disco de debut que Bang! Records trae hasta nuestra habitación de esta fenomenal banda de Melbourne. El disco es difícil porque arrasa su primera canción "Resurrection Blues" marca de la casa, pantano australiano y fuego vibrante. Uno espera que el resto del recorrido de "Love in a Cold Place" se haga sobre los rescoldos aun humeantes de ese primer tema pero nada más lejano a la realidad. Ese ardor novicio inicial se convierte a posteriori en tristes melodías, en instrumentaciones delicadas, en pausados ritmos de blues, en country adaptado, en cuerdas inesperadas tanto por su limpieza como efectividad en los arreglos compositivos, en guitarras que de nuevo vuelven a brillar, en muchas cosas que por inesperadas no dejan de maravillar. Es un disco triste, "Where is the Love", es un disco de música de cabaret infecto, olor a alcohol y despecho de amor, "Poor Boy", de fuerza tremenda, "Day Three", es un disco en el que encontramos muchos estados de ánimo (también algunos medio buenos "Home") y sin duda sorprendente de inicio a fin, engancha tanto por el fuego inicial como por el rescoldo posterior, quema la piel y quema el alma, y no lo dudes, si tu fuerza interior está bajo cero este no es tu disco, solo si estás solo, eres fuerte y quieres vibrar, ponlo alto, muy alto. Y ya sabes, en cd y vinilo de portada abierta con tan solo 500 copias. 

BLACK PONY EXPRESS - Love In A Cold Place (BANG!)
Troy D. Colvin

Much has been made recently of the 'Australian Sound' that many of our musical acts posses. Whatever its foundation, it is certainly linked to the shameful rule demanding local recognition must follow international acclaim. Not dismissing Black Pony Express's three years of crafting said 'sound', it has taken the interest of a Spanish label to give them a stage from which to deliver this mature and affecting debut. Vocalist and guitarist Justin Cusack leads his six-piece by voice and guitar through tales of melancholic nursery crimes, shaped with wailing viola, piano, and some creepy backing vocals.

The irony of all this is that Love In A Cold Place doesn't sound one bit Australian: it's more akin to the dustbowl landscape that informed Calexico - heart rendering country blues in a cheap suit.

MESS + NOISE Nov/Dec 2006

well finally some blog worthy news - our album 'Love In A Cold Place' will be released worldwide by BANG! Records in oct/nov. Their myspace is just down there in our friends list.

BANG! is home to much dark Melbourne rock - people like The Drones, Beasts of Bourbon, Spencer P Jones etc. So we will definitely be the sensitive skinny kid of the class...rushing past all the big boys in the playground - hoping to keep hold of our lunch money and retain our fragile dignity, such as it is.

After spending a year making the record and seven months trying to get it out, to say we are relieved and exultant would be an understatement.

We are just finalising all the art work and stuff. We plan to launch early November.

salute!