Nathan Jerde, the drummer for Chicago’s beloved early-aughts storage rock revivalists the Ponys, has died. Matador Data shared the news final evening, Monday, Could 5, with the band’s former label, Within the Crimson, additionally posting a message to Instagram earlier at this time: “[Jerde] was an superior man and a implausible drummer. To say he will probably be missed is an understatement,” it reads, partially.
Shaped in 2001 by singer and guitarist Jered Gummere, the Ponys started their life as a three-piece of himself, bassist Melissa Elias, and Jerde, who was taking part in in native punk act the Mushuganas on the time. They quickly grew to a quartet with the addition of Completely happy Provide’s Ian Adams, who contributed organ and extra guitar, and, after placing out a sequence of singles on native labels Large Neck and Contaminated data, signed to Los Angeles-based label Within the Crimson. The Ponys’ debut album, Laced with Romance, got here out in 2004, they usually went on to tour the file alongside the likes of the Fall and the Fiery Furnaces.
Whereas Laced with Romance was a simple mix of storage scuzz and British Invasion mod-rock, for his or her sophomore LP, 2005’s Steve Albini-produced Celebration Castle, the Ponys drew inspiration from Joy Division and early Sonic Youth. That very same 12 months, the band put out an EP, titled Another Wound. They finally changed Adams with 90 Day Men’s Brian Case and had been picked up by Matador, the place they launched what could be their third and ultimate studio album, Turn the Lights Out, in 2007. The Ponys have since stayed off the radar, resurfacing briefly in 2010 with the EP Deathbed + 4 and once more in 2017 for a one-off reunion present at Chicago’s Do Division Road Fest.
As Pitchfork wrote in our evaluate of the Ponys’ debut: “What units Laced with Romance aside from the abundance of garage-rock albums launched over the previous few years is its ample possession of groove, by turns huge and heavy or free and sloppy. The file’s 12 tracks show a deep understanding of fundamental rhythm, one thing direly missing among the many present crop of throwback acts. Ponys drummer Nathan Jerde reliably hammers each backbeat, however the propulsive silence of his ghost notes is what really drives these songs.”
