The Oxygen Ponies

You Should Know


I've been spinning this melancholic record a ton lately from a band called The Oxygen Ponies, which is actually a moniker for New York singer/songwriter Paul Megna. If you read the biography on his website, you'd think you were reading the treatment for the next Charlie Kaufman script. For example: "As a teenager, Paul Megna was taught how to play guitar by Jeff Buckley - after being shot in the neck by a sniper in Hell's Kitchen in 1994. His misfortune was covered on Page Six of the New York Post under the caption 'Bullets over Broadway.' A playwright saw the write-up, contacted Paul in the hospital and offered him the lead in the production of 'Coffee With Kurt Cobain'" If that excerpt alone isn't enough to peak your interest, then the fact that Menga makes wonderfully lonely music should suffice. Paul's been through some tough times, and that predisposition generally bodes well for heart-on-your-sleeve songwriting. In fact, the material on the Oxygen Ponies debut feels like a hangover on the brightest day of the year, where beams of sunlight battle with drawn curtains and unfiltered cigarettes are the medicine of choice. The songs are mostly built on acoustic guitars, but electronic touches add nuance to the tracks. Menga's voice is rustic and sounds exhausted, especially on songs like "Chainsmoking," where Menga admits, "All my stupid life I have searched for you/ And now that I have your love I don't know what to do." We've all known people who blame everything and everyone else for their problems, and luckily Menga never crosses that line. While there's melancholy-o-plenty on the album, there's an undercurrent of personal responsibility on songs like "Get Over Yrself" that keeps the material from becoming unbearably somber. If your tastes lie in the Red House Painters/Afghan Whigs vein, then you'll dig the The Oxygen Ponies. Menga is set to start working on a new album soon, so be on the lookout. -- Capt. Obvious

Listen:
MP3: The Oxygen Ponies - Chainsmoking
MP3: The Oxygen Ponies - Happy Where U R
Tags: The Oxygen Ponies, Paul Megna