Instead, I skidded and skated to Euro Deli in the notoriously cold Montreal winter weather, and when I got there, the ladies were already seated. Shoot. I introduced myself, and then, in all my nerd glory - my glasses fogged up from the heat.

"Oh that's the worst! That happens to me all the time in the winter too!" chimes in Lisa Smith, bassist, and the only bespectacled member of the group.

I can't help but love them already.

Smith is flanked by her Pony Up counterparts: keyboardist Laura Wills, drummer Lindsay Wills, guitarist Sarah Moundrakis, and miscellaneous instrumentalist Camilla Wynne Ingr.

My love affair with Pony Up began in June of 2004, when they were opening for Ben Lee in Montreal. Their charm lay in their mix of clever junior-high reminiscent lyrics, such as in Heard you got action, which they released on a split 7" earlier in 2004 with Ben Lee - "Let's talk baseball/Did you slide into second/Did you hit them all/Was it out of the park/or a foul ball?/was it just one game/or is he gonna call?"; combined with catchy pop hooks, driving bass lines, and a rotation of uncommon instruments, among them the xylophone and accordion. The girls insist, however that the Pony Up sound has matured quite markedly.

"The lyrics were reflective of one moment in time. It's too bad that the EP that we're releasing doesn't have some of our new material on it, our new music is pretty different from what's on the EP," explains Smith.

HOW WE MET

The formation of Pony Up! is a complex interweaving of chance meetings, coincidences and circumstances. Laura explains how it happened.

"Well, Lindsay is my sister, and we met Lisa through my brother, who she used to date. Camilla and my sister were in a band together. And Lisa met Sarah at work hairdressing at Coupe Bizzarre. Now, some of us live together too."

The girls originally came from different parts of Quebec, but now reside in two separate apartments in Mile End.

THE PONY UP GESTALT

One thing that outsiders will immediately notice about Pony Up is that they operate as a single entity. They don't have an official spokesperson for the group per se, and usually do interviews and photo shoots together. One of the ladies will say something, and it's followed by a stream of comments from the others.

"That way, if one of us doesn't know the answer to a question, we can I guess, hide behind the other," explains Lisa.

They discuss it further amongst themselves, coming up with times when each of them was spokesperson.

"I don't ever like being the spokesperson," interjects Sarah shyly.

"I was telling someone the other day how I can be more myself if I'm with the other girls in a photo shoot, than if I was by myself. Less inhibitions I think," explains Lisa.

What are the meanings behind the songs on Pony Up's self-titled EP? Heard You Got Action Camilla: This is basically a conversation between the two of us (Camilla and Laura), we actually recorded it in the park. The exact conversation never really happened, but it draws from real life conversations between the two of us. Laura: Actually, to tell you the truth, I don't even have a bike and I don't think I've ever doubled on a bike. Camilla: I have one, and I did. Laura: Oh OK, so that's where that comes from. My favourite part of this song is the baseball metaphors. Marlon Brando's Laundromat Laura: This was actually from a dream of mine - we were doing laundry at Marlon Brando's laundromat, and this guy that I liked was there. Creamy Jeans for Matthew Modine Camilla: This was actually the first song we ever wrote. There was a phase that I kept on watching Matthew Modine movies. We kind of also wanted to write a song that referenced someone really obscure. Actually, this song and Heard You Got Action were kind of strange songs since we wrote the song lyrics first, and then gave it to everyone to write the music. Usually we write the music and lyrics simultaneously, or music, then the lyrics. 4 Chords Laura: This is based on a true story, a one night stand that ended up ruining a friendship. This reminds me of doing a show, when there were three guys in the audience that I had sex with. If only they knew! It's too bad, because one of them looked like Ad Rock. (sighs) Shut up and Kiss Me Laura: This was about the same guy that was in my dream with Marlon Brando's Laundromat. It's everything I wanted to say to him but never could. Minstrel Camilla: I wrote this song when I had pneumonia, it's sort of about relationship anxiety. And maybe even a cry for siblings. Laura: But you don't have siblings. Camilla: Hmm, well I remember that I was really sick and thought I had SARS. Going Nowhere Sarah: I'm not too sure. Ummm... it's about a car trip. Camilla: maybe it's about getting artistic inspiration from Jehovah. Sarah: Being stuck in a rut? Lindsay: You can ad lib it from the title! Sarah: I'm not sure. Swans on the Lake Camilla: This song was kind of about a boy, but then it turned out to be about Mayakovsky, that Russian poet. The first line of the song is taken from a Jim Carroll poem. Hmmm, I'm not sure actually what this is about. Toy Piano Laura: This song is just about being tougher than you actually are.

SEALING THE DEAL

Pony Up formed in 2002, but it wasn't until 2003 that they inked a record deal with Ben Lee's Ten Fingers Records and Dim Mak. The ladies admit that they were not particularly career minded about the band at first. They had recorded a demo, and one night, they decided to attend a Ben Lee concert.

"I didn't realize that he was still making music, I had mostly seen him in magazines with captions like, 'Clare Danes with Australian indie rocker boyfriend Ben Lee,'" Lisa admits. She had listened to his first solo albums on Grand Royal.

The Ben Lee concert that fateful evening was sparsely attended. Slightly inebriated and feeling sorry for Lee, they thought they would liven up the show by shouting out requests for songs. After the show finished, the ladies met him at the merchandise stand, and invited him out to Pistol (a local Montreal bar) for drinks, not thinking he would show up. To their surprise, Lee not only showed up, but took up their invitation to show him around town the next day. The ladies made the best of their moment and gave him a demo of their music.

"He called us a month later. I think the reason why he was into us was that we reminded him of himself when he started - I think Ben's exact words were that we had 'musical innocence,'" explained Smith and Ingr.

Despite looking like they had stepped out of a Clean & Clear commercial, Lee only realized later that several of the girls in Pony Up were actually older than he was.

"He was really surprised [to find out that several of us were older than him], but he's older than us in ways of the music world," explains Lisa in reference to Lee's involvement in music since the age of 13.

TOURING

For two months in the fall of 2004, the ladies were on tour with Lee, traveling 39 of the 50 states in a mini-van. They were forced to rearrange their lives in Montreal. Lisa and Sarah took a hiatus from their jobs cutting hair. Camilla had to quit her work as a pastry chef, and Laura and Lindsay had to quit school at Concordia.

"We went on two tours actually, the one during the summer and the one in the fall. The one in the summer was really fun, it was with Ben, Lara, and Jason (Schwartzman)," explains Laura, a self-professed fan of the latter's acting.

Schwartzman jumped off for the second leg of the tour, and left Lara as sole backup for Ben. Lara tours regularly with other musicians, and is able to play any instrument.

"She is very regimented and organized. In the mornings, she would be off swimming at a local pool doing her laps, or stretching. No matter what town it was, she did her research beforehand and always managed to find a pool. It was amazing!"

The ladies, on the other hand, found themselves very much at home at Cracker Barrel, a chain of restaurants located at major interstates across the U.S.

"While Lara was off swimming in the morning, we'd be eating grits and bacon at Cracker Barrel. They're basically a series of restaurants with a general store that all look the same - they all have a cheesy Western façade. The best thing about these restaurants were these books on tape that you could return anywhere," says Camilla.

"Actually, in our apartment, we have a Cracker Barrel map hung up, so now we know where they all are next time we go on tour," exclaims Laura.

In addition to Cracker Barrel, another perk of being on the road was the exposure. The girls received many positive reactions - although the majority of the fans were Lee's fans and hadn't heard of them, in some other cities, effeminate indie rock boys knew all the lyrics to all their songs and one particularly enthusiastic fan of Schwartzman's had memorized all their names.

"Dark Side of the Poon" -One of Pony Up's rejected titles for their self-titled EP

"The most interesting person that liked our music was a really old, burly sound guy who was actually kind of intimidating. He gave us a hug after our show and told us he loved our music, we were really flattered," says Camilla.

The ladies also sold one-of-a-kind silk screened Pony Up! T-shirts made up of old clothes from their closet and rejected album titles for their self-titled EP coming out January 25th.

"It was a win-win situation - everyone gets a one-of-a-kind t-shirt, and we got to get rid of old shirts that we don't wear anymore," explains Camilla, laughing at some of the shirts that she was happy never to see again.

"My favourite title was 'Dark Side of the Poon'," laughs Laura.

WE LIKE OUR MUSIC.

I ask the girls what their friends and family think of their music.

"Well, our dad hasn't mentioned much about some of the questionable content of our music," explains Laura about some of their saucier lyrics.

"But our parents are pretty proud of us, since they were both musicians themselves," chimes in Lindsay.

"My parents collect all the magazines that we're in, and they often buy a second copy for my grandparents," explains Lisa.

"And in terms of friends, well we don't have many friends. Except for the five of us, and I suppose we like our music," jokes Camilla.

THE LATEST UPHOLDERS OF FEMININE PRESTIGE

One last thing I have to ask the girls is about a line in their bio, Pony Up as "the latest upholders of feminine prestige in the race for hit parade honours." I wonder what it means to uphold feminine prestige. I think of Brigitte Bardot holding up a mace, or some kind of deluxe maxi pad.

"Oh that! You're the first person who's asked us!" says Laura.

The girls discuss it amongst themselves.

"We actually got that from the back of an old Ponytails album," Laura and Camilla laugh, "and thought it would be a catchy thing to put in our bio. We're not even sure what it means ourselves."

Pony Up, no doubt, is still defining it.

More information on Pony up! can be found at their website, and their label Dim Mak.
Any comments on this story, send to kitty[at]keetologue[dot]com.