Customer Reviews

The Best of Poi Dog Pondering (The Austin Years)

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Poi Dog Pondering have gone through numerous lineup changes over the years and subsequently, their sound has changed drastically over the past two decades. Their earliest work, which is represented on this disk, is very acoustic and folky, with heavy influence from world music. There are a lot of unconventional instruments, fiddles, accordians, whistles, hand drums. One could make a strong argument that the Poi Dog Pondering sound represented here played a vital role in Dave Matthews Band's early work, or at least had a hand in folky early 90s acoustic rock (Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, etc.) being so widely accepted.

To be honest, the record company has collected the best songs from that particular phase of PDP, and left all the rest (which is, for the most part, disposable and unforgettable) off. This makes for quite a strong disc, even if the lead singer's voice gets a little tiresome at times.

One can only hope that Poi Dog Pondering will release another greatest hits, particularly of their more recent work. Their newer material is more funk and soul-oriented, with some songs being downright techno. But, as stated above, it's practically a different band now. The lead singer is the only face who remains from these formative years.

Since the Amazon writeup does not give the track list for some reason, here it is:

1. Pulling Touch 5:20
2. Everybody's Trying (Single Edit) 4:05
3. I've Got My Body 5:12
4. The Hardest Thing 4:25
5. Collarbone 4:03
6. The Watermelon Song 5:16
7. Love Vigilantes 3:50
8. Thanksgiving 4:30
9. Get Me On 3:58
10. Jack Ass Ginger 5:32
11. Be The One (Single Version) 3:56
12. Living With the Dreaming Body 3:51
13. I Had To Tell You 2:49
14. Bury Me Deep

I first heard Poi Dog Pondering on WUSC, the student-run radio station of the University of South Carolina. They even recorded a station-id spot that would play periodically. Back in those days, the group was very acoustic and somewhat new-folkish, and I *really* liked them. At one time, "Wishing Like a Mountain, and Thinking Like the Sea" was my favorite album. I kept looking and looking for a new album from them (this was before the Internet, so you never knew in advance what was coming out until you saw it at the store) but none was forthcoming. Finally I was ecstatic to find "Jackass Ginger" on the racks and took it home immediately. I thought I must have gotten the wrong disc in the CD player somehow -- the sound was so *completely* different from WLAM that it was like two different bands, and I never warmed to it, or any of their other "new" albums.

I have to fault this collection a bit for missing some of the best tracks from WLAM, like "U-Li-La-Lu", "Spending the Day in the Shirt You Wore", and "Sugarbush Cushman".

The best of is a nice start to the band, but it's really true the band didn't hit their stride until the new '7' CD....completely flawless from start to finish, you need to pick up 7 and then go back and rediscover the back catalog....it really helps to put things in perspective and understand where Frank is coming from