CMJ's Hottest Bands: 10 Buzz-Worthy Breakouts

Ponytail

Originally brought together by a painting professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore art-punk party band Ponytail make a joyful racket with an expressionist swirl of colorful noises, danceable grooves and howled onomatopoeia. Lead singer Molly Siegel spent Tuesday's show at Music Hall of Williamsburg shuddering and gazing at the sky like she was having a private tantrum. Letting loose a pre-verbal stream of ululations, squeals, trills and nonsense, the band cut a primal path that had the heretofore sedate audience clapping and dancing along. With eyes rolled back, a perpetual grin and loose limbs flopping about like a rag-doll's stuffed arms, Siegel's performance was more like a possession ritual than a rock show. When they closed with the aptly named viral MP3 hit "Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From An Angel)," Siegel was seconds away from doing jumping jacks as the band rode their spastic dance-punk grooves and squishy guitar textures into almost half a dozen climaxes in the song's seven-minute run time. CHRISTOPHER R. WEINGARTEN

Listen Here: "Celebrate the Body Electric"