La Sera/Do Whatever You Want All the Time

La Sera - La Sera (Hardly Art, 2011)

2011 has already been a productive year for the members of Vivian Girls. Not only have they released their third album, but bassist Katy Goodman has joined guitarist Cassie Ramone in releasing music under a different moniker. La Sera is Goodman's solo project, and this self-titled debut is a very solid batch of mellow and dreamy guitar pop. The guitars jangle and the bass is unsurprisingly bouncy (which is Goodman's style), and the heavily reverbed vocals fit in perfectly. Overall, La Sera may be a little more mellow than I was hoping, but the variety of sounds and quality of melodies make up for that. Standout "Been Here Before" is especially catchy and memorable.

Do Whatever You Want All the Time - Ponytail (We Are Free, 2011)

Though I didn't love it, there were things I liked about Ponytail's 2008 breakthrough, Ice Cream Spiritual, namely the mathy song structures and time signatures, the incredibly fun and complex guitar work and the insane drumming. Thankfully, those carry over onto they're latest, Do Whatever You Want All the Time. However, there are other things that make this the superior record. Molly Siegel's obnoxious vocals are still irritating at worst and interesting at best, but overall are more tolerable. While the guitar lines are still very melodic and impressively intricate, but they're more tastefully done. The drums are still completely wanky, but in this case it almost seems completely necessary. In spite of all of this, it still sounds like the band has chilled out a bit, and the inclusion of dynamics definitely helps. Do Whatever You Want All the Time isn't something I can listen to all the time, but it is an enjoyable and interesting listen every time I do put it on.