Ponytail

Ponytail didn't come together how most bands do: The original five members were randomly chosen by poet Jeremy Sigler to collaborate on music. "I am amazed people took us seriously during our first year or so as a band," says drummer Jeremy Hyman. "We were all energy and no direction; it was like watching someone drop a machine gun down a flight of stairs." Since that time, the Baltimore act has become one of the stars of the burgeoning new American indie underground, spiritual kin to sublimely noisy, neo-tribal acts like High Places, HEALTH and Lightning Bolt. "Baltimore is an amazing place to live for art and music," Hyman says. "The people here are really willing to listen to new ideas, even if they are far-fetched."