★★★★★
Poi Dog Pondering ? aneight-piece Austin, Tex.-based band that originated in Honolulu andutilizes such varied instruments as violin, banjo, and trumpet ? isgenerally known for its distinctive blend of Hawaiian idioms,tropical twang, and meandering, hippieish folk rock. But on theirthird album, Volo Volo, the Poi Dogs seem to be making a concertedeffort to sound like somebody (actually, anybody and everybody) else...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Their psychedelic world-music rep won't prepare you for what they actually sound like, which is a circa-'86 Brit shambling band that knows how loose is too loose. Imagine the Mighty Lemon Drops with extra percussion singing about breakfast, sex, and wonder in a place where central heating just isn't an issue. Honolulu, Austin, what's the dif? They're Sun Belt hippies either way, glad to be alive where the living is easy.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
And the winner for cutesiest band around is...awwww, you guessed!But quick, let's give Poi Dog Pondering credit for not only beingcute. Point at random to a spot on a world map, and no doubt thisband can play its own version of that spot's native music...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
For 12 years now, Poi Dog Pondering have been doing their thing without paying much attention to the fact that they're neither well-known in the mainstream or especially hip among indie fans or music critics. And the whole time they've been continually evolving: changing members and changing their sound album to album. Since 1995 or so they've made their home in Chicago, on their own label Platetectonic Records...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-22
★★★★★
The year is 2025. The place: St. Paul Simon's Academy, nestled in the rustic autumn-shaded hills of central New England. A clutch of wool-scarf wearing, fresh-faced lads is rifling through the stacks of the school's musty music library, in the basement of its famous vine-clad clock tower...
- www.popmatters.com
2008-11-11
★★★★★
Eclectic and expansive eleven-piece ensemble Poi Dog Pondering proves adept at mastering diverse musical styles and controlling the commercial end of their own distribution and production. I find them at their most sublime and inimitable in the pop ballad. To even the first-time listener, such Poi Dog warhorses as "Pomegranate," "Catacombs," and "Complicated" offer that instant familiarity of a successfully crafted song. Any pop music creator would be proud to have one of these as a "one-hit...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea was a breakthrough album for Poi Dog Pondering, as AOR and college radio stations around the country began to discover the zany, eclectic, outdoor-summer jam-session sound of the Chicago-based band...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Poi Dog Pondering was always a band better appreciated in a live context, its albums never quite capturing the excitement of the group's rock/folk/pop/world music stew. The reason is simple: like other fun jam bands such as Phish, Aquarium Rescue Unit and the like, Poi Dog never really mastered the art of writing concise, radio-friendly songs, preferring to let their tight grooves and polyrhythmic percussion beds carry the music...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
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