With a resume that would make any rocker jealous, Jonny Polonsky is back after an eight year hiatus. Jonny has managed to play with everyone from April Mach and Local H to being the backing band to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and yet he still manages to hold his own on his sophomore CD, The Power Of Sound. Although it has been eight years since Jonny has unveiled a studio full length, it doesn’t make this power pop gem any less worthy. At times a little Matthew Sweet, the catchy lyrics and infectious melodies immediately suck in the listener. (This should come as no surprise since Jonny was discovered by Frank Black.) Jonny plays all the instruments on Power Of Sound, except a few drum tracks laid down by A Perfect Circle’s Josh Freese. Clocking in at less than thirty minutes, highlights include “Where the Signs End” and “Even The Oxen”. Being that Jonny has accomplished all this at such a young age (31 now), and if his live shows are anything like his recorded work, then I think we are in for a treat for years to come.
- Erin Chandler, Tripwire
NEWS & REVIEWS
For some reason, rock stars feel comfortable talking to me, and I've heard a few pretty crazy stories about how different artists got signed or were "discovered," but I've never heard one quite as much fun or as quirkily original as that of power pop singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jonny Polonsky. A complete and total music geek fanatic since he was practically an egg, Jonny was compelled by an obsessive love of the Beatles and The Monkees to start playing guitar at age nine. He began writing his own original songs not long after that. As a teenager growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Jonny played in a variety of original rock bands. He made tapes of his songs and mailed them out to, in his words, "all the rock stars I liked. Most of them weren't all that tremendously famous," Jonny explains, "but they were big deals to me."
- Gail Worley, Star Polish, Thirteen Songs, A Playlist Interview with Jonny Polonsky
Whiz kid Jonny Polonsky has been relatively quiet for the past eight years, releasing only one six-song EP since his 1996 debut, Hi My Name Is Jonny. Back in September Polonsky released his long awaited follow-up, The Power Of Sound, on the Seattle based Loveless records label. Much to the delight of everyone involved, the reviews have been very positive and it was just announced on March 17th Jonny will be opening for super group Audioslave.
- Tony Engelhart, Hybrid
Recently signed to Loveless Records, Jonny Polonsky brings his catchy yet tricky pop legacy to the stellar label with an indie rock blackheart. Jonny and imaginary girl Liz recently pummelled each other with emails and exchanged ideas on the indie rock musicals and Jonny's past, present and future.
- Three Imaginary Girls, Imaginary Interview: Jonny Polonsky
Jonny Polonsky opened. His brand of heavy rock (spackled with loads of distortion and delay) fit the night well. Jonny and his bassist and drummer played as if every song was their last and kept the audience’s attention throughout their set, getting a good amount of applause between songs. That’s quite the accomplishment considering how eager the crowd was to see Audioslave.
- Ken Smith, Seattle P-I
On just his second studio album in eight years, Polonsky embellishes pristine power pop with light psychedelia and heavy riffing.
- Spin
It’s a pleasure to witness his return. “The Power of Sound” finds the alternate-universe star sounding better than ever.
- The Onion
All the elements that made his debut in underground sensation are still in place: blistering energy, catchy melodies and clever attitude.
- CMJ
Hard to believe it’s been eight years since 22-year-old Jonny Polonsky’s debut album, Hi My Name Is Jonny, left those of us who devour Raspberries-esque power pop delighted with the introduction. The suburban Chicago native may have lost that first record deal, but apparently not his knack for punching out 180-second sprees of hummable and incisively catchy songs, as his full-length follow-up, The Power of Sound, can attest. On the counsel of our own Pete Droge, Polonsky inked up with Seattle’s Loveless Records, and there’s an early buzz on the new album’s wild-eyed bravado, diverse instrumentation, and songwriting buoyancy. Polonsky, now based in Los Angeles, handles every instrument (save for Josh Freese’s drumming on two tracks) and niftily balances a few bawdy rockers with those all-familiar pop riffs that still ring clear from 1996.
- Scott Holter, The Stranger
In this business, a few artists are to be envied as ‘survivors’--they’re the truly talented people who make great music, and who were at one time or another considered by “the powers that be” as being “the next big thing.” Back in the mid 1990s, someone must have devised a corporate memo stating that power-pop artists with a classic-rock and slightly punky edge would soon be the next trend in music...
- Joseph Kyle, Mundane Sounds
Jonny Polonsky’s The Power of Sound is his first full-length album since 1996’s Hi My Name Is Jonny. It is a welcome return. He sounds older, tougher, and less quirky. There is more power in his power pop, both because of the beefier guitars and heavier drums but also due to the sense of lost time and opportunities that often pops up in the lyrics and the more emotional and assured vocals, too...
- Tim Sendra, AMG All Music
This CD is kicking me in the pants right now. Ouch!
- Cheryl Waters, KEXP DJ
Jonny Polonsky’s first full-length in eight years, The Power of Sound, should be a welcome surprise to anyone who had the good fortune of discovering him in the mid-‘90s and since assumed his career’s demise. For the rest of us, it’s a full-fledged indoctrination into the music of a man we should’ve been listening to all along. In a cliché just begging to be exploited, this is one powerful album, a blitzkrieg of grungy power-pop...
- Nate Seltenrich, Glorious Noise
By all accounts, Jonny Polonsky should be a major star. Discover by Frank Black, signed to American Records by Rick Rubin, and his 1996 debut, Hi My Name Is Jonny, was critically acclaimed. Unfortunately shortly after its release, American lost distribution rights leaving the 22 year old without a label. In 2001 he managed to release a six track EP, There Is Something Wrong With You, with indie label Eggbert. Now nearly eight years from his full-length debut, Jonny Polonsky returns energized with a more then worthy successor, The Power of Sound.
- Tony Engelhart, Losing Today
I get a lot of tapes, but these tapes were different. They were incredible, totally rockin’ stuff. This guy was born to be a rock star and he creates the music to back it up. He is amazing.
- Frank Black (formerly Black Francis of the Pixies)
DoubleTake: ...have you ever heard of a guy named Jonny Polonsky?
Jeff Buckley: Oh yeah sure, the amazing Jonny Polonsky. Yeah. He came to CBGB’s Gallery and ripped it up.
DT: It was a good show?
JB: He killed ‘em.
DT: ...His songs, they’re kind of derivative of stuff he likes -- the Kinks, the Beatles...
JB: Well, on the outset, and then the charm of it is that he’s brought it into his own thing. It’s a nice miniature. He does it with soul; you can tell the difference between someone who just slips into the Beatles or something and someone like him.
- Jeff Buckley (from DoubleTake Magazine)
Jonny Polonsky is, without a doubt, one of America’s most talented rock singer/songwriters, accent on the rock. His American debut, Hi My Name is Jonny, was one of the most critically acclaimed LPs of the last ten years of the 20th century, and his new EP is even better!
- Virtually Alternative
“Not much wrong with the Wilmette native’s EP of power-pop goodness, perfect for a (16-minute) beachfront drive”.
- Chicago Sun Times
“Pop music as simply catchy and infectious as that of Polonsky’s heroes The Beatles and The Monkees.”
- NY Times
“Jonny Polonsky has come up with a debut album to rival all debuts...Track for track, Polonsky’s songs stick in the brain--every one a completely turned out gem”
- SF Examiner
“24 minutes of blissful heaven.”
- MTV Online
“Simply put, Polonsky is the freshest pop star to emerge since Matthew Sweet.”
- Philadelphia Express
“The kind of dazzling pure pop music that will remind listeners of those magnificent Liverpudlians, John Lennon and Elvis Costello. Don’t guffaw. I’m telling you folks, he’s that good.”
- Raygun
“The songs on this debut effort are smartly crafted nuggets of nascent power pop wisdom. The kid is all right.”
- Hits
“I have seen the future of Rock n Roll, and his name is Jonny Polonsky”
- Strobe
Never, ever, have I been in such a state. Jonny Polonsky is, without question, God. His songs reduced me to tears, laughter and joy.
- Revolutions
Jonny Polonsky somehow has slipped through the cracks of both the mainstream market and the indie world, and that’s very difficult for me to digest... His singing whine is probably the most infectious I’ve heard, and his simple lyrics beg for you to sing along... Imagine Kurt Cobain drug-free, singing quaint pop songs before he fried his voice screaming and you’ll get Polonsky’s voice. His refreshing rock pop melodies are simple enough to appeal to the masses, but edgy enough to keep him in the underground music scene. Although his music is straight forward, and quite simple, it’s performed in a very charismatic way that’s difficult to explain.
- Firesideometer.com
Jonny Polonsky writes exactly the kind of genreless songs that are likely to never sound out of date. They’re not trying to be anything but hooky rock songs, with an admirable lack of posing, that crawlunder your skin and stay there.
- Emma Johnston, Kerrang!
