The band far re-united in 2008 for some live shows and to record a new album! We had no idea all this would happen, says vocalist Jonah Matranga. We were just planning on getting to know each other again and playing a few shows, in between everything else weve got going on. But now, all of a sudden, the songs are coming, and it feels really good. All weve ever promised as people and as a band is that whatever we put out, whenever we come around, were gonna mean it.
far got their start in Sacramento in the early 90s and released four full-length albums before disbanding in 1998 the same year that ‘Water & Solutions’ was released an album that Alternative Press magazine named as one of the most influential records of 1998.
In October 2008 far announced the original lineup would reunite for a few UK dates. Meanwhile, the band booked two LA-area warm-up dates under the pseudonym Hot Little Pony in order to deflect attention while they got used to playing together again. They even went so far as to create a MySpace page under the fake name and recorded a cover of a longtime favorite song of theirs, Ginuwines R&B hit, Pony, to offer as a free download. Thats where things got interesting.
Fans downloaded Pony so frequently that their website traffic soared. Pony started getting play on the biggest modern rock radio stations on the west coast including Live 105 (San Francisco), 91x (San Diego), KROQ (Los Angeles) and KWOD (Sacramento). The bands management team at X Management mobilized to spread the word on Pony and now the track has sold over 23,000 digital copies on iTunes and is downloaded up to 19,000 times a day on P2P networks.
