Ben Lee, Pony Up!

I don't mean to make light of his hardship, but breaking up with Claire Danes might turn out to be a good thing for former Australian teen-pop pin-up Ben Lee: On a new split seven-inch released by his new label Ten Fingers (at present an imprint of the super-hip Hollywood indie Dim Mak), Lee does a slow-and-low cover of Modest Mouse's "Float On" that packs more meaning into words he didn't write than he packed into ones he did on last year's so-so Hey You. Yes You. Lee appears at Gypsy Tea Room, as he does on the seven-inch, with Pony Up!, a young female five-piece from Montreal who, Lee promises, "always bring down the house." <