Despite the efforts of Warner Music Germany to market the Melodrama album by including "Star" as a bonus track on the German version, the album failed to make any impact in the German charts upon release. Following reasonable success in Scandinavia and Central Europe, the band turned its attention to the USA where interest was being shown by several major record companies including Capitol Records, Maverick Records, Warner/Atlantic and Hollywood Records. A short trip to the US followed in March 2005, where the band performed a packed show at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas leading to Billboard Magazine picking The Crash as one of the ten acts to catch that year, along with Bloc Party and M.I.A. The Crash also appeared at the legendary Viper Room in LA and the equally famous CBGB's in New York City. During this period the band was busy recording the Pony Ride album and decided to leave Warner Finland after 3 very successful domestic-selling albums. Instead the group financed the new recordings itself and licensed the finished album to several labels around the world. Pony Ride was released in Finland in September 2006 on Suomen Musiikki and entered the Finnish album chart at #2. In January 2007 the band signed deals with Rubber Records to release Pony Ride in Australia and New Zealand, and with Rykodisc to release the album in USA and Canada. The Crash returned to SXSW in March 2007 to perform at the Rykodisc showcase. "Reasons To Sing" from the Pony Ride album was featured in the 17 November 2008 edition of The CW TV's Gossip Girl, reaching an audience, according to the U.S. Nielsen rating, of 2.88 million viewers. On 2 April 2009 a press release was sent out by the band's Finnish booking agency, Live Nation, announcing that The Crash had decided to split up and would be performing a farewell tour of Finland in May 2009. The last performance by The Crash took place at the band's hometown festival, Ruisrock in Turku, on 5 July 2009. Members Teemu Brunila – vocals, guitar Samuli Haataja – bass, vocals Erkki Kaila – drums Samuli "JJ" Jokinen – keyboards Discography Studio albums Singles References External links Official site Fan site MySpace A Norwegian band (est. 1950) with the same name Review and free download of Pony Ride at SXSW Finnish musical groups Musical groups established in 1991 Musical groups disestablished