Official blog of The Velvet Ants: February 2012

Before there was Lost in Stereo, or Allday Mori, or even Dream LAX, there was a band called Malfunction of the Head. We were the first to sign with indie UK label $talker Records in 2004 and within a year we were done…

When you’re in a trio and you lose a member, it’s next to impossible to fill that void. Especially when the chemistry is right. In early 2005 Roscoe had left the band and Trevor and I realized we weren’t going to be able to continue on as MOTH . We started work on some of my demos (called Dream LAX, which then led to a full album, and forming The Velvet Ants). For a couple of years we wrote, recorded and worked on pressing our first self-released album “Lunatic Frame”. In late 2007 though, the winds of change hit once again and we went on to separate projects. Another two years passed and my band up in Boston, Lost in Stereo had broken up… I’d worked on demoing some new material but nothing really came as close to feeling the same as when you’re actually collaborating. So, in Summer of 2011 I started roughing out sketches for a new Velvet Ants album that would eventually become Advantage. I figured it’d be similar to the first collection of songs, but little did I know… About a month or two went by and just as I was finishing vocals and lead we started talking with Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies) about possibly mixing it. Now, this was a pretty big deal considering The Posies along with a handful of other artists were some of my biggest influences growing up… not only that but we’d also never worked with someone that professional before. So aside from trying to keep our stuff together long enough to work things out, we tried finishing all of the drum takes in the next few weeks of my moving back to Virginia. (This all took place in about a span of a month and a half.) We got most of what we wanted to accomplish done before the mixing process, but we also left little to no time for any major errors. It was at about this point where we didn’t know whether we’d be able to finish or release what we had worked on with Ken… Should we release the original mixes and release Ken’s as b-sides/alternates, the other way around?

Luckily, by slimming down the original track listing, focusing on a select number of tracks, and after a little bit of editing and some mastering we were able to pull it all together. Sure, we could’ve spent another 3 months (and it probably would’ve help out a lot) but we’d also basically worked backwards from the beginning and there was no turning back.

All of the head spins aside, the album is finally out and it’s time to get back to focusing on shows and everything else you don’t necessarily think about when you’re buzzing around. Of course the news doesn’t stop there… as a bit of an added bonus we’ve learned that Roscoe will be returning to the stage with us in March. Yep, that’s right folks… 7 years after the MOTH split, the 3 of us will be back up on stage together bashing it out. The other strange thing?? It will be almost exactly 9 years to the day that we had our first jam in March of 2003 at the beginning of it all.

So there it is… the album (on which both Roscoe & Ken are featured)… the show… and Roscoe’s return!

We’re looking forward to seeing where it all leads, and hopefully it’s a packed venue somewhere around the corner.

Hope you all enjoy the album, may there be more songs and good times ahead,

Ian

More info on the upcoming show will be announced soon. To purchase the new album visit: http://thevelvetants.bandcamp.com or http://reverbnation.com/thevelvetants

Official blog of The Velvet Ants

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Strange Days

Monday, February 13, 2012

LIVE Mp3's

Sunday, February 12, 2012

At The Gazebo LIVE

Friday, February 3, 2012

Preview the new album!