Festival recap

Enjoyed meeting people yesterday more than actually playing. It all happened pretty fast. DJ down stairs thumped away during my acoustic set, tried to cling to his beat for the second song 'Digitalis' to no avail. Guy was loud (distracting? yea just a bit). Good thing I brought some of the new lyrics else I'd have totally lost concentration. Sound guy at Ghion had a hard time taming the feedback as well. Note to self, when playing in the same location as DJ's ditch the acoustic and play fuckin' LOUD.

All in all I got to meet a bunch of cool people (thanks for sticking around for my set by the way). Only got through a fraction of what I wanted to play but when the venue person gave me the signal I was perfectly fine relinquishing the rest of the hour left to the next band. Actually got things back on schedule.

I played right after a band called Those Manic Seas a noise rock group from Richmond with a television headed mannequin as a lead singer (pretty cool visuals). I met Andrew from Caustic Casanova who shared a lot of similar influences. He just happened to be at the show, we talked for a bit. Seems like a cool guy and I'll definitely be checking out his band. Also met Shep Shapard from Cake and Calculus whose set i unfortunately missed, but I'll be checking them out too.

Band that really caught my eye last night were a Brooklyn based band called Band of Young Saints. They had it all, and seemed to have everyone hook line and sinker. Great drummer, incredibly involved and talented guitarists (who sang back-up on practically every tune) and the best female vocalist I've heard in some time! Give these guys a listen at: http://band-of-young-saints.bandcamp.com

There it is, thanks for hanging out. Was nice meeting the rest of you and thanks to Gavin Murray-Miller of The Absent Center and Dave Mann at Connect the Dots for putting this thing together.

I'll post some pics shortly.

-Ian

Pre-Order 'Extras' @ Velvet-Ants.com

Boston

Two days prior to the events on Monday I was at a museum in the city looking at remnants from the attacks on 9/11. I have to admit, even now, more than ten years on it's hard to believe it all happened. I began replaying that day in my head and it was still pretty clear. Walking through the exhibits made it even that much more difficult to comprehend. I thought of how cruel we are to each other and wondered why we go to such lengths in the first place.

The events this week struck pretty close to home to say the least. I grew up right there in Mass and remember attending local events and parades throughout my youth. I always felt safe, always felt protected. We all knew each other and there was always an enormous sense of community. I think I might have seen an old classmate of mine running with one of the stretchers and helping the wounded. That's what kind of people live there.

I'm not sure why as humans we do this to each other or if we'll ever graduate from this stage in our existence, but isn't it time yet? We continue seeing these thoughtless, barbaric acts on what no longer seems to be a day to day basis.

If there's anything I know about the people of Boston it's that they will rise above this, I guess my question is when will the ones responsible? We are not forever. So what are they achieving from this? Is it too much to live and let live? Where's the peace? And when do we get past this stage???

'If you have photos or video from the scene that you think might be helpful to investigators, call 1-800-494-TIPS. Authorities are still investigating who set the bombs and why, but there are several things you can do right now to help in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy.' -TakePart.com

If you would like to make a donation to help the victims and families visit: One Fund Boston set up by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino to support those most affected.

-Ian

Covers Project

Hello again,

It looks like this will likely be an on-going project so I'm going to start posting bits and pieces of this 'Covers' album. Since the band is in sort of a limbo state I'll be sorting through what we had left as well as filling in missing areas as time goes on. So far it's mostly skeletal. I have no idea how long this might take so I thought I'd share some of the progress for whoever might like to listen in.

At the end of March I recorded "Forever" (a song my wife had been requesting for some time) and now there's a third mix for it. I also posted 3 new tracks last night including the last song the band recorded together, a cover of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance" - the original is at normal speed but I sort of like it slower. The rest, which I'll be posting sometime today are tracks dating back to 2011 and newer mixes of songs we worked on through the following year.

"You Might Think" features Scott Freeman on drums (who stepped in for Trevor) but I don't know whether he'll be stepping in permanently or not. Scott was helping with programming and we were planning on working on some new tunes (only 2 of which we started). As for other instrumentation, I don't know if I'll be playing drums on the rest of these (some of them might be fine without).

I'm looking to collaborate with other musicians on either these or new material so stay tuned. I had hoped to have these covers wrapped eventually but due to recent events it will certainly take longer... I could be out of commission here shortly so I thought I'd share some of what we had already.

Here's where you can find the latest mixes: Covers [In Progress]



It's Springtime people, get outside!

-Ian

DC420 Fest info

Hi folks,

I was contacted to take part in DC420 Festival at a new club called Ghion in DC this month. I'll be playing about a forty minute solo set there @ around 7pm. The show is 18+ and here's the schedule:

2 pm - These Future Saints (DC)
3 pm - Red States (RVA)
4 pm - Pet Clinic (Pittsburgh)
5 pm - Cake and Calculus (DC)
6 pm - Those Manic Seas (RVA)
7 pm - Velvet Ants (Ian solo)
8 pm - Band of Young Saints (NYC)
9 pm - Black Hills (DC)
10pm - Absent Center (RVA)
11pm - Emily Danger (NYC)
12am - Barren Girls (Merge Records)
1 am - Banned Books (Philadelphia)

DJ sets downstairs will include: DUBIOUS (RVa), DANNvHOUSE (DC), DJ MARK IAN (NYC), ROMETTI (RVa), DJ EPOCH (DC), AGENT (RVa), PHIL DICE (RVa)

The show is from 2PM - 2AM on Saturday (which also happens to be Record Store Day so there will be plenty of merch around!) Pre-sale tickets will be sold online at $10 BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE HERE

If you're planning on purchasing tickets at the door the cost will be $15.

You can also listen to some of the bands via http://soundcloud.com/dc420fest before the show.

Make sure to RSVP TO THIS EVENT AND SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS, hope to see you there

-Ian

Pre-Order 'EXTRAS' on 4/10!

Pre-order EXTRAS: A collection of b-sides and outtakes from the Advantage sessions starting April 10th at http://Velvet-Ants.com. Download 'Digitalis' free for a limited time and stream the full album in it's entirety right now! Many thanks to Jordon Zadorozny at French Kiss Recording for his post-production assistance. These might not have seen the light of day otherwise.

You can also see a short film featuring a track off the new album right here: