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| Updates: December 2009
IVY
A new album is due out May 2010.
BROOKVILLE
Brookville released a new album on September 15, 2009
called "Broken Lights."
THE NEVER ENDINGS
Andy and Dominique have been making beautiful music together
as a pairing they're calling The Never Endings; an album is due out February
2010. The songs have a slightly more "retro" sound than Ivy does -- very
keyboard oriented, but not necessarily synth.
MISC
Andy's Unfiltered label is now part of Warner Bros.
For regular updates, check in at the blog.
GirlieAction.com Bio, from 2005:
The members of the critically acclaimed New York trio
IVY have been refining their distinctive brand of evocative, bittersweet
pop for nearly a decade. But on the long-awaited In The Clear (the group’s
fourth full-length, not including 2002’s all-covers collection Guestroom
), they have combined elements of each of their previous records to make
what may be the most striking and confident album of their career.
IVY - Parisian-born singer Dominique Durand, Andy
Chase and Adam Schlesinger —- began life as a stripped-down indie band,
with a unpolished, jangly sound offset by Durand’s intimate, and (especially
in the early days) heavily accented vocals. But on their breakthrough second
album Apartment Life in 1997, they began to augment their succinct melodies
and chiming guitars with richer arrangements that revealed their growing
comfort level in the recording studio. On 2001’s Long Distance, lush soundscapes
and dense rhythm tracks were brought to the fore, and bouncy pop songs
were outnumbered by moodier, more atmospheric songs like the standout single
"Edge Of The Ocean."
When starting sessions for In The Clear, the band tried
to strike a balance between the immediacy of their early recordings and
the careful sonic detailing of their more recent work. "Initially we talked
about going back to more of a live band sound," explains Schlesinger with
a smile, "but of course that wouldn’t have taken long enough." And, for
IVY, part of the pleasure of making a record is experimentation in the
studio.
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circa 1994
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circa 1998 |
Chase elaborates, "We tried to capture the excitement
of just playing together -- on guitar or piano and drums — first. We would
put down lots of raw, spontaneous ideas, and then the three of us would
flesh them out over time, constantly adding or taking things away, but
always trying to retain that initial energy." This method, while common
for some bands, represented a totally new approach for IVY, who in the
past had written almost exclusively outside the studio; on In The Clear,
the writing and recording processes often blended together.
Not every idea held up over time, or ultimately met IVY’s
songwriting standards. "There were some musical ideas that we really loved,
but sometimes they didn’t fit the direction we were going or we couldn’t
turn them into complete songs that I was comfortable singing," says Durand.
"But many came together very quickly."
The 10 songs on In The Clear vary in tempo and mood, and
yet the record has a sense of continuity that is never lost -- from the
slow crescendo of the introductory "Nothing But The Sky," through visceral
pop songs like "Thinking About You," "Tess Don’t Tell" and "I've Got You
Memorized," to slinkier, subtler tracks like "Four In The Morning," "Ocean
City Girl" and "Keep Moving." Many lyrics suggest internal narratives more
than straightforward storytelling; themes of secrecy, isolation and escape
resurface throughout the album. |
| IVY brought in legendary UK producer/mixer Steve Osborne
(New Order, Happy Mondays, Starsailor, Elbow) for his first-ever New York
sessions to mix much of the record. It was Osborne’s ability to make records
sound both aggressive and spacious that attracted the group to his work.
In The Clear also features guest appearances by friends
like guitarists James Iha (A Perfect Circle, Smashing Pumpkins) and Jody
Porter (Fountains Of Wayne), Brazilian string arranger Zé Luis (Bebel
Gilberto, Caetano Veloso), and former Girls Against Boys frontman Scott
McLoud, who duets with Durand on the closing track, "Feel So Free."
Over the last few years, even in the absence of a new
record, IVY’s audience has grown substantially thanks to continued use
of their music in television, films, TV ads, and compilations. The Farrelly
Brothers asked IVY to score their film Shallow Hal and have also licensed
IVY songs for several other of their films; the song "Worry About You"
from Long Distance was the opening theme song for the Stephen King ABC
miniseries Kingdom Hospital; and the band’s music has been heard in numerous
other films and television shows, including an episode of Roswell that
even featured the band in live performance.
When not working with IVY, all three members have kept
quite busy — Schlesinger is also in the band Fountains Of Wayne and produces
and writes for various other projects; Chase released a solo album in 2003
under the moniker Brookville
and also produces. Durand and Chase also collaborated with longtime friend
Michael Hampton in the band Paco,
which has released an ep and lp to date.
In The Clear will be released in North America in March
by Nettwerk America Records. Tour plans and other band news will be posted
at www.thebandivy.com.
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