Tell me about: Ian Svenonius

(When you said Goodwill I hope that was code for 'a microwave oven.')

m.

Ian Svenonius POX:

"Last Train To Cool"
"Joy Of Sound"
"Pow! To The People"
"Born on the Floor"
"AK-47"
"Baby It's The Best"
"Mockingbird Yeah"
"Depression III"
"I Am Pentagon"
"Caught Up In The Rapture"

"They Live by Night"
"Today I Met the Girl I'm Going to Marry"
"Cool Senior High School"
"Evidence Is Everywhere"
"How Pretty Can U Get"
"Spectra Sonic Sound"

xpost - I know the Metamatics have a record, that's what I had heard originally but it wasn't mine and I don't have a turntable, had thought there might have been a reissue?

daria - the metamatics s/t is lp only, which is a shame. saw them at fort reno and they were really good, like the contortions but noisier. the singer was also in all scars and i think he does solo electronic stuff. only just learned of the et at it band which also has a girl who was in meltdown and i went to school with. i may have seen the early incarnation of meltdown, they went by the name pleiades, it was pretty cool to see those teens get up and play like that.

anyone remember the happy flowers?. they were kinda like the wolf eyes of the late 80s. they may be my favorite dc band, though i guess technically they were from virginia so they don't count.

not sure if ian and michelle were/are a couple but i always just assumed it.

also, apparently meltdown has a cd out on the archigramophone label.

Metamatics have a discography CD on Troubleman Unlimited that is amazing (and contains their songs from the split 7" they did with The Make Up, on Svenonius' Black Gemini label). Metamatics drummer Malcolm McDuffie was also in Crom Tech. The singer, Chuck Bettis, now does experimental electronic noise stuff as Trance & the Arcade.
Gabe Andruzzi now plays in the Rapture.
Anyways, yeah, Metamatics were awesome. I only got to see them once -- opening for Fugazi at Fort Reno (Summer '93 I think), but it was an amazing show.

As you can tell, I am super into all this DC stuff...

sherm, i think it shut down about 4 years ago for shows. i dont know if seth and the revolving cast of characters still live there anymore. one of the housemates didnt want live music and there was always the fear of being shut down by the cops due to zoning issues.

man, i really miss that place.

Never saw Happy Flowers, but a few years ago they played some reunion shows as an opener for Yo La Tengo. Apparently the one whose stage name is Mr. Anus has a doctorate in something and is doing professional stuff at a think tank. (Wonder what his resume looks like.)

mr. horribly-charred-infant runs the official happy flowers website. "Dr. Anus" hahaha

one of my roommates is an art transporter/installer and he says he sees the guy pretty frequently at openings and such. always flanked by two attractive girls and looking and smirking at him like "you know who i am, guy who's into punk rock. yeah, this is what i've got going on."

Not rushing to the defence of IS but I always feel like this kind of thing says less about the guy who can supposedly transmit convoluted sentences with his facial expressions and more about the guy who thinks he's interpreting them

well, i know my roommate pretty well and he's a smart dude and i trust his takes on things and he and i both still dig Ian Svenonious and his bands. it's just an image to laugh about.

but yeah, the dude is known to go to openings with a girl on each arm. come on.

the svenonius book 'the psychic soviet' is totally hilarious.

i really enjoy his interviews on the vice tv. he's a funny guy!

lol @ his new band's song "600,00 Bands": http://www.myspace.com/feltletters

"fifty thousand sound like Can/ fifty thousand sound like Manfred Mann"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zz74pBb4ZA

I love all the songs on the Felt Letters MySpace page but I sort of doubt they'll ever put anything out besides that one 7" (which would be a real shame): http://www.myspace.com/feltletters

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/02/25/ian-svenonius-on-the-bruise-cruise-maybe-this-is-the-first-step-of-indie-rock-going-vegas/

He's emceeing the Bruise Cruise--garage and indie bands on a Carnival cruise ship

The Black Lips, Surfer Blood, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Strange Boys, Turbo Fruits—and Vivien Girls

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/02/25/im-on-a-boat/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/40532/bruise-cruise/

That crazy guy

saw adds for this and was suspicious but lol Ian cracks me up:

"You think of disco and electro-funk and funk music as being obsessed with space travel. Garage rock—they talk, maybe, about cars, but never boats. In gospel music they talk about the train. Psychedelic bands talk about planes. I’d say garage rock is usually very land-based."

Chain and the Gang!!! this is great

I didn't like the record as much as Weird War, but C&tG were so great live. I wish I could remember this one bit he did about waste in the air. the birds are flying around up there in the sky and there's so much waste. think of all of that real estate up there, just being wasted. those birds aren't doing anything with it. haha, I don't know, anyway it cracked me up.

Kinda love Chain and the Gang TBH. I love everything Ian does and I don't care if you don't

I dig this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZU1ppG2Hj4

one of my roommates is an art transporter/installer and he says he sees the guy pretty frequently at openings and such. always flanked by two attractive girls and looking and smirking at him like "you know who i am, guy who's into punk rock. yeah, this is what i've got going on."

This is pretty much why I like him

Chain and the Gang album is great, one of my favorite things from last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1qu0skW4F0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULx01IhtlsI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLAA4DA8EE338ED155

Chain and the Gang live are not so good nor is his other current band Felt Letters. I may be in the minority with such beliefs though. I find his stage presence these days annoying and his vocals less than impressive. Sacrilege I know.

I see from pals on facebook that the Makeup just did a not-publicized reunion gig at tiny little Comet Ping Pong in DC tonight. Kid Congo(DC resident and former member of Gun Club, Bad Seeds, & Cramps) was doing garage oldies with Fugazi's Brendan Canty on drums. I was watching the Orioles beat the Nationals in baseball. Oh well.

ha, i almost went up there just for kid congo! welp

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/05/21/photos-the-make-up-and-kid-congo-powers-comet-ping-pong/

For some reason this dude "clicked" for me recently in a way that he never did previously. NOU and The Make Up were kind of in the ether when I was in college, and I liked a couple Make Up songs but was mostly never that into them.

Comet is really near where my folks live, wish I had been there. (Unless there's another Comet?)

Just the one Comet. He once kinda clicked for me but Chain & the Gang and Felt Letters, his current groups did not interest me at all when I saw them.

i stand by my bitchy opening one-two up there

his book last year -- 'supernatural strategies for making a rock 'n' roll group' -- is the best use of seance since 'the changing light at sandover'