Month: September 2011

In commercial terms, Ivy is but a footnote in the career of bassist Adam Schlesinger, who between his duties in Fountains Of Wayne and his work as a prolific songwriter for hire has made far greater claims on the public’s attention. But in a world where diffident cool trumped sugary snark, the trio of Schlesinger, Andy Chase and singer Dominique Durand would have reaped richly deserved rewards. All Hours (Nettwerk), Ivy’s sixth album and its first since 2005, continues the electronic excursions of In The Clear while maintaining the ironclad melodies that anchor early shoulda-been hits like “This Is The Day.” Durand and Chase, who are married with children, will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Chase: I once saw a photo from the 1960s of a British dude riding a Triumph motorcycle. The photo was taken as he was winding down an old English country road. And the thing that most caught my attention were his super-cool, black-leather boots. I searched all over the internet and couldn’t find anything that resembled those stylized boots. Quite tall, black leather, four unique looking straps each with a heavy-metal buckle. It has a certain aesthetic that’s hard to put your finger on but rings true of all that was cool about British clothing from that era. In my search, I discovered an American company called Wesco, apparently a pretty well-known boot manufacturer. I called them and spoke to someone there who said they were totally willing to try to recreate the boot as long as I had a photo they could look at. So I sent him the photo, and the guy seemed genuinely excited at the challenge. He ended up replicating that boot so perfectly that as a thank you I sent him a package of all our Ivy CDs—from our first EP all the way to present—and the entire catalogue of artists from my record label, Unfiltered Records. These boots are still my most used and favorite article of clothing.

Video after the jump.

In commercial terms, Ivy is but a footnote in the career of bassist Adam Schlesinger, who between his duties in Fountains Of Wayne and his work as a prolific songwriter for hire has made far greater claims on the public’s attention. But in a world where diffident cool trumped sugary snark, the trio of Schlesinger, Andy Chase and singer Dominique Durand would have reaped richly deserved rewards. All Hours (Nettwerk), Ivy’s sixth album and its first since 2005, continues the electronic excursions of In The Clear while maintaining the ironclad melodies that anchor early shoulda-been hits like “This Is The Day.” Durand and Chase, who are married with children, will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Durand: Pierre Henry was a crazy composer, the pioneer of electronic music. He wrote this piece in 1967. No wonder there are so many great electronic French bands. (It’s in our blood!) Anyway, this specific piece made me go wild when I first heard it. I literally went mad. This is what great music should make people feel. It gave me a sense of absolute freedom and a belief that I could do anything. I still tremble when I hear it.

Video after the jump.