Fresh New Ivy on the Way!

Well, it's been a while, folks -- sorry for the radio silence but ... it's been a silent radio, as far as Ivy's concerned! But here's great news, direct from the press release:

NEW YORK TRIO IVY RETURNS WITH NEW ALBUM THIS FALL
FIRST SINGLE “DISTANT LIGHTS” SET FOR RELEASE JUNE 7, 2011

May 23, 2011 (New York, NY) – IVY returns to Nettwerk to release their long-awaited fifth studio album this fall, title/release date TBA. The upcoming release -- written, produced and mixed by the band in their own Manhattan studio -- is their first in six years and the follow up to 2005’s critically acclaimed In The Clear.

Fans will get a taste of the new album when Ivy releases their first single, “Distant Lights,” on June 7, 2011. A slow-building, hypnotic and danceable track, “Distant Lights” manages to sound simultaneously like classic Ivy and like nothing they've ever quite done before. Singer Dominique Durand says, "This record feels like a new beginning for Ivy. We have never been as excited about one of our records as we are about this one."

Ivy -- Parisian-born singer Durand, Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger-- began life in the mid-1990s as a stripped-down indie band, with an unpolished, jangly sound offset by Durand’s intimate accented vocals. But on their breakthrough second album Apartment Life (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 standout single “Edge Of The Ocean.” For 2005’s 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.

About the forthcoming album, Mark Jowett, Nettwerk VP of International A&R/Publishing, says, “Ivy has reemerged with a beautiful, evocative and excellent album, and we are thrilled to have linked up with them again.”

Stay tuned for more details on Ivy’s fifth studio album.

Music Updates - and a Tahiti 80 response

For those wondering what Andy and Dominique have been up to lo these months, here's the scoop: They've been making beautiful music together as a pairing they're calling The Never Endings. They'll have an album out in February 2010. From what I've heard, there's a slightly more retro sound than in Ivy -- very keyboard-oriented, and I don't mean synths.

Second, Andy sez "we're shooting for an Ivy album for May 2010."

Third: Brookville's new album comes out on September 15 of this year.

And finally, for anyone who missed it first time around, Andy's Unfiltered label is now part of Warner Bros.


Next: On a recent edition of The Ivy Vine list, one fan asked:

>>Does anyone have any inside scoop, gossip, or whatnot concerning what I have imagined
>>to be a split between Xavier Boyer of Tahiti 80 and Andy Chase?
>>Andy's excellent touch was on all the Tahiti 80 efforts until the noticeably
>> sub-par "Fosbury" [as in Fosbury Flop, perhaps?) on which he receives no mention whatsoever.

I forwarded the question to Andy, who replied:
To anyone interested:

I had hoped to remain Tahiti 80's producer for many more records, just as great partnerships had endured between Prefab Sprout and Thomas Dolby, or Crowded House and Mitchell Froom. But after their second album the band wanted to have a bigger hand in producing themselves - at that point they had their own studio in France and they felt they had worked enough with me and wanted to exercise their own production skills, as well as have experiences with other producers and mixers. Although I'd like to think the alchemy between us resulted in their best works, I respect the fact that they don't want to go backwards and repeat what they've already done with the same producer. I still remain very, very close friends with all of them, especially Xavier and Pedro: Just a few years ago my band Brookville and Tahiti 80 did a tour together, in part to promote their album of which I wasn't involved in....so you can see how our friendship goes way beyond the two albums we did together. My new (Brookville) album is coming out this fall and it was co produced by Pedro, and their drummer is also playing on the album. There's even talks of another Brookville-Tahiti 80 tour this October. So as much as I would love, LOVE to do another album with them, it hasn't interfered with remaining close to their world these past years.

PS. Tahiti 80 have appeared "to have fallen off the radar" because after Wallpaper For The Soul they no longer were released on the phenomenal Minty Fresh records here in the U.S. Their last album (Fosberry) was on some weird label over here so it's no surprise no one heard about it. They have a new album coming out this fall (same time as Brookville) and I think it's on a Universal subsidiary...so
hopefully it'll get a little more attention.
That's the update for now! Hopefully more later this year.....

Long Time! But: Updates!

Hello folks!

Many apologies for going over a year without posting here. Ivy has generally been quiet (though that's expected to change soon), while Andy et. al. have been busy with other projects (including he and Dominique having a new baby, working on a separate non-Ivy project, new Brookville).

Meanwhile, Adam's hardly been a slouch himself:

Former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, Cheap Trick drummer Bun
E. Carlos, Hanson's Taylor Hanson and Fountains Of Wayne bassist Adam
Schlesinger have formed a new band, Tinted Windows.

The group has recorded its debut album at Stratosphere Sound Studios
in New York, which Schlesinger and Iha co-own with Ivy's Andy Chase.
The set is expected this spring on a label to be announced.

Tinted Windows will play its first major show at Billboard's South by
Southwest showcase, to be held March 20 at Pangaea in Austin, Texas.
Additionally, a member of The Ivy Vine recently found an Ivy live concert available on the Web. Go here, but you'll have to register (which can take some time) and the warning as always: Don't make a copy and sell it! The show is Ivy's at The Iron Horse in Northampton, MA from 7/9/2001.

Finally, while the main Ivy Vine fan page link (www.theivyvine.org) will remain active, we DO have www.theivyvine.COM now, so feel free to change your links!

Thanks for reading and continuing to read!

Andy Updates!

Hi folks -- sorry for the extreme delay in updating the blog; there just hasn't been much to report. Andy's been busy working with the Trash Can Sinatras on their new album, but a recent post on the Ivy Vine led to a reply. Here's the exchange:

Brian on the Vine asked:

"Since the amount of live recordings from Ivy is extremely limited (i.e. a handful of songs) and the amount from Brookville is non-existent, can the moderator (or whoever is the one that is able to contact Andy) ask Andy if he ever considered passing off some soundboard copies of shows to people on the list so that they can be seeded and distributed? Or is he staunchly anti-taping and doesn't appreciate the live stuff being spread around? Since there's nothing out there really, he'd be able to pick and choose the Ivy/Brookville shows he likes to distribute."

And Andy wrote back:

"I don't think we're that crazy about most of the live recordings of Ivy. We are somewhat perfectionists (no, really??) so we tend to cringe when we hear those things. We certainly wouldn't go out of our way to distribute them, put it that way. And I don't think we are in possession of many live or in-studio performances. The few that I do have we plan on possibly using for our eventual B-sides/bonus tracks/live/unreleased tracks album. That album will probably come out soon after our next album, which we're about halfway finished recording. We're probably talking late 2008 to mid 2009. And there really is nothing for Brookville, at least I don't have any live recordings. I have one live radio show recording and I want that to remain exclusive so that I can release it next year."

So there's some excellent news in there:

1) The B-sides/bonus tracks/live/in-studio performance compilation is NOT DEAD!
2) Ivy is halfway through finishing a new album for later this year or mid next year!
3) Live Brookville will come out in 2009!

Hurrah!

Ivy/Brookville Update!

OK, so Ivy are not quite in hibernation, but movement is slow. Of course Adam and his friends put another great Fountains of Wayne album out this year, but that doesn't mean Andy and Dominique are out of commission. So here's the update on what's going on behind the scenes in Ivyville. Or, as it turns out, Brookville....

1) Ivy: Andy says that they recently spent a week experimenting with finding a direction for the next Ivy album, which is still a few years away. A lot depends on how everyone is able to schedule things.

2) Brookville: Andy is halfway through the next Brookville album

3) And... Andy and Dom are starting a new project/band -- just the two of them -- which is yet untitled.

Hopefully more soon, but clearly: No Ivy on the horizon any time soon.