Drewcifer3000 (talk | contribs) →Nation of Ulysses: reworded a bit |
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| publisher = eNotes |
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| date = 2005 |
| date = 2005 |
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| url = http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/make-up-biography |
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| accessdate = 2007-06-13}}</ref> The Make-Up dissolved early in 2001, and a year later, Svenonius formed the band [[Weird War]] (also known briefly known as Scene Creamers) in which he is still active. Svenonius' solo work includes the 2001 album ''[[David Candy#Play Power|Play Power]]'' under the fictionalized pseudonym [[David Candy]],<ref name="Ashlock">{{cite web |
| accessdate = 2007-06-13}}</ref> The Make-Up dissolved early in 2001, and a year later, Svenonius formed the band [[Weird War]] (also known briefly known as Scene Creamers) in which he is still active. Svenonius' solo work includes the 2001 album ''[[David Candy#Play Power|Play Power]]'' under the fictionalized pseudonym [[David Candy]],<ref name="Ashlock">{{cite web |
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| title = glen E. friedman's - idealist propaganda - The Latest |
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| publisher = Burning Flags Press |
| publisher = Burning Flags Press |
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| accessdate = 2006-12-30}}</ref> and the introduction to Friedman's 2007 book ''Keep Your Eyes Open'' (ISBN 0-9641916-8-7).<ref name="Friedman bio">{{cite web |
| accessdate = 2006-12-30}}</ref> and the introduction to Friedman's 2007 book ''Keep Your Eyes Open'' (ISBN 0-9641916-8-7).<ref name="Friedman bio">{{cite web |
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| url = http://diablogue.typepad.com/diablogue/2006/09/vice_tv.html |
| url = http://diablogue.typepad.com/diablogue/2006/09/vice_tv.html |
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| archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20061130093509/http://diablogue.typepad.com/diablogue/2006/09/vice_tv.html |
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| accessdate = 2007-01-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
| accessdate = 2007-01-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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| title = Ian MacKaye on Soft Focus w/ Ian Svenonius |
| title = Ian MacKaye on Soft Focus w/ Ian Svenonius |
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* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/ULYSS/ Nation of Ulysses on Southern Records] |
* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/ULYSS/ Nation of Ulysses on Southern Records] |
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* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/MAKUP/ The Make-Up on Southern Records] |
* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/MAKUP/ The Make-Up on Southern Records] |
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* [http://www.weirdwarworld.com Weird War] |
* [http://www.weirdwarworld.com/ Weird War] |
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* [http://www.jetsetrecords.com/bands/david_candy/default.asp David Candy on Jet Set Records] (Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20030808172717/http://www.jetsetrecords.com/bands/david_candy/default.asp here]) |
* [http://www.jetsetrecords.com/bands/david_candy/default.asp David Candy on Jet Set Records] (Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20030808172717/http://www.jetsetrecords.com/bands/david_candy/default.asp here]) |
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* [http://www.southern.net/southern/band/CUPID/ Cupid Car Club on Southern Records] |
* [http://www.southern.net/southern/band/CUPID/ Cupid Car Club on Southern Records] |
Revision as of 18:21, 30 December 2007
Template:Infobox musical artist 2
Ian Svenonius has been the singer and mouthpiece of various music groups, including Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, and Weird War, all of which have been based in Washington, D.C. Between his numerous projects, Svenonius has published more than 15 full-length albums and more than 20 singles, EPs, and splits. As of 2006, Svenonius is also a published author and an online talk show host.
Svenonius' first band, Nation of Ulysses, formed in 1988, and were influential in the underground rock 'n' roll scene. The band broke up in 1992 after failing to record their third studio album. After a brief side-project called Cupid Car Club, Svenonius formed The Make-Up in 1995, who combined garage rock, soul, and so-called "liberation theology" to make a new genre they dubbed "Gospel Yeh-Yeh".[1] The Make-Up dissolved early in 2001, and a year later, Svenonius formed the band Weird War (also known briefly known as Scene Creamers) in which he is still active. Svenonius' solo work includes the 2001 album Play Power under the fictionalized pseudonym David Candy,[2] the book The Psychic Soviet,[3] and as host of Soft Focus on VBS.TV.[4]
Background
Svenonius was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland.[5] Both of his parents hold doctorates in philosophy: his father, Professor Lars Svenonius, teaches symbolic logic and medieval philosophy at the University of Maryland. His mother, Diane Svenonius, works for the United States Department of Labor.[6] Svenonius has three brothers, including Peter Svenonius, Professor of Linguistics at University of Tromsø, and Tim Svenonius, an artist based out of San Francisco, California.Cite error: A <ref>
tag is missing the closing </ref>
(see the help page).
He attended the Corcoran College of Art and Design, where he studied fine art.[6] Svenonius is also a vegan.[7]
Musical projects
Nation of Ulysses
Svenonius' first musical group was Nation of Ulysses. The band formed in spring 1988, initially composed of four members – Svenonius on vocals and trumpet, Steve Kroner on guitar, Steve Gamboa on bass guitar, and James Canty on drums – and known simply as "Ulysses". In late 1989, Tim Green joined the band as a second guitarist and the band was renamed to "Nation of Ulysses".[8] The Nation of Ulysses described themselves not as a rock 'n' roll group in the traditional sense, but "as a political party"[1] and as "a shout of secession".[9] Explaining their intent, Svenonius said "it's basically a new nation underground for the dispossessed youth colony. It's all about smashing the old edifice, the monolith of rock and roll".[10]
In 1991, before the band had released any official recordings, Svenonius was featured as teen-oriented Sassy Magazine's first and only "Sassiest Boy in America". He was interviewed at length in the magazine's October issue, detailing the band's sound and political motivations.[11] Svenonius described the Nation of Ulysses' intent was "to create a space of liberation where anything’s possible". He criticized "traditional rock-and-roll" groups like New Kids on the Block as "pretty much just pap and product" and as a "corrupt medium". The contest was reportedly a "nationwide search for the most perfect boyfriend material a girl could ask for", and Svenonius was among 150 entries.
Nation of Ulysses was known for their extremely physical performances, during which Svenonius recalls many injuries, including breaking his arm, breaking leg, and breaking his head open on numerous occasions. Audience members were also hurt during performances. Svenonius described Nation of Ulysses performances as "an extraordinary freak-out kind of thing [...] really masochistic, lots of blood [...] cacophonous, and violent, and aggressive".[5]
The group disbanded in the fall of 1992 having failed to complete their third album (the finished tracks were later released as The Embassy Tapes in 2000). In a later interview, Svenonius explained the reason for the split: "Nation of Ulysses broke up because the epoch changed with the advent of digital music and the Nirvana explosion. We were faced with what's now known as indie rock, a sort of vacuous form. We had to determine our next move and this [the forming of The Make-Up] is it".[12]
The Make-Up
The Make-Up formed in 1995, consisting of Svenonius, Canty, and Gamboa from Nation of Ulysses, and Michelle Mae from the Pacific Northwest group The Frumpies on bass guitar.[13] The Make-Up were joined in late 1999 by a fifth member, Alex Minoff, who played guitar with the group until their dissolution in 2000.[14] They released four studio albums, two live albums, a posthumous compilation of singles and B-sides, and a number of 12-inch singles and splits.[15] The Make-Up combined garage rock, soul, and self-styled liberation theology to make a new genre they called "Gospel Yeh-Yeh".Cite error: A <ref>
tag is missing the closing </ref>
(see the help page).
As the Make-Up's frontman and mouthpiece, Ian Svenonius often contextualized the band's music in terms of larger socio-political themes. Svenonius typically described the band and its gospel attitude in Marxist and socialist terms, in opposition of what he saw as the capitalist, bourgeois, machismo paradigm of rock and roll.[16][17][18] The band's aversion to American culture was crystallized through their self-styled musical genre "Gospel Yeh-Yeh," a belief system through which they advocated to their audience to "get theirs" and to "off the pigs in all their forms".[19] The Make-Up intended to create ad-lib performances in order to re-energize what they saw as the stale, bland, and formal ritual of rock and roll.[14] Appropriating gospel music's use of the congregate as a "fifth member," the Make-Up incorporated audience participation through call and response vocals, lyrical "discussion" techniques, and destruction of the fourth wall by physical transgression.[14]
The Make-Up dissolved in 2000, reportedly "due to the large number of counter-gang copy groups which had appropriated their look and sound and applied it to a vacuous and counter-revolutionary forms".[14] Between projects, Svenonius released a solo album under the pseudonym David Candy.[2]
Weird War
After The Make-Up disbanded, Svenonius formed the group Weird War in 2001, joined by Make-Up members Michelle Mae and Alex Minoff. While the current lineup appears on the group's first release I'll Never Forget What's His Name, the group's first full-length, eponymous release featured Neil Hagerty (of Royal Trux) and Jessica Espeleta (formerly of Love as Laughter) on guitars, and Steve McCarty (later of Dead Meadow) on drums.[20]
These collaborators soon left to pursue other programs, and the band briefly changed its name to The Scene Creamers, with Svenonius on vocals, Michelle Mae on bass, Alex Minoff on guitar, and Blake Brunner on drums. In this incarnation, the band released I Suck on that Emotion, through Drag City Records. After being threatened with a legal suit for the name Scene Creamers by a French graffiti artist collective of the same name, the band reverted back to the name Weird War.[21] Since then, as its membership has become static, with the addition of Argentinian Sebastian Thomson (of the group Trans Am) on drums, its intent has become more cosmic. Weird War claims that they are "the sole answer to the hype-based careerism, empty formalism and vacuity which has infected what was once a genuinely creative underground rock 'n' roll scene".[21]
The Psychic Soviet
In July of 2006, Svenonius released a book of 19 essays entitled The Psychic Soviet (ISBN 0-9656183-9-0), published by Drag City Press.[22] Pocket-sized and bound in bright-pink plastic with beveled edges, its form is similar to "The Little Red Book," a Bible, or a foreign-language dictionary.[3][23] The book serves as an anthology of past articles and essays by Svenonius previously published in periodicals, edited for readability and flow, with a number of new essays included.[23]
The "Instructions" that preface the book state that it "should clear up much of the confusion regarding events of the last millennium - artistic, geo-political, philosophical, et al." and encourages the reader to "refer to the book in case of ethical quandaries, arguments, and social feuds".[23][24] The writing addresses topics such as the ascent of the DJ as a "star," the "cosmic depression" that followed the defeat of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Cold War, and the status of rock 'n' roll as a religion.[23] To date, The Psychic Soviet is the most complete collection of written material by Svenonius.
Other projects
Throughout his career, Svenonius has often disc jockeyed, including Red and Cold Rice in Washington, D.C., and the Mercury Lounge in Goleta, California.[5][14] In 1993 Svenonius and Nation of Ulysses/Make-Up members James Canty and Steve Gamboa were involved in a short-lived aggregate called Cupid Car Club. This group released only one EP on Kill Rock Stars Records entitled Join our Club.[25] In 2001 Svenonius collaborated with the English conceptualist/producer Mike Alway of If Records to create the record Play Power under the pseudonym David Candy. The album was released through Jet Set Records, Siesta Records, and If Records. Play Power was part of a series of "Magazine-Style Records" which included other imaginary acts such as Death by Chocolate, Maria Napoleon, and Lollipop Train.[2]
Svenonius wrote an afterword for Glen E. Friedman's 2005 photography book Recognize (ISBN 0-9641916-6-0),[26] and the introduction to Friedman's 2007 book Keep Your Eyes Open (ISBN 0-9641916-8-7).[27] As host of the VBS.TV online show Soft Focus, Svenonius interviews guests such as Ian MacKaye and Genesis P-Orridge in front of a live audience at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.[4][28][29] Recently, the show has moved to London, England where Svenonius speaks with notable British artists such as Mark E. Smith of The Fall and Billy Childish. In 1994, Svenonius had a supporting role in the independent film Half Cocked. In 2001, Svenonius appeared in the documentary Plaster Caster about the plaster casts of Cynthia Plaster Caster.[30]
Politics
The political persuasions of Svenonius' bands have consistently been anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and often anti-American. As the vocalist and mouthpiece of these bands, Svenonius is typically the band member associated most closely with the groups political identity. All Music Guide's Steve Huey described Nation of Ulysses' philosophy as "a relentlessly provocative (and entertaining) jumble of teenage rock 'n' roll rebellion, leftist radicalism, anarchist punk polemics, and abstract intellectual rambling, [...] [which gives the sense of] an off-kilter, almost tongue-in-cheek approach to a 'perpetual 18-year old's' view of America, and life in general".[31] In a 1997 interview (five years after the dissolution of the Nation of Ulysses), when asked if, in line with the title of Nation of Ulysses' 1991 album 13-Point Program to Destroy America, he still hoped to "destroy America", Svenonius responded simply: "Of course".[32]
In describing the political evolutions of Svenonius' numerous projects, one reviewer said "...the undeniable truths of the [Nation of Ulysses] was soon to give way to the death-at-all-costs philosophy of Cupid Car Club, the Gospel Yeh-Yeh theology of the Make-Up,... and the quiet revolutions of the Scene Creamers and Weird War".[33]
Discography
Nation of Ulysses
- 13-Point Program to Destroy America (Dischord) (1991)
- Plays Pretty for Baby (Dischord) (1992)
- The Embassy Tapes (Dischord) (2000)
The Make-Up
- Destination: Love - Live! At Cold Rice (Dischord) (1996)
- After Dark (Dischord) (1997)
- Sound Verite (K Records) (1997)
- In Mass Mind (Dischord) (1998)
- Save Yourself (K Records) (1999)
- I Want Some (singles compilation) (K Records) (1999)
- Untouchable Sound (Drag City/Sea Note) (2006)
Weird War
- Weird War (Drag City) (2002)
- I Suck on that Emotion (as Scene Creamers) (Drag City) (2003)
- If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bite 'Em (Drag City) (2004)
- Illuminated by the Light (Drag City) (2005)
David Candy
- Play Power (Jet Set/Siesta/If Records) (2001)
Cupid Car Club
- Join our Club (Kill Rock Stars) (1993)
Filmography
- Half-Cocked (Independent release) (1994)
- Plaster Caster (Xenon Pictures) (2001)
- Soft Focus (VBS.tv) (host, 2006 – present)
Writings
- Afterward of Glen E. Friedman's Recognize (ISBN 0-9641916-6-0) (Burning Flags Press) (2005)[27]
- The Psychic Soviet (ISBN 0-9656183-9-0) (Drag City Press) (2006)
- Introduction of Glen E. Friedman's Keep Your Eyes Open - The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman (ISBN 0-9641916-8-7) (Burning Flags Press) (2007)[27]
References
- ^ a b Gale, Thomas (2005). "The Make-Up Biography". eNotes. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
- ^ a b c Ashlock, Jesse. "David Candy". Epitonic Records. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
- ^ a b Malitz, David (May 2007). "Ian Svenonius - Editorial Review". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
- ^ a b "NEW YORK - Soft Focus With Ian Svenonius". Vice. 2006-09-16. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
Dissonance
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "DC Nostalgia: How Sassy changed Ian's life (Sassy Magazine Transcript)". Brightest Young Things. 2007-05-25. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
- ^ Gross, Joe (1999-07-21). "Screeching the Gospel". City Pages. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ "Who are the Nation of Ulysses?". Southern Records. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Cheslow, S. "Nation of Ulysses interview - 1989". Interrobang?! #1 (1989). Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ Dundas, Zach (1993-01). "The Nation of Ulysses". Mumblage #1 (January 1993). Archived from the original on 2005-11-27. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ "New York Night Train One-Year Anniversary". New York Night Train. 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ "Steady Diet fanzine - April 98". Steady Diet, April 1998. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ "Make-Up biography". Southern Records. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
- ^ a b c d e "Make Up - A Biography" (PDF). Drag City. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
- ^ "Make-Up discography". Southern Records. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
- ^ Svenonius, Ian and James Schneider (2006). In Film/On Video (DVD). Dischord Records.
- ^ "Damn You Fanzine". Southern Records, Damn You Fanzine. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
- ^ "The Hedonist –- February 1998". Southern Records, The Hedonist. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
- ^ Ankeny, Jason. "The Make-Up Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
- ^ "Weird War Bigraphy". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
- ^ a b "Not Going to Mars". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
{{cite web}}
:|first=
missing|last=
(help) - ^ Flicker, Jonah (2005-10-28). "Ian Svenonius to Publish Book". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ a b c d Twerdy, Saelan. "Illuminated by the Light". DiSCORDER. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Svenonius, Ian. "David Candy - Jetset records". Jetset Records. Archived from the original on 2003-10-27. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
{{cite web}}
:|archive-date=
/|archive-url=
timestamp mismatch; 2003-08-08 suggested (help) - ^ "Cupid Car Club". Kill Rock Stars. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
- ^ "glen E. friedman's - idealist propaganda - The Latest". Burning Flags Press. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ a b c Marshall, Craig (2005). "biography". Burning Flags Press and Consafos Press. Retrieved 2007-08-18.
- ^ Gee, Ess (2006-09-26). "Vice TV". Archived from the original on 2006-11-30. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
- ^ "Ian MacKaye on Soft Focus w/ Ian Svenonius". Dischord Records. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
- ^ "Ian Svenonius". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-06-04.
- ^ Huey, Steve. "The Nation of Ulysses Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ Interview with Ian Svenonius (Primetime) (QuickTime). London: Beware the Cat. May. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
{{cite AV media}}
: Check date values in:|date=
and|year=
/|date=
mismatch (help) - ^ "A Kid Who Tells On Another Kid Is a Dead Kid: Nation of Ulysses". GBOAT: The Greatest Band of All Time. 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help)
External links
- Band/Project homepages
- Nation of Ulysses on Southern Records
- The Make-Up on Southern Records
- Weird War
- David Candy on Jet Set Records (Archived here)
- Cupid Car Club on Southern Records
- Interviews