The Very Most

Artist Information

Biography

The Very Most are an indie pop band led by Jeremy Jensen and founded in 2002 in Boise, Idaho. Influenced by Camera Obscura, The Beach Boys, and the poppier side of Built to Spill, they were, until a year ago, the only indie-pop band in this Mountain West town of around 200,000 people. Naturally they were a little lonely. Thank goodness for ye olde internets, which has allowed them to make lasting, important connections with like-minded pop enthusiasts from around the world.

Their first record, Making the Case For Me, came in 2004. After their 2008 record Congratulations Forever, the band’s profile started to rise, including numerous appearances on compilations, being named the Boston Phoenix's "Best New Band in Idaho", and having their records licensed in the Philippines. In 2009 came the release of A Year With The Very Most on Dublin, Ireland label Indiecater Records. A Year With... is a compilation of four EPs that were recorded in 2009 and themed after the seasons of the year. In December 2009, the band toured in Ireland and the UK to launch the album.

In 2010, toured the West Coast and released an EP, while in 2011, they took time off from playing to record and regroup. The also released a Christmas EP entitled Snow Covered. Look for a new full-length in 2012 as well as chances to see the band play live.

Instrumentation

Jeremy Jensen - Guitar, Vocals
Gia Trotter - Keyboard, Vocals
Jake Hite - Drums, Electronics
Clint Vickery - Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion
Elijah Jensen - Guitar
John McMahon - Bass

Discography

Making the Case For Me (Coming in Second, 2004)
"Historical Movement" (from Idaho Greentracks compilation, 2004)
Congratulations Forever (Coming in Second, 2008)
"Good Fight Fighting" (from Indiecater Vol. 2 and BabyBoom Sampler Vol. 4, Indiecater and BabyBoom Records 2008)
"This Year, Christmas Came November 4th" from An Indiecater Christmas and A Very Cherry Christmas 4 (Indiecater and Cherryade, 2008)
Spring EP (Indiecater, 2009)
"This Much Space" from Rotating Tongues 2 (Rotating Tongues, 2009)
Split CD w/Lions and Eagles (Coming in Second, 2009)
Summer EP (Indiecater, 2009)
Autumn EP (Indiecater, 2009)
Winter EP (Indiecater, 2009)
A Year With the Very Most (Indiecater, 2010)
"Irlande" from Fast Forward compilation (Indiecater, 2010)
Patricia 7" Vinyl EP (Village Ten Collective, 2010)
"Christmas in July Comes Earlier Each Year" from Indiecater Christmas 3 (Indiecater, 2010)
Eardrums Pop Single (Eardrums Pop, 2011)
Snow Covered (Village Ten Collective 2011)
"Flying M" from Dialing it Up Volume 1 (Radio Boise, 2011)

Links

• Facebook
• Last.fm
• MySpace
• Twitter

Audio

• You're in Love With The Sun
  Listen  
• Jonathan Richman
  Listen  
• Good Fight Fighting
  Listen  
• Polygraph
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• Sod Off
  Listen  

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• ...gently tailored pop touched by magic... [+ Show ]
  

  After a very good debut album, The Very Most of Idaho have an EP of pure summer ear candy. After a S...After a very good debut album, The Very Most of Idaho have an EP of pure summer ear candy. After a Spring themed EP, this was the next logical step. Breezey, summer harmonies that recall the Beach Boys and The Davenports greet you on tracks like "The Motor-Vue Lights" and "You're in Love With The Sun." This is gently tailored pop touched by magic. You can even download the latter track for free! What's not to like here?

• ...beautiful, optimistic, seemingly care-free pop-music with boy/girl vocals, delicious choruses, tambourines and handclaps...This EP is a must-have [+ Show ]
  

  The Very Most is a band I have listened to with interest lately. Their album “Congratulations Foreve...The Very Most is a band I have listened to with interest lately. Their album “Congratulations Forever” is wonderful, and I was happy when I heard that the digital-only label Indiecater Records (run by Kevin from the blog MP3hugger) had released a new EP from the band. It is called “Spring”, and all the songs are inspired by the season.
  
  The four songs are more of what we got on “Congratulations…”, beautiful, optimistic, seemingly care-free pop-music with boy/girl vocals, delicious choruses, tambourines and handclaps. My favourite is “April is the kindest month”, – it’s a song with clever arrangements combined with a great melody, – and I’m born in April, so April IS the kindest month…
  
  This EP is a must-have, and it is so easy to get it from Indiecater’s website. It’s cheap too, only a couple of $ and it’s yours. Get it from the label-link above, and if you’re quck, you might get a free remix album of the same songs too (only if you buy “Spring” first).

• Playing The Very Most is like listening to pop for the first time. It’s rediscovering the joy of discovery. [+ Show ]
  

  Review is in French. Only the headline is translated, but here is a link to the review: http://ww...Review is in French. Only the headline is translated, but here is a link to the review:
  
  http://www.playlistsociety.fr/2010/02/very-most-year-with-very-most-8510.html

• Nothing less than the best kept secret in America. [+ Show ]
  

  Original post is in French. Only the headline is translated, but here is a link to the review: ht...Original post is in French. Only the headline is translated, but here is a link to the review:
  
  http://www.popnews.com/popnews/the-very-most-winter-ep/

• The second album from Boise, Idaho’s Very Most is definitely a pop masterpiece. [+ Show ]
  

  I wrote about The Very Most and their new album Congratulations Forever a few days ago, but I really...I wrote about The Very Most and their new album Congratulations Forever a few days ago, but I really don't think that I explained enough how much I really like it. The second album from Boise, Idaho's Very Most is definitely a pop masterpiece and you should go to their myspace and buy it now.

• An Indiecater of Success [+ Show ]
  

  "I liked the fact that some of The Very Most have beards. Beards are cool," wrote Kevin Dunphy from ..."I liked the fact that some of The Very Most have beards. Beards are cool," wrote Kevin Dunphy from Dublin, Ireland. Facial hair, it turns out, was only one of the reasons he wanted to put out their music.
  
  Dunphy runs Indiecater Records--originally a download-only label--which released the Boise band's newest CD, A Year With The Very Most both digitally, as well as the label's second physical offering.
  
  Yes, some of TVM do have beards, the prevailing facial appellation of the indie music set. But they more than just look the part. The Very Most, with frontman Jeremy Jensen at the hairy head, has a knack for creating sweet, addictive indie pop.
  
  Thirty-three-year-old Jensen began making music under the moniker TVM in around 2002, employing a semi-rotating cast of musicians to play with him.
  
  "It's funny to think about that," he says. "We were named 'Best New Band' from Idaho in The Boston Phoenix in 2008 when we'd been a band for six years."
  
  It isn't hugely surprising that it would take someone outside of Boise awhile to hear about TVM. The glut of music available online now means a band is almost required to get out and to be seen not just heard in order to stand out and build a faithful fanbase. But like many musicians in their 30s, Jensen has a job and a family, two things he'd rather not be away from for long. They try to get on the road, playing places like Eastern Idaho and the Tri-Cities three or four times a year, but that's about as far as they go. Knowing an extensive touring schedule wasn't in the cards, Jensen got creative--and tenacious--about introducing The Very Most to a broader audience.
  
  With TVM's second record, Congratulations Forever as a marvelous example of their shiny, mirthful indie-pop, Jensen began farming TVM's tunes out to music blogs everywhere.
  
  "I began shopping some of our songs around to mp3 blogs, because that seems to be the way to get some--for lack of a better word--buzz about a band," Jensen said. "You get picked up by an mp3 blog and hopefully that means you get picked up by a bigger one, and maybe get reviewed on something like Pitchfork." He chuckled and added, "That's not likely but that seems to be the path [a lot] of music promotion takes."
  
  Jensen, who seems a bit reserved in person, wasn't shy about pushing TVM songs.
  
  "I sent messages out to probably 400 mp3 blogs," he said. "It took awhile."
  
  The perseverance paid off. Dunphy, who started Indiecater in 2008 as a result of his music blog MP3Hugger.com, had written about TVM's "Good Fight Fighting," a track he adores. Jensen e-mailed Dunphy to say thanks and the two began corresponding regularly.
  
  "We got on very well," Dunphy wrote, "and we found out we shared a similar taste in music so things just took off."
  
  Between e-mails and instant messaging, the two of them came up with the idea to release TVM songs with a seasonal theme.
  
  "It just seemed like a more interesting way to come up with a small batch of songs each new season that would eventually become a full record," Dunphy wrote. "It also gave me the freedom to see how good TVM really were and the opportunity to drop them unceremoniously before the record release if they didn't come up to scratch (joke)."
  
  All kidding aside, the result is the summery/autumnal/snowy/flowers-blooming A Year With The Very Most, in which each season is a three- or four-track release. TVM started with Spring, the opening track just 15 seconds of little bird tweets followed by four tracks including the up-tempo "Today Is Even Better," replete with handclaps, jittery tambourine and sweet "la-la-la-las" under Jensen's airy voice. Summer roars in with a 12-second rainstorm and the Beach Boys-like tune "A Mid-80s Lower Middle-Class Family Summer Road Trip," a particularly poignant track in light of the loss of Jensen's mother last year in a tragic car accident. Autumn crinkles in with a short intro of leaves being raked and brings tinging keyboards, a chorus of "Ah-Wee! Ah-Wee!" and kazoos in Jensen's love letter to his favorite piece of apparel, "Sweater." Winter blows in and brings with it the solemn notes of "It's the Best Thing," as well as an islandy version of "Away in a Manger" that would be a welcome substitute for the ones most often heard pouring out of store PA systems during the holiday shopping season and has an adorable accompanying video.
  
  The meaty compilation of songs was a kind of turning point for both Indiecater and TVM. Dunphy decided to release A Year With The Very Most on physical CDs and Jensen--with some encouragement from his wife--rounded up his bandmates (including his musician brother Elijah) and headed off to Ireland to celebrate the CD's release there. The TVM shows were well-attended in the Emerald Isle, and the band even garnered a handful of interviews.
  
  There will no doubt be as much enthusiasm for A Year With The Very Most here in Boise during TVM's CD release show, with Finn Riggins, Spondee and Floomdorm on the lineup. TVM will also debut their new video for "Autumn Air" by local auteur Jason Sievers.
  
  Not to put the cart before the horse, but it won't be long after this release that fans on both sides of the ocean will be chomping at the bit for more. Dunphy indicated that more is definitely in the works.
  
  When asked if he had any suggestions as to what TVM could do to improve, he had but one: "I wish they could record a bad song so as to give the competition a glint of hope."

• The Very Most write the kind of Beach Boys-flecked perfect pop nuggets that soundtrack your happiest, summery-iest, most innocent dreams. [+ Show ]
  

  The Very Most write the kind of Beach Boys-flecked perfect pop nuggets that soundtrack your happiest...The Very Most write the kind of Beach Boys-flecked perfect pop nuggets that soundtrack your happiest, summery-iest, most innocent dreams. "You're in Love with the Sun," from their new Summer EP, is based around a delightful descending and ascending electric piano figure, but instruments and voices are added one by one, turning something merely joyous into a damn near rhapsodic symphony. Fans of LAKE and Belle and Sebastian: You have a new crush.

Setlist

Flying M
Today it is Even Better
Fashionably Mean
MP3Hugger
Patricia
Polygraph
Good Fight Fighting
April is the Kindest Month
Scotland
You're in Love With the Sun
Motor-vu Lights
Profoundly Imperfect
Bleess
Congratulations Forever

Basic Requirements

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