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You've got to admire a band that doesn't sit around waiting for things to happen. Blivit, the Philadelphia-based trio, wrote, produced and released Unhand the World on their own, with no record company contract in hand. The resulting CD is an eclectic mix of bouncy music with a punky-ska beat, wild bass lines and straight ahead rock melodies.
They're famous around the Philly area for being a "bastard" rock band with no guitars—the album credits reveal Dave Palan on bass & backing vocals, Jeremy Dyen on keyboards, tabla and lead vocals, and Jay Horvath on drums. Like fellow East-coasters Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Blivit defies easy description and categorization. This album rocks hard, but is closer to fusion than to metal.
It's the lyrics that make a difference. The title track is a rocker's ode to Zen: "When I unhand the world, the world / it hands itself right back / My body is a feather and my soul is a breeze." "Ugly Inside" is funny and true to life. "Lobotomy," the most conventional straight-ahead rocker, isn't really all that straight-ahead upon closer examination, as a cheerful tune belies the patient's plea, "Doctor, do you have the tools / For a brighter day?" Lead vocalist Jeremy Dyen displays classic rock pipes that would make Tommy Shaw of Styx sit up and take notice.
Unusual for an independent release, Unhand the World also has a multimedia component. Pop the CD into your computer and feast on the extras: A jukebox feature, screensaver, a funny skateboarding game and a special web link that takes you to a site devoted to purchasers of the CD. On the site, there are exclusive MP3s, covers and demos, and some hints about the next Blivit album. It's enhanced content that actually has some content—a rarity, in my experience. Nice work, Blivit. Overall, Unhand the World is an excellent introduction to a very talented band.
- Jason Fogelson, Connected Guide
Keyboard is signature sound
On its debut full-length CD, “Unhand the World,” Blivit marries the musicianship of an out-there power trio with a streamlined pop-rock sensibility. The trio’s sound is highlighted by the keyboard work of Jeremy Dyen, who also handles vocals, and augmented by the strong chops of bassist Dave Palan and drummer Jay Horvath. All three are veterans of Fathead, an eight-piece “progressive hip-hop” group, as Dyen described his former band in an interview with Metro.
Did you start playing piano at an early age?
JEREMY DYEN: My first instrument was the violin and I got sick of that – that wasn’t cool anymore by about sixth or seventh grade. So, I gave that up and a couple years later started noodling around on the piano… I started figuring out songs and writing my own stuff. It wasn’t until later that I took some lessons, and when I was in college was practicing six hours a day, getting into jazz and a lot of progressive rock.
At some point you decided to bring the keyboard out front in a rock setting?
I’d always been writing music, and when Fathead ended, I decided my next project would be small… (Jay, Dave, and I) said, “Let’s try this trio thing.” I had been on and off playing keyboard through distortion and effects but I hadn’t really gotten too in-depth with it. It was more like, “I know this can be pretty cool.” As we were working on some of my songs and writing songs, it became, “Hey, this is something different that we can do.” It’s really developed into a signature sound, I think.
You guys have a residency at a place in Glenside?
Yeah, at Plush on Keswick Avenue. It’s just a small martini bar, a really chill spot, and they were looking to have an acoustiv thing and we jumped on it. It’s no acoustic – we ended up pretty much playing full out… We play two sets, and go in and out of playing our songs and improvising instrumentals. I treat it as a testing ground for new songs, and if we have a cover we want to do…
You cover Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”?
We try to pick something that will stand out. We thgouth, “’Hot for Teacher,’ we don’t have a guitar player, perfect.” We’ve don Hendrix, “Voodoo Child,” and “Baba O’Riley” by The Who. We do “War Pigs” (by Black Sabbath). We’re constantly working on a project where we do Beatles tunes but totally rearrange them. It is my hope to put out a whole album of completely twisted Beatles tunes. So far we only have two, but they’re bizarre.
- Matt Smith, Philadelphia Metro (interview)
EDITOR’S PICK
Philadelphia, home of the Phillies, great cheesesteaks, and of course the big Super Bowl losers (don’t worry I’m an admitted Patriots hater), is also the home of the trio known as Blivit. What you’ll be surprised to find out is that this great power-pop band doesn’t have a guitarist. Instead they utilize bass, keyboards, and drums to produce their great emotional roller coaster of an album. Vocally they own melodies like Imelda Marcos owns shoes, often reminding of past great pop bands. Awesome and worthy of all the hype they’ve been generating.
- J-Sin, Smother.net
Philly pop/rock trio Blivit urges "Unhand the World" (Crimson Fire Productions), a smart, snappy little affair fronted by guitar-aping keyboard player Jeremy Dyen. "Spinning" and "Rockin' the Boat" will get you going. And the comic interludes are a stitch. Recommended for Ben Folds and Steely Dan fans. - unknown
This prog-pop trio wastes little time getting in your head with tracks such as “Lower Me Down,” “Unhand The World,” and “Rockin’ The Boat.” Armed with drums (Jay Horvath), bass (Dave Palan) and distorted keyboards (courtesy of Jeremy Dyen, who also doubles on vocals and tabla) Blivit imagines a meeting between XTC’s Andy Partridge, Squeeze’s Difford and Tilbrook, and long-forgotten underground heroes Toy Matinee, but with a slightly more contemporary edge. It’s smart, fresh, filled with humor and knowing and an uncommon passion. Some folks will make a big deal about the fact that there’s no guitar here, though it sounds like there is. That’s cool and all but with songs like this, guitar or no guitar really isn’t the issue - standing back and having your head blown clean off is. Don’t let this one slip away. - Jedd Beaudoin, Copper Press
Ripped from the loosely jointed jazzfunk of Fathead, singer-keyboardist-tabla guy Jeremy Dyen, drummer Jay Horvath and bassist/vocalist Dave Palan find themselves making sumptuously soulful songs in a tighter, faster formation. That is, without trimming the Fat’s improv and groove factor. There’s still Dyen’s usual mix of swerving Steely Dan-like chords and fuzzy Zappa-frenzy within the coolly complex “This Condition” and the rumbly drummed ballad “Lower Me Down.” But they’re tighter as a trio, with quicker access to the heart of their circling melodies. Bridges and choruses reveal themselves with haste through the stuttering crunch of “Spinning” and the new wave funk of the title tune, allowing Dyen’s absurdist witticisms to find sharper focus - A.D. Amorosi
BLIVIT sends their latest creation “Unhand The World”. A wonderfully crazy mix of hardcore tricks and pop kicks. Rocking in all the right places, well crafted songs that cut through the MTV bullshit. - Starr Tucker
The gimmick for this Philadelphia trio is that the distorted power chords are produced on a keyboard rather than a guitar. That's not much on which to hang a career. Luckily, Blivit's got more than just a shtick, namely hooky, unpredictable charmers like "Rockin' the Boat," "Pretty Lies" and "This Condition." It doesn't hurt that leader/keysman Jeremy Dyen has a wonderfully engaging voice and an ambitious lyrical program that insinuates itself into the melodies with ease. It doesn't matter what instruments these boys would be playing—the songs speak confidently for themselves - Michael Tolad, High Bias
Discography
(2003) 4-song Demo (over 5000 distributed)
(2004)"Unhand the World" Debut Full-length Enhanced CD
--(Tracks "This Condition" and "Your Life" receiving light college radio airplay and focused internet radio play)
--CD available throught most online record retailers.
--MP3 available through iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, and MusicMatch among others.
New Full-Length due by late 2005
Photos
Bio
SYLLABICATION: bliv·it
DEFINITION: n. Slang (1) Something difficult or impossible to name. (2) ten lbs. of shit in a five lb. bag (3) Philly-based rock band consisting of Jeremy Dyen, Dave Palan & Jay Horvath.
ETYMOLOGY: Your Grandpa probably said it.
Taking in Blivit’s immense, driving sound and elaborate arrangements, you’d never know that something is missing from this power rock trio – a guitar. The Philadelphia based band is fronted by keyboardist, singer and songwriter Jeremy Dyen who cites jealousy as a chief factor that drove him to start experimenting with distortion on keys. “I’ve always been jealous of the expressiveness on guitar that I feel is missing from keyboards and the fact that it’s the instrument that rocks out,” Dyen says.
Regardless of his motivation, Dyen has created a unique keyboard style that packs all the expression and punch of a guitar. Bassist Dave Palan and drummer Jay Horvath have found creative approaches to their instruments as well, often strumming guitar-like patterns on the bass or playing unique drum beats to help fill out the sound and support the keys. The result on Blivit’s debut full-length release, Unhand The World is a sound that is often much larger than its parts and true to the original definition of the band’s name which was taken from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Palm Sunday” – “An all-frequencies assault on the sensibilities.”
The band’s ability to be creative and flexible with their playing is no surprise when you take a look at their combined experience. In a time when most musicians have “day jobs”, Blivit’s members are full-time musicians playing with numerous bands and on several recordings and even teaching. Dyen’s credits include playing on John Legend’s new album, Get Lifted (Sony), and live performances with local Brazilian band Alo Brasil. Palan’s credits include recording with award winning singer-songwriter Deb Talan, and Horvath also tours with the thrash/speed metal band Single Bullet Theory.
The band credits the variety of musicians they play with as having a great influence on their own music. “My education has always been based a lot on my peers. I’ve learned so much from the people I play with,” says Dyen. And while their accomplished musicianship is an important element, Dyen says they still “focus on the artistic end of things – the art rather than the craft.”
Dyen, Palan and Horvath began Blivit after their previous band Fathead decided to call it quits. With Fathead, they toured the U.S. extensively, sharing the stage with dozens of national acts such as Bare Naked Ladies, Weezer, Ben Folds Five, George Clinton and Parliament, Green Day, and The Roots.
After forming Blivit, they were nominated two years in a row in three categories by Philadelphia music fans for the Annual Philly Music Awards for Best Original Band, Best Bassist and Best Keyboardist. The song “This Condition” is also currently rated #35 out of 14,336 rock songs on Garageband.com.
“We all play a bunch of different styles and I think some of that comes across in our music, but I think at the heart of it, we just want to play great rock songs,” says Palan. “We try to maintain a focus with Blivit, but it’s hard to NOT be all over the map sometimes as we’re all very eclectic. A review of our new album described us as ‘a little progressive, but no so much that it bounces off the average listener.’ When I read that, I thought it was perfect. That’s a good place to be. I love challenging music, but not everyone does. If people from both sides of that coin enjoy our stuff, then I think we’ve succeeded.”
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