Captain Ivory

There was a short set change which allowed us to get a Griffin Claw IPA. Many thanks to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and O&W distributing for keeping Michigan beers on tap during the festival. With beer in hand, the simmering blues rock of Captain Ivory kicked off.
Captain Ivory are Michigan natives who’ve relocated to Nashville and were on a tour that brought them back home. They were sporting a new drummer Seth Maschari who got the show off to a hell of a start with a flourish of snappy drumming. The band jammed favorites such as “Tennessee” and “Quiet Casualties” as well as their standby cover of Dave Mason’s “Feeling Alright”. They had folks dancing and cranked up at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. Be sure to stop by the gallery for more pictures. - LifeinMichigan.com

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Can you imagine for a moment what it would sound Soundgarden if instead of having soaked the whole culture punk and alternative in the late seventies and early eighties, in addition to the great bands of the seventies, they had been submerged city in music American roots?
Well, now you do not have to imagine it, simply pinches disk Ivory Captain and listen " Baroness ", song that opens, on how the result would sound. And I assure you pull back .
The thing starts seemingly quiet and in less than a minute you're up to his eyebrows in the disk could not stop thinking " jooooder, what I'm hearing . "
With " Bottle & a Penitentiary "thing and it would put the whole. Good home topic can be found in a lot of records which are then a brick, but if followed by a song of this caliber the thing promises.
If these two followed " False Remedy "then and yes you get on your knees and you cry . It is impossible to listen to this song not remember the Cornell of " Jesus Christ Pose "," Slave And Bulldozers "," Outshined "or" Loud Love ". And over the link to this wonder called " Quiet Casualties "sublime.
Four out of four is an average to be taken into account, but is that was not enough for them, so why not go very far and you keep listening disco "are marked You Are Here ", to tell you very loud and very clearly that this is not a joke .
They continue to run with " Tennessee "and the tremendous" Truth When You Lie ". But also have saved two aces in sleeve to the end " Curse Or Cure "and" Six Minutes to Midnight . " Captain Ivory is a demonstration that something big is brewing in the underground American. Bands like them, The Black Cadillacs , Wild Adriatic , Goodbye June or Revival Owners are showing that it may sound original and personality despite having a clear influence and assert earlier times without falling into the rough copy. Something similar to what happened between the late eighties and early nineties in Seattle . We're counting the days for which will be his first European tour. http://captainivory.com/ - Trocadero Magazine

Writing a review for the début self-titled release from Captain Ivory could not have been easier. This collection of nine songs is phenomenal from start to finish. Imagine a foundation of Led Zepplin’s Physical Graffiti, accented with Govt Mule’s Deepest End and The Raconteurs’ Consolers of the Lonely and you have the house that Captain Ivory is building.

Captain Ivory hails from Ypsilanti, Michigan. The band members are Jayson Traver (vocals, guitar), Robbie Bolog (lead guitar), Steve Zwilling (Piano/Organ), Alex Patten (Bass), and Justin Leiter (drums). The band formed in 2012 and quickly started cutting their teeth with various gigs in the Midwest. They headed into Tempermill Studios in 2014 with Dave Feeny to record their début, which is out now on Gangplank Records.

Baroness starts things off with a laid back and syncopated groove that ramps up into a thumping progression that would have the Pete Townshend windmill in full force. You’ll get your first taste of the filthy rich grit of Jayson Traver’s vocals. I was reminded of Ian Thornley from Big Wreck.

You’ll want to jump and grind when you hear Bottle & A Penitentiary. The rolling drums, popping bass, and keyboard harmony allows the guitars and vocals to run wild. This is a fun song that reeks of spilt whiskey and bar room sweat.

I could hear a call to the whipping post in False Remedy. It could be the desperation induced by the chord progression setting the stage for the moody vocals. There is also the dual lead guitar section that just bleeds in your ears.

Quiet Casualties takes you on a psychedelic road trip where you can smell the sagebrush burning in the desert as the miles fly by. Top down and ripping a whole in the universe, the bass guitar of Alex Patten and drums of Justin Lieter throb while the organ work of Steve Zwilling set the stage for ensuing madness.

Here You Are lets the rain pouring all around as you realize what you’ve loved is lost. The torment in the vocals is palpable throughout. I may be biased being a guitar player, but the solo by Robbie Bolog wails in sweet agony. Can you smell a bit of Ten Years Gone?

CaptainIvory_BandStagePhoto

My favorite tune on this release (and I love them all, so this is saying something) is Tennessee Approximately. There is a down home mountain soul of the Allman Brothers shining through on this one. You’ll want to sing along, shout, dance, and dig on the sweet acoustic guitar phrases and tangy slide guitar.

I was reminded of the running the roads on a long haul with Truth When You Lie. The understated, yet driving rhythm and keyboard phrasing sets you rolling and then the chorus crashes like a wave. The echoing chorus with keys and acoustic guitar adds a nice touch to a well-crafted song.

I thought of the White Stripes when I heard Curse or Cure. The kick drum and piano setting you up for the slap of the guitars pounding out the bridge. This song picks up the pace with a hungry groove accentuated by the dusty vocals. Another fantastic guitar solo lies in wait.

Captain Ivory takes us down South for some finger lickin’ good slide guitar and smoking vocals with Six Minutes to Midnight. There is a ton of hip shaking swagger in the rhythms that will have you clapping your hands and stomping your feet. This one is a real barn burner to close things out.

I struggle to find words to demonstrate how impressed I am with Captain Ivory. They sound like they have jammed together for years, yet they’ve only just begun. I’m looking forward to seeing what else this band has in store. In the meantime, go see these guys live and support a great band by picking up their CD! - National Rock Review

Melhores de 2014: Categoria "Rock, Blues, Fusão" - Via Nocturnal

Full review available at the review URL. - Steady Magazine

We caught up with one of our featured artists at this year’s Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair iSPY Magazine Stage, Captain Ivory. Get to know this up and coming band on the move in SE Michigan!

Tell us a little about your band. How did you guys get together? How long ago did you form?
Well, to start, Jayson and I grew up in a small suburb of Detroit where music was not as prevalent in the town as one would expect. Detroit Rock City stays primarily in Detroit if you know what I’m saying. We began writing music together because we found out we had a shared love for Rock ‘n’ Roll. We moved up to Mt. Pleasant together to attend Central Michigan University, but later realized that the town has absolutely no music scene, which caused us to develop cabin fever and eventually ended up back home.

Robbie and I attended a study abroad trip together through Eastern Michigan University. I was there to learn about art and history and Robbie was studying Italian films, but inevitably took the full trip next year. I ended up drinking fine wine and chasing girls, but I learned a little bit too. When Robbie returned from the trip we got in touch and traveled to Nashville for a long weekend trip. We played verbal ping-pong with what we wanted in a band and eventually brought Jayson into the mix because of his phenomenal voice .I arranged a meeting for them to meet and everything went swimmingly. The two bonded immediately on a music level. What Jayson lacks, Robbie excels and vice versa.
Alex was Robbie’s silent roommate during the summer of 2012, which is when we formed. He had his own little gig playing cover songs with a pretty good band. It turns out he can play almost any instrument he touches so we asked him if he wanted to jam with us. He asked what instrument and we told him bass, but we needed a drummer in the meantime. For about a month we played without a bass player. Our gigs were pretty small. We played like family parties and barbecues and stuff like that. After a month of having ½ of a rhythm section, we realized its hard to play with no bass. That’s where Justin came into play.

Justin was the drummer for a band called White Shag. They are a fairly popular Detroit three piece or something like that. I don’t really follow them personally. Not really my bag. Justin was looking for a band to play with and we were close. It worked out perfectly. He was only a block or so away from our practice space and he had a great kit to begin with. It turned out that he had the skill to back it up. Interestingly enough, we found him on craigslist. He is not a murderer. Thankfully.

Who all is in the band and what all do they do?

I [Steve] am the piano and organ player for the band. I also play some percussion and scribble some lyrics down here and there. Robbie is mainly lead guitar, lap guitar, and backing vocals. He and Jayson will switch back and forth in their responsibilities on the guitar though. He is also the marketing guy. If it wasn’t for this magnificent man we would have nothing to show for our band. The rest of the band, minus Justin, are mentally incapable of following up on our social networking prowess. Alex is the bass player and he contributes backing vocals. As I said earlier, he played on the drums at the start of this endeavor. Jayson is the lead singer and, usually, rhythm guitarist, but as I said he and Robbie will switch the duties around occasionally. He also throws some lyrics around as well. Justin is the drummer and contributes a great deal to the marketing aspect of things as well.

Together, we have a very collective agreement on how things work. We each have our role and we do that role well. Some of us have past experience and some do not. What one of us lacks the other can assist and vice versa. It’s a great brotherhood of friends from different backgrounds who came together to have some fun and do what we love to do in life.
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Did you always know that you wanted to create music? When did you get started making music/what was your musical background?

I can’t speak for the rest of the band. Well, I probably could, but I will leave that for another time. My father was a drummer back in the 80’s for some popular Detroit bands. He played at some pretty notable venues [Blondie’s, Harpo’s, St. Andrew’s Hall] and he established himself throughout southeast Michigan, but he handed it in for family life. Honorable personal decision. Anyways, I used to sit on his lap and play the drums with him. I guess I developed a solid sense of rhythm through these experiences. I remember listening to old records with fairly simple drum beats and just playing along. I could not reach the bass pedals or the hi-hat so my pops would control the floor area. This process went on from about age 3-6 and then I got into sports until I was about 17. Inevitably, I came right back to music. I was always into music and I was always dissecting songs instead of just hearing it, I was actually listening to it. - iSpyMagazine

It’s always somewhat gratifying to hear about a young band heading into what is always the most exciting phase of any group’s early years. “This Friday we’re hitting the studio, we’re hoping to have something out by Christmas”, reports Robbie Bolog – guitarist of Detroit band Captain Ivory. “We’re pretty excited.”

Based on the band’s two available singles and a floor-shaking performance at Indy’s Radio Radio back in August, the prospect of a full Captain Ivory album is pretty exciting. With individual influences like AC/DC, Elton John, Miles Davis and The Clash, Captain Ivory arrived at its collective bar-room blues stomp quite organically. “Both me and (lead vocalist) Jayson (Traver) had a pretty strong blues and classic rock background. Justin (Leiter, drums) is a little more punk-rock influenced but he gelled with us on those influences.”

So, it started, like so many soon-to-be great bands started, with the blues. They even dress like “blues-guys.” But they defy the “if it walks like a duck” adage by incorporating both classic and modern rock into their sound, and steer clear of the white-boy blues stereotypes. “There’s some Radiohead in there, some Zeppelin, some White Stripes,” says Bolog, “we’re all over the place.”

Together only fourteen months, Captain Ivory has spent a majority of that time cutting its road teeth. Fifty shows in and they’ve moved beyond “driving four cars to a show, we finally have a van and a trailer.” And they have more than enough material for the album they are about to start recording.

The band’s current points of reference should be serious contenders for inclusion. “False Remedy” is a slithering blues with a radio-filtered vocal and a Steve Zwilling organ line that recalls those great old Animals singles. There is a two-part dissonant harmony guitar solo near the end of the song that would make bass player Alex Patten’s hero Miles Davis stand at attention. “Six Minutes to Midnight” is a 70’s boogie workout punctuated by a Bolog slide-guitar seminar and an enticing gospel finish. Jayson Traver’s vocals call to mind Robert Plant, but don’t feel like an attempted imitation. Justin Leiter’s drums and Patten’s bass are out front, a blues-jazz boot of fusion that kicks every measure forward. The songs are peppered with riffs that in less learned hands would be punishing frat-house cocktails, but served by Captain Ivory they go down like the smoothest whiskey.

Captain Ivory, especially at this stage in their development, finds itself facing the challenge of so many of their Mid-western contemporaries. “This is what we’re going to do for a living, and everybody’s on board for that”, says Bolog. But in their home-base of Detroit “…it can sometimes be difficult to find bands we gel with well musically, (and) we play a lot elsewhere”.

This week, “elsewhere” equates to Indianapolis. Captain Ivory will be on the bill Friday November 1 at Radio Radio with Hero Jr. and The Hawkeyes. Doors at 8, $10 in advance/12 at the door. - DoItIndy.com