The Velvet Ants

"Brilliant" - Jordon Zadorozny

"Brilliant" - Jordon Zadorozny

"Amazing" - Ben Deily

"Intense" - Ken Stringfellow

These are the best and brightest shows that D.C. music has to offer. We’re very careful of putting any stamp of approval on shows that we recommend-let alone place on its own tab on DMD.com!

There’s no ifs ands nor buts about it - you are guaranteed to get your money’s worth at any of these shows mentioned.

Congratulations to the local artists who made the coveted spots for April. - D.C. Music Download (dcmusicdownload.com)

“Cool tunes. Sounds like a blend between Nirvana and the vocal harmonies of The Byrds. Good stuff.” -Hank Cole Band - Reverbnation (Reverbnation.com)

“Dense, Thick, and uber sonic! Plods along like a juggernaut! I love it!” -Brien Beebout - Facebook (Facebook.com)

“Dense, Thick, and uber sonic! Plods along like a juggernaut! I love it!” -Brien Beebout - Facebook (Facebook.com)

"Blue Cheer and the Beach Boys meet the Beatles and Crosby, Stills & Nash a half century later. Nice!!!" -Magic Potion - Noisehead (Noisehead.com)

Velvet Ants make DC101`s Best of 2011 list ! ! ! - DC's Rock Station (DC101)

To this writer, the definition of alternative music is any group that effectively mixes various styles to create an original sound. There is a reason it’s called alternative: it’s a type of tune in which you can indulge when the norm has got you bored. Many bands these days call themselves “alternative”, but usually comprise of the same “John-Mayer-meets-Collective-Soul” low key kind of sound we’ve heard much too often. This point all the more makes it refreshing to listen to The Velvet Ants combine metal, psychedelic rock, and other styles in their bold new album, Advantage.

The first fifteen seconds of this album (“Across the Waves”) is pure metal: a slow, almost menacing guitar riff that you would expect from Soundgarden. Yet, the second guitar comes, dreamlike and wavering, and the song then becomes something else entirely. A similar effect occurs on the second track, “Anyone,” which starts as a punk rock and ends like soft rock. As the album progresses, the varying styles are meshed quite nicely together, and you then become quickly accustomed to the Velvet Ants overall sound. The vocals are consistently soft, clean, and carry the same aura as Morrissey in the sense that it sounds like the singer is calling out to you from a place far from this existence.

While the drums are typically aggressive in these tracks, the stark difference in the guitars is what was so intriguing here. It’s common for a guitar to play metal while another lays down some psychedelics or electronic, (“Across the Waves,” “Evil Twin”) and the surprise here is that they’re being played by the same guy. The Velvet Ants is a two person band, with Trevor Hart on drums and vocals and Ian Margolycz on vocals, bass, and guitar. There is some assistance; Roscoe Tanner lays down solos on a couple tracks and Ken Stringfellow offers up his organ, theremin, tambourine and vocals. Yet this is still essentially two people at the core, and it’s remarkable just how much sound they can create. Hats off to SoundLab for mastering this album, for the sound quality alone is easily radio-worthy.

Advantage is the third outing by The Velvet Ants, and overall it’s a strong and experimental album that is always a pleasure to hear. Although, there are some tracks that are not as strong as the others, like the lumbering “Shebore,” yet there are so many bright spots to compensate for it. The vocal breaks in “Colorblind,” the mechanic drum effects on “Interference,” and the aforementioned metal opening of “Across the Waves,” all make this is a surprising and worthwhile album. - Clay Conger (D.C. Music Download)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Thaylobleu - The Good Fight - The Unlikely Hero - The Velvet Ants
Jammin Java - Sep 10 2012

The Velvet Ants - I hear plenty of early Nirvana with a bit more of a Green Day push right out of the gate with this local twin-guitar quartet. Their second song has me falling out of my chair as it is a strong cover of the Wipers' "Telepathic Love". Were any of this band alive 32 years ago when this was recorded? I know only a couple of people in the audience were around with me then. It's not like the Wipers received any of their due on the radio or the charts, either. So kudos to these guys for finding this brilliant band that I lucked into from the very beginning and still hope to hear more from. The set continues on well enough. The guitarist is Roscoe Tanner who has far fewer forced errors than his namesake tennis player. Roscoe Tanner... really? Bizarre, but kudos to him for getting out of the hospital and doing the show even though he had to remain seated. They mentioned the bassist was filling in and perhaps with all that was going on, this was not their most powerful set, and maybe that Wipers tune distracted me too much as I was thinking of them for the rest of the set. And I did hear just a little too much Cobain at times for my comfort levels. Still, there are some excellent elements here and this is a band I would check out again.

Quote of the Night: "That's Roscoe Tanner sitting here" Well maybe that threw me off more than the Wipers cut, as I never expected to hear those words said. - David Hintz (DC Rock Live)

Q&A with musician Ian Margolycz – check out the bottom of the interview for some musical links!

You established Zeptune Records in 2004 for your “musical endeavors” – can you tell me a little bit about what your musical “intentions” were back then?

Sure, Zeptune started sometime back in high school as a result of boredom. If you’re anything like me sitting there in class daydreaming, you find any way possible to pull yourself out of that headspace. I’d just start scribbling and drawing in my notebook like my life depended on it. I’d get home and look through some of this stuff and startle myself sometimes!

This was also around the time my schoolmates and I started wondering what it’d be like to start a band and have songs, and alter egos and stuff like that. We were really into Nirvana and The Pixies. Of course at that point, in the late 90’s early 2000’s it was not so cool to like these sort of groups and be into that sort of music so we were definitely tagged as outsiders in town. The thing about that though was everyone thought you were dangerous and there was sort of a buffer around you. People were afraid to get near, which most of the time was okay with me. The downside was when people would conjure up this image of you, and think you were all these really messed up things that you weren‘t.

The daydreaming and ideas of starting a label or a band were an escape from all of that. It was that place you could dive into whenever, be creative and block out everything monotonous. Back then it was real simple, we were all just seeing if we could even strum an instrument, let alone write songs.

What about your musical interests now – are you currently working on any new projects?

The label itself has really been the only constant, and maybe I knew that would be the case somehow way back when. The bands I’ve formed and been a part of only seem to make it a few years before collapsing.

Dream LAX started as handful of demos intended for the continuation of M.O.T.H. and even The Velvet Ants became an offshoot of that group. Luckily those side projects didn’t have a set formula or goal in mind so there was less of a worry about them fracturing and ending abruptly. I guess you could say that Dream LAX and Velvet Ants are always there too, it just depends on whether I’m in a band at the time or they are the band. I know, very confusing. Trevor Hart (drummer for MOTH & The Velvet Ants) and I still talk and there’s always a possibility of us joining forces again to knock out some more tunes together.

As for my current interests I still have song ideas that I’d been working on towards the end of Lost in Stereo’s run but who knows what will happened to them. I’m still concerned about finishing the “Black Tie Galaxie” mixes that are at risk of being shelved for good. Other than that, I really don’t know where I’ll be in a year or two for that matter.

Things can get to be a bit discouraging after a while, and I don’t care who you are, it wears on you. It would be nice to hang it up for a spell. Then you think about all the random people you’ve met through it all and how they were affected by songs you made, and how you were affected by them, and other songs yourself, and the predicament continues…

I really dig your acoustic stuff, especially Two Sox (awesome!). Tell me a little bit about how you got started in music.

Thanks for checking it out, That happened to be a favorite among people early on. It’s a really simple song, almost transparent in form. I wrote that at 16 or 17. It’s strange how you write a song that’s about something so personal, that really hurt, and it feels completely your own and that you’re the only one that could experience something so terrible yet other people connect with it. It really widens your perspective after the fact. It pulls you back, away from the brush and allows things a chance to settle into their own weird way. Two Sox was one of many sort of ‘break up’ songs that would surface from time to time.

Most of the time I don’t write lyrics with an experience or picture in mind. It’s usually just segments of thought or words that I liked the sound of together in random order. A lot of the time the songs won’t make sense to me until long after they’re written. That’s one of the first songs that, to me, was a more obvious reaction to an unsalvageable relationship. That sort of love that hurts to be around, and hurts to be away from but you know you’d both be better off in the long run.

When you’re growing up and looking for somewhere to fit in, something interesting about yourself, or something you enjoy, you start looking for things that are uniquely yours. Mine happened to be art at an early age, I mean good or bad, whatever it is that you do you, if you enjoy it, it’s like gold.

As a kid my parents worked as photographers in Boston, MA so there was almost always something creative going on in the background. One of my first instruments was a dr - Jennifer Pickrell (A Can of Corn or Something)