Ivybridge Diary 7 – Bonus Tracks: Love ‘Em Or Hate ‘Em?

Good evening. All is well in the Ivybridge camp this week. We’ve hit our stride starting to practice the set for our upcoming shows, tightening up the old tunes and getting the Ivy groove back.

During the week we’ve been blessed with a couple of revelations. The first and most important of which wasn’t even our own – whoever’s idea it was to mix the mints with jellybeans at our practice rooms (the excellent and always accommodating Rooms in Farnborough) has practically hit upon genius! So massive respect to the unknown sweet stocker who keeps our practice sessions so absolutely delicious.

The second revelation was this: Bonus tracks stapled onto the ends of albums are a bad thing. As with any subject, there are certain exceptions to the rule, but in general we’ve come to the conclusion that many albums would’ve been far better without them. Record companies seem to feel that whacking some shite b-side onto the end of a record to beef up running time and make the consumer feel that they’ve got more bang for their buck are sadly ruining the lasting impact that these albums would have without them. We shall highlight some of our worst offenders.

• Deftones – White Pony (Bonus Track: The Boys Republic)
The Boys Republic was a bonus track found only on the limited edition release of White Pony which came packaged in a red or black opaque jewel case depending on your preference. Whilst not necessarily a bad track, The Boys Republic sounds like a cut from the Around The Fur era. It’s certainly not got the layers of depth that blesses the other tracks on White Pony. It’s biggest crime though is that it bludgeons it’s way in straight after the mind-blowing Pink Maggit, which should really have nothing but silence after it’s incredible finish.

• The Mars Volta – De-Loused At The Comatorium (Bonus Track: Ambuletz)
Surely the idea behind a concept album is that all the tracks are written so that they follow a set theme, lyrically or musically. So when you find yourself at the end of the grueling 9 minute prog marathon that is Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt, which to all intents and purposes wraps up the De-Loused concept, to find that an unrelated, and in comparison, boring track has been crowbarred into the end of the record one leaves the stereo why they even bothered in the first place.

• Pearl Jam – Ten (Bonus Tracks: Alive (Live), Wash, Dirty Frank)
Now this is pretty much unforgivable. An absolutely essential, classic album like Ten gets a re-release by the record company, probably looking to make an extra buck off completist Pearl Jam mega-fans. These three extra cuts they’ve added to Ten (which without them is a pretty much perfect album) are just plain bad. OK, so the live version of Alive is pretty good, but is it needed on an album that already has an immaculate studio cut of the track on it? The other two though are just dire. God only knows when they recorded them, because they sound sub-par even by today’s Pearl Jam. Whoever decided it was a great idea to add these after the immense Release needs to be court-marshaled and shot.

Anyway. Our opinions aside… What do you people think? Have you come across any albums that have been ruined by shoddy placing of extra tracks? Or have you got any CDs where the addition of these tracks actually adds to the overall impact of the album? There must be some – They can’t all be bad! Charlie, being the anal type, erases all the bonus tracks off his iTunes. Is this madness, or genius?

We’re going to leave Record of the Week for tomorrow, because the new Portishead album will be out by then, and hopefully we’ll be able to dedicate the honour to them for their latest effort ‘Third’. Matt and Charlie headed to see them at Hammersmith Apollo recently on their Machine Gun tour and were blown away by their new stuff. Although, the highlights of the set had to be the excellent renditions of Wandering Star and Glory Box, which were both absolutely gob-smacking.

So look back later in the week to see what we reckon of ‘Third’. And in the meantime, stay healthy!

Ivybridge x.

Ivybridge Diary 6 – EP One Online Now!

We’re afraid that for the second week running, it’s going to be a brief blog. But when we’re uploading the third and final track of the EP for your aural pleasure, do you really care?! Studio sessions this week were composed only of Charlie and Lewis, so it was spent tightening up the rhythm section, getting breaks and timings ironed out. We also wrote the best part of a song, quite a punky little number if we do say so ourselves. God only knows what it’ll turn into when Matt puts his acoustic fingers in the mix.

So again, I repeat, EP One is now on the player. So get back to our profile page (www.myspace.com/ivybridge) and listen…

Listen well…

Then listen some more.

RECORD OF THE WEEK -
Matt has unfortunately not submitted for record of the week this week, so it’s left to Charlie and Lewis to pick out their faves. Lewis has been listening to Meshuggah’s new album ‘obZen’. Though he’s not sure whether to truly class it as a record of the week, as he’s not quite sure what to make of it yet. Meshuggah are, in his words, ‘What your parents expect heavy metal music to be like’. Quite right too. In anticipation of their new album, Charlie has been spinning The Subways’ excellent ‘Young For Eternity’ album. Like a British Nirvana for the new millenium: The Subways totally rock. Get acquainted if you haven’t already.

Anyways. We love you and leave you for another week by which time we’ll be back in the studio rehearsing for the upcoming show(s). Keep it clean.

Ivybridge x.

Ivybridge Diary 5 – The EP is complete!

Hello chaps and chapettes.

Just a brief blog this week as we’ve been hard at work on the computer. Our first proper record ‘EP One’ is now finished. We completed the final mix on Sunday night and we’re totally chuffed to bits with it. And although we do like to avoid an arse kissing as much as possible, we really do have to give a HUGE shout out to the infinitely talented Mr. Tom Manning who engineered, mixed, produced and even guested on several extra instruments on the EP. Without him, it would be a completely different beast (probably not even a beast at all). We’d also like to thank our good friend Doug Forth, who was one of the primary instigators of Ivybridge, through no fault of his own, and we are honored to have him lend us his gorgeous backing vocals on ‘Epic’.

So following last week’s addition of ‘Epic’ to the tracks our myspace (www.myspace.com/ivybridge), we have now posted ‘The Curiosity’. And next week, to complete the EP, we will post ‘Green Or Grey’. So pop back next Sunday for the update.

The finished tracklisting is as follows:

Ivybridge – EP One (2008)
1. The Curiosity
2. Green Or Grey
3. Epic

That just about wraps it up for this week. We hope you enjoy the new tunes. Please let us know what you think.

Hugs all round

Ivybridge x.

Ivybridge Diary 4

Happy Snow Day.

Since we were unable to get to the studio this week because of torrential snow, Matt and Charlie decided to use the day constructively and finish off the mix of ’Epic’ from our forthcoming EP. So if you head to our myspace (www.myspace.com/ivybridge), you’ll find it in our music player. Enjoy! We’re mighty proud of this track and we really hope that you enjoy listening to it as much as we love playing it.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

This week’s records of the week reflect the randomness of the weather somewhat… Charlie has been digging his heels in to the sounds of Strapping Young Lad’s ’Alien’ album. Although being an excellent album in many ways, one can’t help the disconcerting feeling that Devin Townsend might have actually come as close as possible to distilling unadulterated violence onto a compact disc. Lewis has been progging it right up with the help of the new Porcupine Tree record ’Nil Recurring’. Although just 4 tracks in length, The Tree always make sure you get more than your money’s worth. Lewis also notes that the band have come closer to the sound of Tool than ever before, with the help of interesting bongo work. Fresh off the news that Bat For Lashes are going to be supporting Radiohead at their Victoria Park shows in June, Matt has been getting acquainted with her excellent debut ’Fur and Gold’. If anyone has yet to hear the record, we heartily recommend it. It’s just a shame that she lost out to the Klaxons for the Mercury (Charlie reckons she should’ve won, but we’re an equal opportunities blog!).

Anyway, we’ll be back soon with the rest of the finished EP. Keep it real and all that.

Ivybridge x.

Ivybridge Diary 3

Greetings all.

This week we spent the studio time polishing off the structure and dynamics of the aforementioned ’Dwanye Dibley’. Since we’ve satisfied some of our slightly more metal inclinations with this track by including what can only be described as a ’chugga-chugga’ section, we thought we’d go through five of our favourite chugga-chugga sections. Since the chugga-chugga is a staple of much old skool metal, we’ll stick to some of the more inventive manifestations seen in recent years, so here goes.

5 • Smashing Pumpkins ’An Ode To No One’ (From ’Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’)
00:00 – 00:39
In at five is the intro to this hard rocker from the Mellon Collie album. The oldest song on the list, this track has the audacity to open with some beautifully subdued chugga-chugga that sits comfortably underneath the vocals until the song erupts into awesome riffage. This section is different in that it hardly uses any drums at all, eschewing bombast for texture.

4 • Biffy Clyro ’The Kids From Kibble And The Fist Of Light’ (From ’Infinity Land’)
00:00 – 00:09
The next portion on the list does exactly what the Pumpkins section doesn’t: Hits you hard between the eyes with brutal noise. The only thing is that the Biffy chaps have chosen to punctuate the insanity with vocal bursts which seem to have been lifted straight out of schoolboy vocabulary. This equals only one thing = more insanity. Genius.

3 • The Mars Volta ’Ourborous’ (From ’The Bedlam In Goliath’)
00:10 – 00:40
This is Matt’s favourite piece on the list. Following the slightly disconcerting sound that you hear when somebody’s ringing your mobile when it’s near your speakers, The Mars Volta launch into some quality chugga-chugga, except that it’s laced with salsa rhythms and incredible groove. This is how to do chugga-chugga that people can dance their arses off to.

2 • Tool ’Jambi’ (From ’10,000 Days’)
00:00 – 00:15 and 03:56 – 05:27
You might have noticed from the listed time codes that this track in the list for not one, but two reasons. The first reason is for Jambi’s intro. Crushing guitars come in from the off in a startlingly groovy 9/8 pattern that is closely followed by cataclysmic drumming that would make Meshuggah weep. The second reason is what Charlie would call the ’most rocking riff of all time’. Probably best not to dissect this part, only to say that it does indeed rock. If you’ve not heard it, definitely check it out. Probably the only chugga-chugga section cooler than this is…

1 • Oceansize ’Catalyst’ (From ’Effloresce’)
00:12 – 00:36
Again, this is track that you need to hear rather than us try and describe it (but we’ll give it a go). After a wall of sound intro the noise quickly dissipates into an awesomely syncopated mesh of guitar rhythms. Only the rhythm is split between two guitars. Seriously cool. And even cooler live. Check this one out on YouTube if you can.

So there. Plenty of stuff for you peeps to check out. And that goes doubley for those who really haven’t the faintest idea what on earth we’re blathering on about.

We’ll be back, same time next week.

Keep safe.

Ivybridge x.