#ice balloons

[current-mcr-news]

frankieromustdie: hell yes @muddguts !! thank you so much for the care package! 🖤 @mark__cross 🖤🎶

@blackplatetrips @iceballoons @therealsurfbort @_twompsax

[shipinthewoods]

SHIP/SHAPE/FESTIVAL/EDITION – A Free-Form Radio Experience from A Ship In The Woods –

-- This special episode of SHIP/SHAPE/SUNDAY features new and classic tracks by the artists performing at the inaugural A Ship In The Woods Music & Art Festival in sunny Escondido, California, June 16th & 17th, 2018. Here’s the lineup: SATURDAY, JUNE 16th 11AM - 7PM No Age Shabazz Palaces Ice Balloons Sun Foot Lonnie Holley Drew McDowall Hiro Kone Hexa Pall Jenkins & Lori Goldston SUNDAY, JUNE 17th 11AM - 7PM Built To Spill Bill Callahan Treepeople Tara Jane O’Neil Moon Diagrams EMA Basser Willis Earl Beal Café Ale Spooky Cigarette Tix and info here: https://www.shipfest.org – Bernie Brooks is the editor-in-chief and bloggist of look.ship. *Everything* he writes or compiles or otherwise makes–or has *ever* written, compiled, or otherwise made–for A Ship In The Woods is editorial content, and as such reflects his opinion alone, not necessarily that of Ship as an organization. Actually, this applies to all the content on look.shipinthewoods.com, regardless of who wrote or said it. He can be e-mailed: bernie [at] shipinthewoods [dot] com

[azpartygirlz]

"A droning noise-punk assault that feels both primitive and futuristic" - Stereogum

"Given the opportunity, I recommend experiencing Ice Balloons." - The Minimal Beat

"Just the thing to make you feel you’ve stepped into another dimension" - The Observer

Sunday, September 24th

ICE BALLOONS SUN FOOT

at Club Congress (more info).

[madmackerel]

Mad Mackerel Recommends... Ice Balloons

Mad Mackerel Recommends… Ice Balloons

The Wasp is the latest buzzing track from Brooklyn’s no-wave, noise-punk supergroup Ice Balloons from their upcoming LP Fiesta, out August 11th on Volar Records. As much a cult as a band, helmed by a giant golden fly, Ice Balloons celebrates chaos as fizzles and lasers pop from every broken corner of their tumbled offerings. The Wasp is no exception – the track, like most of the record, was…

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[resistance765]

“The Wasp” - Ice Balloons

[resistance765]

“Fallen Family” - Ice Balloons

[resistance765]

“Calypso Heartworm” - Ice Balloons

[theseventhhex]

Ice Balloons Interview

Ice Balloons

Ice Balloons are a New York supergroup that count TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone, Samiam’s Sean Kennerly, Fuckemos’ Sean Powell, and Midnight Masses’ Giselle Reiber amongst its members. Oh, and they’re fronted by a giant golden fly. After releasing an eight-song self-titled EP back in 2013, they’re finally getting around to releasing a debut album, ‘Fiesta’, in August. As much a cult as a band, helmed by a golden fly, Ice Balloons celebrates chaos as fizzles and lasers pop from every broken corner of their tumbled offerings but more in a garage punk synth-noise vein than any of the bands from which the members derive. In live shows, Ice Balloons strive for maximum spectacle, with video projections (B.A. Miale), piña-colada scented smoke and a whirl of chaotic noises, all grounded by a 60’s garage punk skeleton… We talk to Sean Kennerly about patience, altitude sickness and YouTube binges…

TSH: How do you feel your musical development has progressed since the last EP?

Sean: We’ve moved slightly beyond the ‘overturned-garbage can’ phase on some songs, but we keep one toe in the garbage still most of the time.

TSH: What was the process like in getting the band together and finally getting around to releasing a debut album?

Sean: It was ridiculous at first. We didn’t know what we were, we hadn’t figured out our approach and we had some non-musicians playing with us, so often it descended into total chaos. Eventually we played enough shows and rehearsed enough so that we had some viable songs to record.

TSH: How would you sum up the energy in the studio as new music is coming together?

Sean: We rehearse a bunch before going in because it’s expensive. We don’t want to waste the engineer’s time, but then comes the noise stuff and that we try to do somewhere else so we don’t try the patience of whoever is recording. It’s best if we’re left to our own schedule on the noise side.

TSH: You’ve touched on beginning in ‘in total smoke and chaos’, how much of a key factor has patience been to date?

Sean: I imagine we’ve tried the audience’s patience quite a bit and I would like to apologise for that. Sorry. But mostly actually playing is very absorbing - I don’t get impatient except when we’re not playing.

TSH: Also, with regards to the album ‘Fiesta’ it’s been noted that the record is in some ways a study in contrasts. With this in mind, how would you sum up the styles of instrumentation that you were drawn to?

Sean: The instrumentation is constant throughout all our songs, except for the occasional noise collage. The songs sound different probably because they were recorded in wide time gaps and it just comes out different that way for us. From my perspective, we have ‘slow’ songs and ‘fast’ songs, and then there’s various lyrics draped around like sad little children.

TSH: What does this body of work personally signify to you?

Sean: Most of the songs are about insects and their torturous lives. It’s a perspective album.

TSH: Tell us more about how you landed on the track ‘The Wasp’ being about the development of parasitic wasp babies inside a caterpillar…

Sean: An early version of the song was about a cokehead I knew as a teenager in Texas, but it never felt quite right, and then I was reading about wasps that zombify their hosts and it morphed into that. I still don’t understand how the wasps evolved to remain inside the host body controlling the caterpillar’s movements - that seems so incredible.

TSH: As you fleshed out ‘Calypso Heartworm’, did you focus on a certain part most?

Sean: That song we did over and over so many times in so many different versions, I really don’t know that I focused on any of it - the whole song is really about slipping out of focus.

TSH: How tough was it for you to overcome the altitude sickness whilst you were in the mountains of Colorado?

Sean: It really sucks! I was there for four days and I didn’t adjust the whole time - (9,000 feet) feeling every 15 minutes or so that I was beginning to suffocate, which made it impossible to get to sleep for more than little snippets. I’m not sure why it happened then and I’ve never had it before or since, but when I got back to Brooklyn I slept for 16 hours straight and then woke up and Ice Balloons came to me as though in waking dream.

TSH: What do you feel is the defining feature for Ice Balloons’ live offerings?

Sean: A roll of the dice!

TSH: What’s pleased you most with regards to this album finally being completed?

Sean: Well, just that it even got done in the face of all obstacles was in itself a huge relief. Sean Powell’s cover art is amazing, Jonathan Schenke’s recording and mixing of it, that Volar agreed to put it out - I’m just glad we got an opportunity to do it at all.

TSH: Does being someplace isolated from your daily life help your music to become more singular and focused?

Sean: Yeah, I like to get stoned and walk to the park. Often I’ll turn back early because I have an idea to record, but then later it’s usually terrible. You have to sift through a lot of false starts.

TSH: How do you like to relax outside of music?

Sean: Alcoholism?

TSH: What often would you say gets viewed most on your YouTube binges?

Sean: Pet videos mostly - pets do the darndest things!

TSH: What intrigues you most about the future of Ice Balloons?

Sean: I pray that someday we can go to Japan and Spain to bring our message to the people there!

Ice Balloons - “Fallen Family”