Detective Ventriloquist

Fun Times

2011-04-27T18:18:00.005-05:00

you have no idea how much we need these fun times.

this year has been a weird year for det vent. we finally released our ep back in february, but found ourselves unable to get over the promotional hump created by facebook. sure, you can beg your friends and the people who are "fans" of the band (still our friends) to download it, but where do you go from there? we seriously LABORED over this thing, and once it was available, we weren't really sure where to go from there.

there was, of course, the idea to play some live shows. since no one in northfield will have us, we started looking into bookings in the twin cities. if we were going to play shows though, that meant we had to practice, and along with some personal issues plaguing one of us (me, kevin) everyone's schedule was pretty booked up in february and march.

me, kevin, the one who plays the guitar, was ready to quit. i actually had taken a leave of absence from the band in order to get a handle on a few things (mostly, the health of my companion rabbit) and i told dan, the other one who sings and plays the keyboard, to replace me for the time being if he still wanted to play any shows in the near future. so at the end of march, the band was kind of left in limbo.

do we even want to continue with this? is this something that's still fun? is it turning into too much work? are we getting anywhere at all with it? is this just a studio band? can we even play a live show? why were we asking so many questions?

eventually, we decided that we needed to have fun again. so recently, the three of us-- me (kevin), dan, and adam, the other one who plays the drums-- got together for the first full band rehearsal/meeting in what felt like forever. rather than attempting to play any real songs that we have written (we played one during our meeting) we opted to get back to what det vent started out as- just some friends dicking around.

among the noises created in our rehearsal, the song "fun times are great" was born. it started with dan sampling our voices, adam dropping a beat, and me playing my delay pedals to create a weird computer warbling sound. i also started rapping at one point. you seriously have no idea how much we need these fun times. it may sound silly, but this is truly us getting back to what we need to do, and i'm not kidding when i say it is some of the realest music we have made as a band.

the song itself is available as a cassette single. i am not shitting you. we are making HOMEMADE CASSETTE SINGLES. we will take an old cassette single bought at a goodwill and i will record this song over it and print out the cover art for you. then we will either hand it to you in person or i will mail it to your house. here is the cover art:

and then here's the inside of the cassette:

since most of you are jerks who got rid of your cassette decks, we've kindly included a link to download a high quality WAV file of the song to play on your iPods or whatever you kids are using these days. i don't fuck with mp3 players, but i know a lot of you do.

anyway, fun times are great everyone. seriously, get at us if you want one of these and i will make it happen. email us or fuck with us on facebook.

thanks. hopefully this is the start of some more fun times for us in the band.

we apparently do not have a show in april

2011-03-16T15:34:00.003-05:00

sorry. we're going to have to bail on this show at Cause, on april 17th. while we were attempting to regroup as a band, and get into practicing and were looking forward to playing a show again, it's just not going to happen now for a lot of reasons.

sorry.

we'll try again later. really. we will.

kevin/det vent

so we apparently have a show in april

2011-02-22T20:15:00.002-06:00

color us surprised. we are playing a show at cause spirit and soundbar on sunday, april 17th. i know that's palm sunday, so all of you religious folks can spend your day doing whatever with your palms, and then come out at night and be a god damn heathen.

sharing the bill with us is our good friends from the transit gal record label-- up and coming emcee enve, along with chance. the show starts at 8:00 (sorry for the late night on a school night. just deal with it.) so please look forward to a night of hip hop and electro pop that will touch you in the right and wrong places.

showz

2011-02-03T09:23:00.002-06:00

hey everyone

first thing's first- it seems like people are checking out the new EP which came out on tuesdsay, so thanks a bunch for listening.

secondly, we had mentioned we may be playing at some venue in hopkins that required us to buy advance tickets to re-sell to people to get them to come to the show. after some further consideration, we decided that this would be a bad idea for us, for a lot of reasons.

we know that SO MANY OF YOU are reading this blog, and if you know of a venue that just lets bands play (and not pay to play) and if the venue is open to more experimental acts, we'd love to hear about it. it's been almost a full year since our last show in minneapolis, and with this new release out in the digital streets, we'd like to get back out there and damage some ears.

our EP comes out today/we may be playing a show in april?

2011-02-01T09:30:00.002-06:00

oh look at that, our EP is finally available-

http://detvent.bandcamp.com/album/noctivagant

it's digital, and free. eventually we'll produce a small run of compact discs, but that won't be for a minute still. check it out if you get a chance.

also, we may be playing a show at this place called the depot, in hopkins. it'd be on april 1st, and we'd have to sell advance tickets to the show ourselves, or something questionable like that. we'll keep you informed as more information is available.

oh look, an update

2011-01-28T12:08:00.002-06:00

dear god we're bad at updating this blog.

2010 was a quiet year for det vent. which is funny, because we're a noisy band. after adding a member, and playing a kind of rough, but kind of successful show in march in minneapolis, we were in and out of the studio for most of the year, working on our most ambitious effort to date.

it's a brand new, five song ep, and it's coming out on february 1st.

hot damn, am i right?

the "Noctivagant" ep, as it's called, is a labor of love. these are new songs, and we've spent so much time recording and perfecting this effort, we're already sick of hearing it. but you won't be, because it's new to you.

it'll be available on the 1st from our bandcamp site-- detvent.bandcamp.com-- for a whopping free99. eventually, when we get our shit totally together, we'll have a small batch of physical product for sale.

and come february, we'll be dusting off the equipment and rehearsing again to prepare for some live shows we'd like to perform in april and may.

we've come a long way from hastily recording into our laptops as things happened, never worrying about how things really sounded or if the songs were really that great or not. so, come tuesday morning, get ready to live. shit is about to get real. mad real.

-kevin/det vent.

happy birthday to us.

2011-01-09T11:27:00.002-06:00

since it's january, that means that as a band, det vent is two whole years old. it seems like only yesterday we were younger people, hastily recording things into garage band on kevin's macbook. now we're older and jaded, carefully using pro tools and taking advantage of dan's studio access.

so happy birthday to us. we're pretty sure we'll get our shit together in 2011.

bandcamp site is up

2010-10-16T22:55:00.002-05:00

the hot new thing in the streets right now is to sell/give away your music via a site called bandcamp. our brand new single is available on our brand new band camp site right now.

so check it out.

update from the studio

2010-10-12T15:35:00.002-05:00

dan and i spent a few hours in the studio on saturday morning, finally working on the tracks we started in the spring. we got a lot of work done, which is good, and we'll have a new single to delight your ears very soon.

dan used his laptop to film some studio stuff, and it's on the facebook page. but if you don't "like" us on facebook, you can watch it by clicking this link.

more news to come.

-kk/det vent

dan made some crap for school

2010-09-30T08:33:00.004-05:00

well we're still really bad at being a band, but we're slowly making plans to be better-- like finally finishing that EP we were talking about all those months ago. but in the meantime, dan is in some kind of graphics class at school, and made some det vent related crap and put it on our facebook page.

first is the poster-

and then a shirt design-

pretty cool stuff, amirite? maybe some day we'll have some new music to share with you or a play a show or whatever. until then, just gaze at how cool this stuff is.

-kk/det vent

Someday, we'll be a band again/ Noctivagant

2010-08-06T12:26:00.004-05:00

at the start of the summer, we had a lot of big ideas-- big ideas about wrapping up recording a new EP that we started in the spring, and releasing it. big ideas about rehearsing and trying to play some shows. we should have taken some advice from radiohead-- "don't get any big ideas; they're not gonna happen."

the summer got away from all members of det vent. so apologies all around to our legions of rabid fans who have been most certainly disappointed by our lack of organization and inability to get our shit together and record and book some shows.

with that being said, we are still slowly working on finishing a new five song EP. we may have gotten ahead of ourselves slightly, but we have a title-- Noctivagant--- a tentative track list:

1. Intro (Nicky Speaks)
2. Long Tunnels
3. The Great Failure Army
4. Sleep Crimes
5. Connotations

and we have a cover image- yet to be altered by photoshop-

so yeah. there you go. we'll try to finish this shit up as soon as possible. and maybe even try to play some shows in the near future.

-kevin/det vent

oh well, look at that.

2010-06-11T18:38:00.001-05:00

there we are on page 19 of the june issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide.

If you are visiting because of the Northfield Entertainment Guide....

2010-06-03T14:29:00.002-05:00

thanks for stopping by, and thanks for reading up about us in the June issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide.

to your right, under the "Discography," you will find the link to download our free, four song EP.

we're currently working on regrouping for the summer-- recording and trying to play some shows in the twin cities area. if you are in a like-minded band and would like us to play on a bill with you, don't hesitate to email us-- detvent at gmail dot com. or comment on this post.

or if you know of a venue in this area that would be accepting of our kind of music, please let us know.

enjoy your stay at our blog. it is fascinating to look at, i am sure.

end of may update

2010-05-27T19:47:00.003-05:00

hey everyone-

so things have been kind of quiet around these parts lately. dan is finishing up his first year at IPR, and adam is graduating from brown college. we have, occasionally, found time to get into the studios at IPR and record some tracks. two sessions have happened pretty recently, so the facebook photo album has been updated. feel free to check it.

once things calm down for everyone, we plan on recording a new e.p, and trying to play some shows in july and august. know of any places we should play in the twin cities area? say something. we're open to suggestion.

oh also, det vent will be featured in the "third annual music issue" of the northfield entertainment guide. we submitted a poorly written bio last year, really late in the game, so we didn't make the cut. this year, we got right on top of that shit, and would you look at that-- gracing the pages along side acts like gospel gossip and meredith fierke. it also probably helps that i work at the northfield entertainment guide. so once that shit hits the stands, i will post our awesomely written blurb.

-kevin/det vent

bloggy blogs

2010-04-26T09:32:00.003-05:00

it may be of some interest to know that dan has a blog, relating slightly to det vent, and his other band, but also to his academic field. check it out here.

it ALSO may be of interest to know that kevin has a blog relating to the daily radio program he hosts on KYMN 1080AM in scenic downtown northfield. so you should check that out here.

adam, as far as we can tell, does not have a blog. but don't forget that kevin and adam are both on a radio program on saturday mornings. that show doesn't have a blog, but you can find more info about it here.

shows in the summertime

2010-04-22T20:38:00.000-05:00

dan just let me know that we are not on the bill for that benefit thing at shuga records in may. they apparently "ran out of room" to accommodate all the bands.

nice.

so for reals here folks, does anyone have any suggestions of places we should try to get a show, or bands we should play a show with? paragraphs has gone on a year long hiatus while their drummer is in americorps, so we can't ride their coattails anymore.

hit us up via email, or facebook, or comment on this post, and let us know suggestions and ideas.

thanks.

update from the studio, part one

2010-04-20T00:09:00.000-05:00

hi everyone.

so things have been quiet since our show at shuga. it's weird, because we had a huge push with facebook updates and blogs and telling people about the show and introducing people to the band....and after the show was over....we just kind of went about our lives.

anyway, dan goes to IPR in minneapolis, and therefore gets limited access to recording studios on campus. we've made it this far with garage band, but no offense to apple, it has kind of outlived its usefulness, as far as both recording and using on stage. with that being said, tonight was night one of recording our new material....in a real studio.

oh how we've moved up in the world. starting from humble beginnings at the key, and in various living rooms and basements, recording into someone's laptop. look at us now.

here's a few photos dan and kevin took during the session, from our facebook page. tomorrow night dan is recording keyboard tracks with the help of jayson from transit gal. adam will be recording drum tracks in the coming weeks. we are all very excited to have new songs record, and recorded in a relatively professional way.

aside from this, things really have been quiet since our show. we did agree to play a slot at a 3 day benefit/festival thing at shuga records, on sunday may 16th, but we have no idea what time our set is at.

once things calm down a little, in june and july, we plan on playing some more shows. we look forward to seeing your grimacing faces in the crowd.

we played a show last night.

2010-03-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

we played a show last night at shuga records, in minneapolis. thanks to paragraphs and transit gal, who were also on the bill, and thanks to everyone who came to see us. we had some minor technical difficulties, so we appreciated the patience of everyone in the crowd.

a few great folks in attendance took photos, which you can see on our facebook fan page in this album.

for those of you keeping score at home, here's the set list-

japanese envelope number three
the flux capacitor
my soul hurts
long tunnels
great failure army
we don't stop (mass hysteria)
the go codes
sleep crimes

some updates

2010-03-18T14:17:00.000-05:00

in case you check this site frequently (someone is because we have over 400 hits, and those can't all be me updating the page) and you aren't a fan of ours on facebook (which you should become if you haven't already) i thought i would post a link to the album of photos that were taken at our resent rehearsal.

as you may or may not know, we have a show coming up. our first show since september. our first show with adam as our drummer. our first show in minneapolis. it's kind of a big deal. in case you developed amnesia and forgot when it was, it is march 27th (a saturday) at shuga records, and the shit will probably hit the fan after 7p.

Event Poster

2010-02-19T16:56:00.000-06:00

well hey, would you look at that poster? it's pretty nice.

also, check our facebook fan page and listen to THREE new demo tracks added to the music player:
sleep crimes, long tunnels, and great failure army.

also, if you haven't downloaded our free "anhedonia ep," you should. there is a link for it in the "discography" section to your right. the ep will automatically start to download when you click on it. the links to the individual song files in the "songs to download" section will also start automatically now.

we are just movin' on up, aren't we? yes. yes we are.

it is on 'til the break of dawn

2010-02-17T10:04:00.001-06:00

it is confirmed:

paragraphs
det vent
transit gal

march 27th, shuga records, 7p.

show poster coming soon. tell your friends. tell your enemies. bring your earplugs.

Det Vent Takes Minneapolis

2010-02-12T16:14:00.000-06:00

that does not have as nice of a ring to it as "the muppets take manhattan," but we will be taking the cities in march.

that's right folks. we've gone and booked ourselves a show at shuga records. the shit will be hitting the fan on saturday, march 27th. you will be amazed in ways you have never been amazed before.

the line up for the show is still in the works, but we are in discussions with minneapolis based band paragraphs to see if they want to headline. and hip hop act transit gal will be starting the night off.

more information will be available soon.

i guess this means we gotta practice or something.

2010: The Year We'll Probably Do Some Stuff

2010-01-05T19:08:00.000-06:00

a couple of updates, for those of you who are interested.

in an attempt to be more of a "real band," we've been rehearsing quite a bit. once right before christmas, where we test drove some new material, and crashed it into a brick wall. we also rehearsed last weekend, and tried out the new stuff again, with moderate success. good for us, right? exactly. we took some photos during the last couple of rehearsals as well, so for your viewing pleasure, here we are:

dan, tickling the ivory of the korg micro-synth.

me (kevin) lurking in the shadows by the keys, with tim in the background. you may remember him from the vocals he contributed to our hit track "this girl be creepy."

antsy adam sets up the drum kit.

oh, what's that you say? who the hell is antsy adam? well....it's funny you ask. the executive decision was made late in 2009 to add live percussion to our live show, so we asked a friend of ours-- adam casper-- to join the band. that's right. you heard it here first-- there is a third member to the detective ventriloquist team.

also, if you happen to live in northfield, or know a lot about northfield, you may want to participate in the "best of northfield 2010" survey, sponsored by the Northfield Entertainment Guide, and Locally Grown Northfield. there are many fine questions asked by this survey, like the best places in town to buy your groceries, or get a cup of coffee, or a beer. there are also questions about music-- like who is your favorite local band.

let's be honest with ourselves: there are a lot of northfield bands. many of which have huge followings, play regular gigs, and have a slightly more accessible sound, musically speaking. most of these bands have way more musical talent than we do (we never claimed to be great) and i don't think any other act has been banned from playing at the contented cow (we're just too darn loud.) det vent has only played a handful of shows in the short time we've been a band (mostly at the key) and there are probably only a few people who have heard our music who can honestly say, with a straight face, that they enjoy what we're doing.

with that all being said, wouldn't it be great if det vent made it onto the best of northfield survey? we're not even asking for first place here. the top three responses will be listed in the february issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide. so, if you can find it in your heart to fill out this survey, please, keep us in your thoughts as you fill it out.

finally, january marks the first year that we have been a band. it seems like only yesterday that i (kevin) turned to dan and said that we needed to start an abrasive electronic band. it's been quite a ride since then-- both in our respective personal lives, and as a band. so thanks to everyone who has been there in one way or another since this began.

we've got some lofty goals for 2010. we've added another member, and we've got two new songs almost completed, as well as two more in the works. we've got our eyes on playing some shows in the twin cities, and we've added even more crap to our live set up-- i am using two more effects pedals, and we may or may not be using a projector now while we play.

we look forward to seeing all of your grimacing faces in the darkness of our shows this year. bring your ear plugs and your patience.

We all die in long tunnels

2009-12-21T14:42:00.000-06:00

we had our first practice in what felt like ages (but really only 3 months) on saturday. someone (dan) forgot some equipment needed to run through a bulk of our old material, so our time was spent mostly working on new stuff we had demos for.

so that means we have two new songs in the works-- "sleep crimes" and "long tunnels." one is very similar to the material off of our last ep-- electro-poppy. the other is dark. very, very dark.

we are also in talks with this great instrumental band from the cities, paragraphs, in regards to playing a show with them in either february or march. that would be a pretty big deal for us, so we will obviously have more information on that if anything surfaces.

until then, have a very det vent christmas.

That Summer At Home, I Had Become An Invisible Boy

2009-11-05T13:39:00.000-06:00

so things have been quiet in det vent land for some time now. dan is in minneapolis, going to school, and probably playing some shows with his other band Feedback Frenzy. i've been busy buying a house (probably) and wondering when on earth we're going to have time to start rehearsing again, writing new material, and playing shows.

in short, we're kind of on hiatus. not like a mr. bungle hiatus, as a friend of mine asked, when i told him what was up with the band, but more of a "we have no time to dedicate to this right now" kind of hiatus. or a hiatus like in that episode of the show Home Movies.

once things calm down on all fronts, there will be more time to dedicate to det vent.

for the time being though, please feel free to download our "anhedonia ep," or befriend us on facebook. while we're on this break, we're really just looking for any means to promote ourselves on the world wide interweb.

new extended player

2009-10-07T16:28:00.001-05:00

as you could see from yesterday's posting, as well as the other postings recently, we've completed a new release to spring on an unsuspecting public. it's called the "Anhedonia EP," and if you want to know what exactly "anhedonia" is, you should probably go get a dictionary and look that shit up.

the good news for people who like bad news is this: we're giving this ep away for FREE. we're doing a facebook event page for it, but for those of you who may be reading this blog that don't have a connection to us on facebook, here's the link to download the zip file.

it's four new songs. please enjoy them responsibly. if you like what you hear, become a fan of us on facebook, or send us an email, or whatever. pass it on to your friends. put the songs on a mix tape for your girlfriend. whatever. we just want to get the name Detective Ventriloquist out to as many people as possible.

A N H E D O N I A

2009-10-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

new e.p.

2009-10-05T09:47:00.000-05:00

so since we're either a- giving stuff away for free, or, b- sending out a "demo" to possible indie labels to see if we can get some kind of deal or something.....we've got four new songs recorded, and we'd probably throw "the majik hour" on if it were a demo situation, because it's the most accessible of our older material.

anyway, we need a name for this e.p. any suggestions? leave comments or email us.

update from the studio......

2009-10-01T09:25:00.001-05:00

....and by the "studio," i mean, my living room.

yesterday we did some quick recording to complete studio versions of some of the newer songs we've been playing live. since the summer started, we've written and played roughly four new-ish songs, one of which being "my soul hurts," which has been finished for a while. but the newer of the new-ish stuff has just been sitting on various laptops, not fully completed.

so aside from finishing some guitar overdubs, we have four new tracks, and we're wondering what to do with them. dan's suggestion is to follow a "radiohead" style business model of just giving stuff away to people for free, which is good, because i guess we really aren't trying to make money with this thing anymore. my idea was to try to send out some demos to weird indie labels and get a distribution deal-- specifically with this label little furry things, based out of brooklyn.

as a band though, aside from finishing up these new songs, is probably taking a brief hiatus for the month of october. dan is going to college, and in november we're going to try to start getting some shows in the twin cities area.

stay tuned for more info.

Consider The Square Slammed

2009-09-19T22:08:00.000-05:00

we played a show earlier this evening. here's the setlist, in case anyone cares:

Flux Capacitor
The Majik Hour
My Soul Hurts
The Go Codes
We Don't Stop (Mass Hysteria)
Graphic Fuck Box

anyway, dan is moving to minneapolis to go to school, so tonight was probably our last show for a while. we're planning to try to get some shows in the twin cities in november, and we are working getting a show at the prestigious venue in northfield, the cave, in the winter.

we'll keep you posted with more info when we have info to share.

Mass Hysteria/Slam The Square

2009-09-15T19:44:00.001-05:00

well, here's a little more info about slam the square-

we're setting up at 5p, so i assume things may start at like 6:00 or 6:30 (?). we are playing second, after the acoustic-punk stylings of aaron frederick. the actual poetry slam won't be starting until like 7:30 or 8p.

also, we have another new song that we will be debuting during our set. it has two titles. one not in parenthesis, and then one in parenthesis. i am forgetful, so i've forgotten the not in parenthesis title. but the rest of it is called "(mass hysteria.)"

so that's pretty awesome.

it follows the similar det vent songwriting formula that hasn't really failed us yet when we bother using it-- lots of loops + dan doing something on the synth + dan telling kevin to "make some noises on the guitar = song.

god we're good.

well hey, we've got a show this week

2009-09-13T14:34:00.000-05:00

we signed ourselves up to play a set during "Slam The Square," which is a free, youth-oriented, slam poetry based thing happening in bridge square on saturday the 19th of september. i really wish i had more info about what time we're playing at, or other info about the event.

but i don't.

so just show up probably after 6 and then we'll be playing at some point. maybe there will be more info made available this week.

in other news, we're working on booking more shows-- specifically a show at the cave, sometime in the winter months of 2010. we're also working on booking a show out of town in burnsville.

more on that in a week or so.

Back With A Brand New Track

2009-08-28T16:38:00.000-05:00

like r&b mega-producer timbaland once said- "it's been a long time and i shouldn't have left you without a dope beat to step to." while we did "release" an e.p. at the end of june, we have spent some of the summer working on new material as you may have learned if you read the entries in this blog.

one of the new songs is, let's say, more accessible to listeners than the other two, and according to dan, it's "his favorite" song that we play. when we came up with it, the first thing we both thought was "here's our next single."

the song is entitled "My Soul Hurts," and i gotta say, it's a real crowd pleaser. and since we haven't given away any dope beats to step to in a while, here it is-- for your listening pleasure.

for the love of god-- enjoy responsibly.

about last night

2009-08-27T08:38:00.001-05:00

for those of you keeping score:

japanese envelope number three (the fast new version, not the old way)
flux capacitor
majik hour
my soul hurts
the go codes
graphic fuck box

that was our set from the show at the cow last night. aside from a small technical difficulty during "the go codes," and aside from the cuff of my pant leg getting caught on the bass drum pedal while playing, the show went marginally well given the fact that we lost all of our old files, rehearsed a total of three times to prep for this show, and had the audacity to play two brand new songs-- (see "flux capacitor " and "the go codes.")

if you came to the show, thanks. if you didn't, well then screw you. no. just kidding. it's okay if you didn't come to the show.

If you're here because of Pitchfork.....

2009-08-25T21:25:00.001-05:00

Thanks for reading a story about Massive Attack. And thanks for clicking on the link for the person who supplied the reader tip.

This is a poorly maintained blog/website for a very small electronic/noise-rock band named Detective Ventriloquist. Enjoy your stay on our site. Please feel free to contact us if you give a shit.

Also-

We have a show tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9:00 p.m. at the Contented Cow. Maybe you should come.

oh god. we have a show next week.

2009-08-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

so we never really update this anymore. mostly because i've (kevin) been busy. and i don't really think dan cares if it's updated or not. but we had a slight setback when my hard drive crashed about two weeks ago, and we lost the project files we use for performance. thankfully we've been able to rebuild the old songs, and dan had copies of the new songs. so now we've just been trying to regroup and rehearse.

because we've got a show on the 26th. it will be the first time we've played since our last show in july. we dusted off our gear earlier this week for a practice and go through two oldies, a newie, and some of something so new we don't even know what we're doing yet.

anyway, if you read this site on a semi-regular basis, you should come on down to our show at the contented cow. free ear plugs for everyone. trust me. you'll prolly need them.

show poster. get it while it's hotttttttt.

2009-07-29T08:32:00.000-05:00

"Did you get the go codes?"

2009-07-28T08:35:00.000-05:00

first thing's first-- allow me to clear something up.

so we were scheduled to play a show on thursday, august 13th, at the contented cow in northfield, after the key's open mic night ended. so we'd be going on at, like, 10:00 p.m. little did we know that there's this thing happening in northfield that weekend called ARTSwirl, and it kicks off on thursday night with some kind of giant concert in the town square at 7:00 p.m. there has been QUITE the debacle involving the slight competition of events-- ARTSwirl stuff VS open mic and our performance, so to try to make things easier for everyone, we canceled our show at 10, and have moved it to a different date later in august-- wednesday, august 26th to be exact-- at 9:00 p.m.

we also did this so we'd have a little more time to rehearse, and write some more material. believe it or not, we've been busy dudes lately: dan works a lot, and is going to chicago the first part of august, and then to duluth. i (kevin) and getting married on the first of august, and work two jobs at the moment, so the more time we have to get our shit together for a show, the better we'll probably be.

anyway..... with that being said, while we've been busy outside of the band, we have been getting to work on two new songs. one is untitled at the moment, and sounds very robotic and compressed, which is a good direction for us to go in. the second has a title, and the pieces of the song are falling together somewhat nicely. the song is called "the go codes," and is a reference to a scene in the film "Live Free or Die Hard." there's even a sample from the movie in the song. because i love bruce willis movies so very much.

i created an event poster for our show on the 13th, but now i have to change the date in it. so when that's done, it will be posted online here, as well as posted around town to advertise. hopefully we'll see you on the 26th. it's an early show, so we'll have you home in time for letterman or conan. or both if you still use a picture-in-picture television.

we came. we saw. we kicked its ass.

2009-07-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

according to dan, last night's gig at the cow was one of our best. our new jam "my sould hurts" went over very well-- mostly due to singing through the vocoder. god it sounds good to be a robot.

photos coming soon. and we have another show at the cow in august, because we're so good.

the big time.

2009-07-07T14:00:00.001-05:00

would you look at that? we've made it into the Northfield Entertainment Guide. maybe the fact that i work there now helped to get us in. or maybe it's because we submitted our event really early in june. either way, we're playing in the big leagues now-- a show at one of the more popular drinking establishments in town, and a blurb in the 'Guide. hot damn.

anyway, we've been kinda busy lately prepping for this show on thursday july 9th. we wrote a new song called "my soul hurts" and it's apparently dan's favorite song of ours so far. we also re-worked "japanese envelope number three" so it's a little shorter and a lot more fun to play.

so if you have seen the posters around northfield and have come to this website, like the poster instructs you to, please come on down to our show at the contented cow on thursday night. we're going on after 10 p.m.

also, i'll be on the radio (1080 AM in northfield) wednesday at 5:15 do so some shameless self promotion for the show and the key as an organization, as well to chat with the drive time hostess jessica paxton. so listen up.

just a few updates

2009-06-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

looks like we have ourselves a fan. patrick klein is officially the #1 detective ventriloquist super-fan. so thanks patrick.

anyway, this weekend was eccentric circus. our set was....kinda messy. but you win some and you lose some, right? of course. i suppose right now the focus is to practice some more for the big show on july 9th at the contented cow. and also to maybe write some new material.

we scored a pretty nice korg microsynth last week, and i'm pretty sure almost every new song will feature it. it also has a vocoder on it, so we can sound like t-pain, or do a cover of "love lockdown" now. which i am sure would be a crowd pleaser.

we also now have shit to sell. we have our 6 song e.p ($3) and an attractive "det vent" sticker ($1.) so if you see me (kevin) or dan on the street and want some of this stuff, just holler at us. or email us, or come to our next show at the cow.

here is the poster for it:

The Circus is Coming To Town

2009-06-18T23:03:00.000-05:00

if you are one of the few people who probably reads anything we post on this website, you may know that we have a show coming up on saturday. we are playing in the battle of the bands at eccentric circus. there's a little more info about it to your right, under "upcoming shows."

also, we are apparently going on between 4:30 and 5 now, according to dan. but i don't believe him.

finished product

2009-06-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

well well well-- would you look at that? those are some pretty fancy looking liner notes there. these are literally hot off the presses. well....they haven't been printed yet. i sent them there, like, 10 minutes ago. but we just finished up the photography and layout this afternoon during practice.

anyway, like i said 14 days ago, we were going to hit the books. and we kinda have. although not as hard as i had hoped. our performance at eccentric circus is coming up in a matter of days-- six to be exact. so please, come check us out on saturday the 20th.

i was like damn dude, i wanna make you my boo

2009-06-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

e.p. is, like, 90% done. we just have to figure out a cover concept and then finalize the tracking. but here's what we have so far:

detective ventriloquist- extended play
1.japanese envelope number three (part one) 4.48
2.the majik hour 3.28
3.this grrrl b. kreepee (featuring tim hollinger) 5.20
4.graphic fuck-box 4.37
5.thanatopsis 9:47 (no shit)

"bonus track" the Luv It/H8 It remix of "txt message <3 w/u" originally performed by G.O.A.T.

the good news is the remix is growing on people. because originally, everyone hated it. also, the lyrics on "this grrrl b. kreepee" are terrifying and vulgar enough for us to slap a parental advisory sticker on the record. which is funny, considering we are a primarily instrmental band.

but i guess we also wrote a song called "graphic fuck-box."

our eccentric circus show is in a mere 20 days, so as i told dan today, we better hit the books and study hard. and by that, we need to practice. and maybe learn how to play some other songs.

maybe.

in case anyone cares, i have slightly changed the menu options to your right. there is a place to download our "single" for free 99, as well as a NEW picture of us rocking faces off. and some other stuff. check it before you wreck it.

when good things happen to bad people

2009-05-26T10:59:00.000-05:00

here's a fun update: the e.p. is on it's way to being finished. yesterday was a very productive day, including finally getting a vocal track down for "this grrrl b. kreepee," finishing up our god-awful remix of GOAT's "text message (<3 w/U)," and laying down the ground work for what will be the 11 minute epic that closes the record.

you popped a string.

2009-05-18T12:38:00.000-05:00

we played a show on friday. it was okay. i broke a string while playing. so that kind of sucked. not too many people at the show, which was kind of a bummer. band we opened for-- tail chaser-- were excellent. check them out if you get a chance.

setlist 5.15.09

det vent intro (1-2-no)
japanese envelope number three
graphic fuck-box
this grrrl b. kreepee (w/o vocals)
the majik hour

H.B.O isn't going to want us-- It's Showtime.

2009-05-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

5 hours and counting until our show tonight. so if you just happen upon this blog, and have no idea who we are, but can get to Northfield MN by 7:30, you should probably do so.

also just a few quick updates:

stickers- no idea when those will be done and shipped to us.

e.p.- probably one more original song, and then we're done. dan is pushing to do a remix of "text message love" by GOAT, and included that on the release. our goal is to have the e.p. finished by june 20th. we have been kicking around an idea for a new track, thanks to a keyboard we happened upon at a yard sale a few weeks ago.

next show- as of right now, our next show is at eccentric circus, and that is on june 20th. you can see why we'd want a record to be finished by then. we may try to get another show or two in between now and then.

stickerz

2009-05-05T14:32:00.000-05:00

so we ordered stickers for the band. but i should have had the foresight to order them, like, a month ago. apparently there is a four week turn around on orders, so we probably won't have them by the 15th.

oh well.

work on the e.p. is still coming along slowly. we are due to record the vocals for "this girl be creepy" any moment now. so that will be nice to have another song in the bank. officially.

more updates

2009-04-27T09:43:00.001-05:00

just to let everyone know that we are, in fact, opening for tail chaser on may 15th at the key. there is a insanely low admission price of one whole dollar. so save up your milk money kids.

this weekend we worked in "the studio" some more and we are about 90% done with yet another masterpiece. like a true rock star, tim hollinger slept through our recording session, so we have yet to put down the vocal track for our collaboration with him. we also began work on a brand new song that is guaranteed to get the crowd moving.

see you on the 15th.

updates? updates!

2009-04-22T20:12:00.000-05:00

just a couple of quick updates:

we're still working on the e.p. these kinds of things take time. time we don't have. we are planning to include five or six tracks on this release, and three of them are done. the next one we have put most of our attention on is a little song called "this girl be creepy." i personally don't want to give a lot away about it just yet, but it will feature a guest appearance by one mr. tim hollinger, of DEAF and GOAT fame.

we also have just booked another show-- may 15th, opening for gospel gossip side project tail chaser. check them out here. so mark your calendars. because it will be on until the break of dawn.

Friday's Show

2009-04-14T08:34:00.001-05:00

just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to check out our set at The Key on Friday night. we had a pretty decent turn out, which is nice for a new band with only three songs in the bank right now. our set went really well (and the time went by really quickly).

thanks for also putting up with the fog machine and the incessant use of the strobe light. and the relatively low lighting of the entire space. we tried to create an atmosphere.

anyway, for those of you who are into that sort of thing, here's our set list:

Forgive (intro)
Japanese Envelope Number Three (Part One)
The Majik Hour
Graphic Fuck-Box

the intro is a song by a UK based dub-step artist named Burial. we added some of our own noise to the end of it, and thought it was a nice way to come on stage and go right into our own set.

also, in case you missed it, you should really check out low-gain. he headlined the show at the key on friday. holy shit. his stuff is amazing. check out his website here.

the rest of april and first part of may is going to be busy for both dan and myself, so we may not be playing another show until the end of may. we also have an e.p to finish.

Updates: upcoming show, musings from the studio, et al.

2009-04-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

sorry for the lack of updates lately on here. i'm sure all of you who read this/give a shit about detective ventriloquist have been on the edge of your seats in suspense, waiting to hear what kind of nonsense we've been up to lately.

first and foremost, we worked in "the studio" on monday afternoon, and finished up a brand new song entitled "japanese envelope number three (part one)." it is drastically different in sound in comparison to the other two songs we have finished, and other ideas we have kicked around. i believe this is in part to the use of the Boss DD-6 effects pedal (holy shit that thing is awesome), the heavy distortion on the keyboard using the "atari" filter on the computer, and finally-- live drums.

aside from diligently working on finishing our e.p, we have our first "real" show coming up. it will be at the key on april 10th, supporting low-gain and robotic sound check. we will be playing a set of either three or four songs, and it should be epic. probably beyond epic. we spent some time on monday after recording trying to work on our stage show. we will also be rehearsing again on friday.

so, things are coming along pretty well in the land of det vent. aside from recording and rehearsing, there is talk of merchandise (stickers) and the purchase of more equipment for our live show.

and i swear i will try to update this more often.

here are some photos-

how many pedals? seven. how many guitar tuners? two. yes. that's right. i need two.

action photography of dan working on a hottttttt track.

we are good at making a mess of cords and power strips and other shit. and we will try to get more organized.

screaming and streaming

2009-03-18T10:58:00.001-05:00

For those of you who fancy a taste of another hott track of ours, it's streaming online HERE.

Recording and Equipment Failure

2009-03-15T19:43:00.000-05:00

we went back into "the studio" on saturday morning to work on another track we had started in a previous rehearsal-- a song eloquently titled "graphic fuck-box." the title comes from a long, and convoluted story involving a negative experience with a printing and packing establishment in town.

watching the track on the oh-so-precious lap top.

the recording went fairly well, and we would consider that we have another song in the bank.

dan, tickling the ivory.

unfortunately we need to simplify our set up, or at least make sure all of our shit works. after completing the tracking for "GFB," we went to work trying to come up with new ideas off of demos that we had worked out earlier. this was most frustrating, as instruments kept cutting out, and effects pedals stopped working, and cords were tangled.

a small portion of our set up.

so we packed it up and called it a day.

post number one

2009-03-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

welcome to detective ventriloquist's internet home. sure, a blogspot page isn't the best way to go, but it beats having a myspace. and we're on facebook, but not everyone is.

so here we are.

we are a band that formed out of one of us saying to the other, "we should start an an abrasive electronic band." and then we did just that.

we are currently, and slowly, working on an e.p, to quench the thirst of the masses-- as the masses are thirsty for our trademark blend of electronica, trip-hop, dub-step and indie rock.

until further notice, please enjoy, compliments of us, our first single "the majik hour." prepare to have your face melted off.