Ian F. Svenonius is the singer of various influential music groups, including The Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, and currently Weird War. These groups have all been based in Washington, D.C.
Svenonius is also the author of the book The Psychic Soviet.
Ian Svenonius' first musical formation was The Nation of Ulysses. This was not a rock 'n' roll group in the normal sense, but "the group as political party."
Nation of Ulysses consisted of Svenonius on vocals, Steve Kroner on guitar, Steve Gamboa on bass guitar, and James Canty on drums. Tim Green joined the band late in 1989 as a guitarist.
The Nation of Ulysses philosophy has been described as "a relentlessly provocative (and entertaining) jumble of teenage rock 'n' roll rebellion, leftist radicalism, anarchist punk polemics, and abstract intellectual rambling," which gives the sense of "an off-kilter, almost tongue-in-cheek approach to a 'perpetual 18-year old's' view of America, and life in general." They conceived themselves as being a political party disguised as a rock 'n' roll band.
The Nation of Ulysses distributed political pamphlets, called "Ulysses Speaks," which they distributed at live shows, some of which are reproduced on their album covers. Their pamphlets espoused what they referred to as "The Ulysses Aesthetic," which was a mix of 60's and 70's radical politics, French Situationist writings, and celebration of juvenile delinquency.
The band was known for their extremely physical performances, with incidents of broken bones and other injuries suffered by the members. They usually wore suits and greased hair on stage, although they sometimes wore matching shirts and pants of a more casual nature.
Svenonius described the Nation of Ulysses as "a shout of secession. We don't want to be involved with the United States and the structure that exists. We've introduced a whole new form of currency that takes its form in garbage ... we indulge peoples' repressed whims and make them banal in doing so. We basically want to create a new sense of who we are community-wise: a nation of youths."
Nation of Ulysses disbanded in the Fall of 1992 having failed to complete their third album (the finished tracks were later released as The Embassy Tapes in 2000). In a later interview, Svenonius explained the reason for the split: "Nation of Ulysses broke up because the epoch changed with the advent of digital music and the Nirvana explosion. We were faced with what's now known as indie rock, a sort of vacuous form. We had to determine our next move and this (the forming of The Make-Up) is it."
The Make-Up formed in 1995, consisting of Svenonius, Canty, and Gamboa from Nation of Ulysses, and Michelle Mae from the Northwest group The Frumpies on bass guitar. Alex Minoff joined the band in late 1999 on guitars.
Make-Up combined garage rock, soul, and self-styled liberation theology to make a new genre they called "Gospel Yeh-Yeh." They released three studio LPs, three live LPs, and a compilation of singles and B-sides.
The Make-Up always wore matching uniforms on stage which they commissioned mostly from a company called Baby-Teeth. There were at least a dozen distinct uniforms during the group's existence, in a variety of colors and styles. When asked if wearing these uniforms was an ideological statement, Svenonius explained: "Of course it is. The way we look onstage is to minimize this association with our individual personalities, to exhalt the higher ideology and the meaning of the band."
While The Make-Up released both "live" and "studio" records, all were created with an eye toward spontaneity. Most studio songs were cut as they occurred to the group at the moment. Therefore, their studio records themselves were in a sense, quite "live." Make-Up were highly influenced also by bubblegum music, particularly the French variety called Yé-yé music. The factory style of production that this sort of music had utilized interested the group, who were dedicated to expanding the workforce as opposed to the rock 'n' roll trend (begun by The Beatles) toward self sufficiency and "downsizing" labour. Through the synthessis of these two highly disparate and contradictory forms - Gospel and Yé-yé - The Make-Up devised a hybrid style they labeled "Gospel Yeh-yeh."
Due to The Make-Up's consideration of their audience and the special techniques they applied to performing, their live shows were legendary and became the much-copied convergence of soul, surf, skronk, and stomp. The Make-Up's expansive gospel attitude was related to their utilization of the "congregate" or audience as a group member.
The Make-Up dissolved in 2001, reportedly "due to the large number of counter-gang copy groups which had appropriated their look and sound and applied it to a vacuous and counter-revolutionary forms."
In 2001 Svenonius collaborated with the English conceptualist/producer Mike Alway of If Records to create the record Play Power under the pseudonym "David Candy." It was released through Jet Set Records, Siesta Records, and If Records. Play Power was part of a series of "Magazine-Style Records" which included other imaginary acts such as Death by Chocolate, Maria Napoleon, and Lollipop Train.
In 1993, Svenonius and Nation of Ulysses/Make-Up members James Canty and Steve Gamboa were involved in a short lived aggregate called "Cupid Car Club." This group released only one EP on Kill Rock Stars Records entitled Join our Club.
Svenonius is a vegan.
Svenonius is friends with Momus:
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