For starters, I just love the apostrophe after Ivers' last name - like the band belongs to him. The cover states that the record "features" Yolande Bavan, who sings on almost all the tunes, whose throaty keen is somewhere between Grace Slick and Catherin Ribeiro. Ivers released a second band band album in '71, replacing Bavan (who was Sri Lankan) with the more sultry Asha Puthli; one more self-titled, apostrophe-less band album in '74, and a solo album two years later pretty much marked the end of his career as a leader. He was a jarring, angular guitarist (
and Harvard grad) with a funky bent and maniacal, proggish leanings in his compositions, and, of course, lots of love for the eastern thang, as evidenced by the singers he chose to work with.
His outre sensibilities led David Lynch to tap Ivers to write a tune for Eraserhead, and then to be chosen to host New Wave Theater, the local LA-based, Billboard-related punk variety show that helped introduce the world to Bad Religion, Fear and the Dead Kennedys, among many others.
Sadly, Ivers died in 1983, at only 36 years old. These disturbing details come from ye olde Wikipedia: "In 1983, Peter Ivers was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his Los Angeles apartment. The murderer was never identified. Harvard established the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Program in his memory. Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz have written a book about Ivers' life, art and mysterious death, In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre (published 2008). On the basis of new information unearthed during the creation of this book, the LAPD has reopened their investigation into Ivers' death."
Though his recorded legacy was brief, there's some down n' dirty moments not to be missed on his debut. . . Anoint thyself!
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