Ticonderoga DOES have a website. Track listings, mp3 downloads at Ticonderobics.com. Living in the eighties.

NEW TICONDEROGA REVIEW from: http://indyweek.com/durham/2004-08-25/cover6.html Ticonderoga www.ticonderobics.com No more than two songs into a Ticonderoga set, one thing is obvious: These guys are close. It's in the way they move on stage, the way they nod at each other as they lean into a transition, they way they rotate between instruments a dozen or so times in the course of a gig. More importantly, the bond between Mark Paulson, Wes Phillips and Phil Moore--bandmates and best friends since grade school back in their recently departed hometown of Iowa City--manifests itself in the music, with the individual and intricate layers of chiming, four-note keyboards, chunky guitars, lumbering bass and scatter-beat drums connecting, bouncing off and into each other almost spontaneously.

The songs and the parts aren't easy or obvious, either. But with a few nods, these guys drive right through them, accomplishing twisted, sinuous folk songs, like Cub Country or early, plainsong Wilco glimpsed through the brokesong lenses of Ticonderoga's kindred spirits--Sebadoh, Grandaddy, Sparklehorse. Though Ticonderoga has been playing only since January, their reception into the Raleigh fold has been quick and warm. Despite Phillips' role as the full-time bassist in The Balance and the latest drummer to occupy The Rosebuds' throne, show invitations have been abundant.

A handful of local labels have even approached the band about releasing its material under their banner, but Ticonderoga has taken an Internet-based approach for its distribution thus far, releasing new material on CD-R's after shows and online at www.ticonderobics.com. They plan to continue that approach indefinitely, and--with material this consistent and this weirdly magical--the Triangle is in for a treat for some time to come. Grayson Currin

I could sure use a track list or two. Don't these people have a web site? Seriously, folks, welcome to the nineties. --Wadsbone

N.B. In yet another demonstration of the power of TV and alcohol to rot one's brain, it took me ~3 days to realize 1) that Jason's post above is funny, and 2) why it's funny. Jesus. --ELo

The article is sweet, but I still haven't heard any of yer music. That makes me sad. I'm a sad panda. --ELo

The name "Ticonderoga" comes from an Iroquois word meaning "the place between two waters". It's also a pencil.

It's also a fort at which a pivotal battle took place during the American Revolution. This should come as no surprise, seeing as how the boys in Ticonderoga are such history buffs. On a related note, did everyone notice that we're heading for the nineties, and living in the wild, wild west? --Shippy

Notes on the Raleigh music scene

B Y   G R A Y S O N   C U R R I N

It seems that after making music together in some form for over a decade, any sort of a fresh start would be virtually impossible. But don't tell that to Ticonderoga , the Raleigh trio of Iowa City transplants Wes Phillips, Mark Paulson and Phil Moore that hopes to use their new hometown and new three-man format to make their most ambitious and honest music yet.

"Hopefully, we'll be releasing a lot of music here because we've decided that we don't want to self-edit as much as we thought we had to in the past," says Wes Phillips, who moved here two years ago and immediately started longing for his childhood friends, Mark Paulson and Phil Moore. "Everything we do, it's going to be released."

And they do a lot. Though they've only played a handful of shows so far, they gained instant attention for their plans to have burned discs (sometimes an entire album or EP) of their new material for those interested at each of their shows. For their Raleigh premiere at Kings two months ago, the band recorded their entire set in advance and produced dozens of free copies for the people at the show.

"I'm not sure we're going to be able to keep up with the pace of a new CD at every show...we may have set the bar a little bit high for ourselves on that one," says Paulson, sitting in the band's house on Ashe Street in Raleigh.

The bulk of the material stems from the band's songwriting philosophy: Phillips, Paulson and Moore all write songs individually and then present them to the group with the idea that they'll immediately be split apart at the seams and reconstructed.

The formula, as indicated by the band's two releases to date, works. The "folk aesthetic" inherent in the group's songwriting is twisted around a Sophtware Slump-type seamlessness and John Vanderslice-size smarts.

The band--whose reception in the downtown music circuit has been extremely warm (deservedly so)--headlined the Cat's Cradle Sunday Showcase last week and already has five more shows booked for the next month. They will play April 2 at Bickett Gallery .''

(The Independent Weekly: Raleigh Rhythms: March 24, 2004: Hear this band!!)

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