Von Iva, the Bay Area synth rawk trio fronted by vixen soulstress Jillian Iva, whose shy curtsy couldn't disguise the band's raw energy on the L.A. toxic tale, "La La."
NICOLE BECKLEY / PHOTOS BY TRACY NUNNERY
Von Iva is a fierce force to be reckoned with on the independent music landscape. The San Francisco trio has successfully accomplished some pretty daunting tasks - they've managed to embrace a DIY attitude toward recording, promotion and management that has given them total control over their musical careers, they've achieved their goal of replicating their studio sound for a live audience and they've imaginatively mastered the art of creating a rich and raw dance album with only keyboards, percussion and vocals on their latest Our Own Island.
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The new Von Iva songs build on the best qualities of the EP and take them to an entirely new level; the band’s skill with catchy as hell, dance-inducing jams is sharper than ever, and Jillian Iva’s strong, soulful voice is simply captivating.
Few bands exert stage presence like this one.
Interview here
It's always a neat thrill when San Francisco's Von Iva bring their soul train to town. This fashion-forward trio of X-chromosomes somehow manage to set every dance floor on fire and let loose that pent-up inner shimmy. It's no wonder, once the music starts, there's a primal urge to grind with anybody in arm's reach. Or, at the very least, to want to lick singer Jillian Iva's legs. Their latest release, Our Own Island, is a treasure trove of stripped-down, luscious booty waiting to be, er, plundered. The music's a saucy little affair somewhere between Tina Turner and Tubeway Army with Giorgio Moroder in the middle.
- Kat Jetson
Von Iva shouldn't be written off as another girl band: with fierce body-rocking beats, this powerhouse of the Bay Area scene is taking dance-punk to the masses.
- Bernadette Harris
Zero
Magazine
interview w/Jillian Iva
San Francisco has once again spawned a band the Bay area can be proud to claim. Von Iva is the hottest all girl line-up to don the stages of the city we love to party in. Comprised of Jillian Iva (vocals) Becky Kupersmith (Keyboard) and Kelly Harris (drums) this threesome just dropped their latest album Our Own Island last month to expectant fans.
-Evie Smith
Only a city know for it’s disco could give birth to a band this hot. San Francisco’s Von Iva has finally released their first full length much to its cult following delight. It has been a long wait since the band’s 2005 ep.
For those unfamiliar, Von Iva sounds a bit like the Gossip at their danciest — like a MSTRKRFT remix or even better.
Led by singer Jillian Iva, whose pipes have the husky snarl of a roadhouse diva, if not the range to shake things up, the trio crashes synthesizers straight through the soul pantheon. It's a heck of a crash, and there's little but rubble left afterward.
Iva's a vocalist to be reckoned with...Under her leadership, Von Iva becomes a down-and-dirty soul/blues outfit....with those hot-to-trot, hypersexualized soul-shouter vocals designed to turn men's knees into putty.
After wallowing in nostalgia for years, soul's future may finally be nearly here.
-Matt Schild
The fashion-forward trio...straddle the border between skuzzy and sultry with sweat-inducing plunges into the intersections of Gossip spit and spunk, Devo/Wire post-punk, and Timbaland gadung-a-dung-dunk.
Go on now, boys and girls: surrender to the nasty.
-Todd Lavoie
The
Wild Ones
Von Iva's new album showcases the trio's increasingly stripped-down and
electronically juiced-up sound.
Calling local dance-punk outfit Von Iva a girl band is a bit like referring
to Napoleon as that short French guy. It’s true, but not exactly
the point. And while vocalist Jillian Iva (center), keyboardist Becky
Kupersmith (left) and drummer Kelly Harris (right) are quick to cop to
a weakness for fashion (a Von Iva clothing line is in the works for fall)
and confirm their soul sisterhood (with a vocal emphasis on the soul),
they’re too busy triggering spontaneous dance frenzies to ponder
how gender fits into it. “I’m not gonna get up on stage and
bend over and [then say], ‘Hey guys, make sure you read up on the
latest in the women’s-lib movement,’” says Iva. “I’ll
tell my opinions through my lyrics.” She does exactly that on the
group’s new album, Our Own Island (Ruby Tower Records), due out
next month. Their first release since the departure of bassist Elizabeth
Davis-Simpson, the album showcases the trio’s increasingly stripped-down
and electronically juiced-up sound (think Detroit Cobras–meets–Le
Tigre–meets-MSTRKRFT). Their brand of must-move-this-moment music
is only fully realized live, however. “It’s hard to stay relevant
if you just depend on recording,” says Harris. “It’s
cool that our band is an intense performance band because that’s
the future of music: having something other than your songs.”
Melissa
Goldstein
Photo Credit: Kee Photography
Believe the hype: Von Iva is the new purveyor of soul, and it's got the
groove-drunk fans to prove it. Singer Jillian Iva, drummer Kelly Harris,
keyboardist Becky Kupersmith, and bassist Elizabeth Davis-Simpson hit
all the right notes with their sublime, high-energy blend of danceable
bass lines and keyboard riffs.
This white-hot quartet dispenses with the grating coyness of bands like the Donnas, fusing gospel funk with a gutter punk sensibility, fucking with all sorts of genre labels along the way and getting even the rhythmless to shake their rumps.
The eponymous frontwoman is way sexier than Karen O., and her husky, blues-inflected voice consistently brings audience members to their knees. Sure, the highlight of a typical show involves Iva gyrating in stilettos and showering the adoring crowd with whiskey, but the other ladies hold their own, pounding through a set with three-minute anthems like "Dance Revolution" and "Not Hot to Trot."
Von Iva's even approachable and unpretentious: Get to a show early and you might catch the musicians in the crowd, dancing to the opening band.
AMG All Music.com
Front page featured artist
"...not too many artists are really making this kind of music, let alone making an honest effort in capturing both the spirit and swagger of rock & roll like Von Iva does. They slap you up good..."
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Review of live show with !!!
Nobody manhandles a mic stand quite like Jillian Iva of Von Iva, whose all-too-brief set at Mezzanine was worth the price of admission on its own. ... the quartet pounded their way through well loved punk-meets-soul hits like “Not Hot to Trot,” before moving on to “Dance Revolution,” the new darling of local radio DJs.
Von Iva recently had a roaringly successful tour through Japan, and it’s easy to see why: Miss Iva clearly attended the Tina Turner School of Showmanship and received top marks in strutting, gyrating, and singing. The stage, the bar, and the dance floor all become fair game when the band’s in town, not to mention the drum kit, where Iva performed the admirable task of climbing the kick drum in stiletto heels.
In between salacious stage antics, the band rolled out new material, displaying a marked shift in their sound; less from the gospel/soul influence and more towards Franz Ferdinand-inspired angular dance-rock anthems centered on driving bass lines and syncopated rhythms.
While Von Iva’s sound might be morphing, their stage presence, as channeled through Jillian Iva, is sure to maintain its same bombastic level.
Connie Hwong
Bust Magazine
If you've ever wished for Franz Ferdinand, P.J. Harvey, Gary Numan, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to be bottled up into a love potion, here it is. They're soul-shaking dance-punk queens-and they're going to rock your world.
Kimberly Small
Venus
Magazine
"...Von Iva is pure swagger and bold soul. They're a gang, a sisterhood.Their
focus is simply on playing good soul-punk music and actually knowing how
it feels to feel rocknroll. From the synth-driven uppercut of "Feel
It!" to the sultry bravado of "Soulshaker" and the rough
hewn sashay of "Solid Gold," Von Iva immerses themselves in
white-hot rock..."
-Mackenzie Wilson
photo by Snapcult
Rockpile
With the energy and inspired soul of a small town gospel choir at a Sunday
morning service, Von Iva has miraculously managed to mix rock with a strong
gutter-punk sound.
As unpredictable as the disco-ball reflection that would fittingly accompany its live shows, Von Iva is a four-piece band of women that have more soul than an entire panel of American idol finalists. Jillian Iva belts out relentless party jams as her bandmates create a nonstop accompaniment of groove-ridden bass, drums and keyboards.
Hailing from the Bay Area, Von Iva is sexy, unpretentious, loud and fueled with an energy that I haven't see experienced since I first heard Otis Redding belt out "Try A Little Tenderness." Whoever said that soul music is dead is tryly misinformed.
Von Iva
is here, and they've bent an entire genre in half along the way.
-Jay Riggio
L.A. Weekly
Thankfully, there is no such thing as personal space at a Von Iva show. An ass-shaking mix of soul, disco and dirty, raw rock & roll, this San Francisco band rattles the rafters with an aural love potion that will have you licking glittery beads of sweat from the cleavage of your nearest neighbor by the end of the first song. Former 7 Year Bitch bassist Elizabeth Davis sends the groove straight to your hips, while singer Jillian Iva struts and shimmies as if on a mission to unleash the prowling panther in us all. She gives the audience a direct connection to her soul while conjuring images of Tina Turner in her energy, performance and, best of all, those legs! Even though the floor may get a little sticky with all the lovemaking that goes on, don’t expect your feet to be glued to one spot for long. Panties optional.
Jen Hitchcock
Village Voice/Detroit Metro Times
Von Iva is one of the greatest girl groups I’ve ever heard in my life.
-Jeffrey Morgan
Mesh Magazine
Cover Story
San
Francisco's Soul-Shakers want you to check your self-consiousness at the
door.
by Brian Brophy
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Zero Magazine
Interview w/Von Iva
The hottest band (and I mean hottest!) to come out of San Francisco’s local music scene in the past year is Von Iva and I have the girls of Boyskout to thank for turning me onto them. A four-piece alt-pop band with keyboards and soulful vocals, they have created quite a little buzz for the relatively short time they have existed. Here’s a little looksie into the world of Von Iva!
-LARRY TRUJILLO
Read the interview here.