Returning to shake the ground with their blistering new 12-minute EP, “Echoes,” Nashville’s The Ivins return after a two year break following a tense African tour that saw them become the first American artist to ever play in Sudan.
After making noise in their native Nashville for years, releasing two full length albums and seven standalone singles, as well as going viral performing Alice In Chains’ “Man in the Box” with friends Chris Daughtry and Lzzy Hale, The Ivins partnered with the US State Department for a tour of Sudan and Egypt that saw the band boldly go where no American band had ever been…a mere three weeks before Sudan’s horrific civil war exploded; a devastating conflict that still rages on today.
The experience forced the band to take stock of their lives and careers, splintering off to do other projects – including lead singer Jim Ivins’ 90s pop-rock-inspired passion project, The Fan, and drummer Jack Ivins’ internationally renowned pop punk band, Burn The Ballroom – but a Spring 2025 call from Nashville’s resident queens of rock – The Dead Deads – brought The Ivins back to life.
Never content to do the bare minimum, The Ivins were asked by The Dead Deads to open their tour kickoff in Nashville, but the band decided, rather than just play a show, they could clear the vault and release two songs that were started at the height of the 2020 COVID lockdown (“One Of Us” and “Release Me”), but never finished, as well as lead single, “Culture Kill,” which was written and recorded on the same day as their last single, “Illusion,” but was shelved just before going to Africa.
Additionally, the band elected to book-end the EP with another 2020 recording, a cover of “Rabbit Hole” by fellow Nashville rockers, The Infamous Her (in kind, they recorded a cover of The Ivins’ 2020 single, “Bloom”).
The future is uncertain for the band who cheekily refer to themselves as “Wannabe Stadium Rock,” but The Ivins are prepared to throw their hats in the ring once more to inject a dose of modern grandiosity to a rock scene that increasingly prefers minimalism and tired tropes.
