Insane Ian
History
Insane Ian is a comedian/writer from Baltimore MD who has been in several bands and enjoys writing third-person bios about himself.
At first, starting in high school, the band was just Insane Ian himself, with various talented friends assisting him with music. Any music they couldn't play was provided by The 27th and 1/2 Century Band...a tape recorder with previously mixed karaoke versions of songs I.I. would parody.
In 1997 however, I.I.'s first real band began in college. Named after a line in fellow college band Satellite Feed's song "Einstien", the band was known as Insane Ian and Crotch. It featured Insane Ian on vocals, Glen "God of Rock" DeVage on Guitar and backing vocals, and Pete "No Nickname" Conner on Drums. The name Crotch worked, because, as their press posters would say, they were "two nuts and a Peter" (the name would also expand for one show when Harry "Chest" Teabout joined the band as bass player...but never arrived at the gig for "Insane Ian and Harry Crotch"). The band broke up in 1998 when guitarist DeVage joined the Navy.
Meeting up with guitarist Ernie Fowler in 2000 proved fortuitous, as the pair would form an acoustic folk duo known as Dick Snorkel. However, it was here that I.I. learned (or rather, it was cemented) that he really couldn't sing that well, so most of the lead vocal duties were handled by Ernie (who also played guitar), with I.I. occasionally doing lead (but mostly back-up) and playing accordion, while they split songwriting duty. It was during this time that Insane Ian was a member of the improvisational troupe The Early Monday Morning Show, for which they composed the Theme Song (which the troupe still uses to this day, despite I.I. no longer being a member). Sadly, the two had a falling out which ended the band prematurely. Thankfully, that has been since forgotten and the two are friends once again, with Ernie making the more serious musical rounds with The Ernie Fowler Complex.
Amidst this musical deviation, Double I worked on some songs solo as a band called Evil Petting Zoo. Unfortunately, he didn't have much musical skill to begin with, so this was short-lived.
From 2001 to 2003, Insane Ian and his best friend DJ Wes K decided to enter the realm of comedy hip-hop, and thus Pudding Capacity was born. Realizing the irony of two white guys from the suburbs doing hip-hop, the duo enjoyed some small success with underground comedy and internet radio, fueled by the production prowess of DJ Wes K. Wes would also assist I.I. with various solo songs performed at Science Fiction conventions for "costume calls" or Masquerades...some which actually won awards. There were also various alter-egos for PC (created to do songs that PC wouldn't) such as Dirty Sanchez & Hot Carl and the infamous and mysterious group known only as The Arabian Goggles, who recorded songs written on a dare. The two still occasionally work together on songs, but are better known as hosts of the Bad Idea Cast podcast.
In 2004, Insane Ian once again teamed up with a musical prodigy, this time arming himself with guitarist Mark Stevens to form Hint of Pledge, a band originally formed solely to cover "Albuquerque" for the "Weird Al" Yankovic tribute album Double I was producing. The band covered a few other songs and worked on a few parodies, but ultimately due to scheduling conflicts, never got past one coffeehouse performance and a few rough demos. Mark now fronts the acoustic powerhouse Stark Madness.
Over the years, I.I.'s voice has improved, as well has his writing (though his writing is still the better of the two). Using the past years and various band experiences (as well as some of the songs he's written with them) he is now setting out to release yet another solo effort. Simply known as Insane Ian, he released his musical comedy on the world in March of 2009 with the release of his first full length CD, "n3rds0ngs".
Insane Ian