This Is Ivy League is an indie band formed in 2005 by friends Ryland Blackinton

Ryland Blackinton

Ryland Blackinton is the lead guitarist for the band Cobra Starship. He is from Wilmington MA, but was born in South Kingstown Rhode Island on March 31, 1982. Before joining Cobra Starship, Ryland, along with high school best friend Alex Suarez formed the folk/pop duo This Is Ivy League...

 and Alex Suarez

Alex Suarez

Alex Suarez is the bass player and additional keyboardist and vocalist for Cobra Starship as well as co-founder of This is Ivy League, a band created with fellow Cobra Starship member and high school best friend Ryland Blackinton.-Early life:...

 (of Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...

).

Formation of This Is Ivy League

Alex and Ryland met in 1997 in high school. Both were avid guitar players and both played in local bands with varying degrees of accolade. Alex got Ryland a job waiting tables at "Mr. Deli's Jewish Delicatessan," in Boca Raton, Florida. A few years later, Alex went off to pursue a degree in the culinary arts while Ryland procured his BFA in Acting. The two lost touch for seven years. This Is Ivy League formed in August 2005 when Ryland discovered that his old friend Alex was not only still playing music but living just ten minutes away from him in Brooklyn, NY. The duo quickly began writing songs together which would later become the indie/pop/folk sound that we know as This Is Ivy League.

Cobra Starship

Blackinton and Suarez were approached to join Gabe Saporta

Gabe Saporta

Gabriel Eduardo "Gabe" Saporta is the lead singer and primary creative force behind the synthpop band Cobra Starship. He was previously the lead singer, bassist, and lyricist for the pop punk band Midtown....

's newly formed band Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...

 after he found fast success with the hit song, "Snakes on a Plane (Bring it)

Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)

"Snakes on a Plane ", is the debut single of dance rock band Cobra Starship from the soundtrack album Snakes on a Plane: The Album...

". The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane is a 2006 American horror-action-thriller film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Samuel L. Jackson. It was released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006 in North America...

and the band was offered a record deal from Pete Wentz's Fueled By Ramen

Fueled by Ramen

Fueled by Ramen is an American record label which operates as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by Atlantic Records. The label, founded in Gainesville, Florida, is based in New York City...

 Records imprint, Decaydance. Ryland and Alex accepted and have contributed to three full-length albums and completed several international tours with Cobra Starship since.

Keeping This Is Ivy League alive

Although they spent most of their time touring with Cobra Starship, Alex and Ryland continued to write songs for This Is Ivy League, vowing to record an album once Cobra settled down. The album was released on April 1, 2008 on TwentySeven Records. The album, like the London Bridges EP, was recorded entirely between the duo's Brooklyn apartments.

The accompanying video for the song "London Bridges" has already been singled out by Pitchfork which said, "...the clip creates and sustains a soft-focus weirdness, borrowing all the elements you’d expect from a postmillennial Chad & Jeremy—blazers, bicycles, merry-go-rounds, a park in autumn—while adding a few new flourishes—women in animal costumes, gently evocative use of color and pattern. Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton croon their crisp harmonies, finishing each other’s sentences and riffs, nearly symmetrical as they perform atop their pedestals for the animal woman".

Ryland and Alex have commitments with Cobra Starship, but manage to make time for fans of This Is Ivy League, whether it be on Myspace

Myspace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

, Livejournal

LiveJournal

LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....

or just in conversation outside of a show.

External links

• Twenty Seven Records official website
• Rehearsal Space featuring Alex Suarez - a 2008 featurette about the writing of This is Ivy League's debut album, as well as the difficulties of being in two bands at once