About Me
velouria
In 1997, Silver Lake scene darlings VELOURIA released their Scott Campbell-produced (No Doubt, Acetone, Shelby Lynne) debut. FOUR EYES FOR YOU, a perfectly serviceable poppy-punky collection of songs about cynical boys and calculating girls - or ambiguously, and depending on one's point of view, overtly romantic hopeful boys and pure girls too precious for the big bad world of East Side L.A.
Riding high from having a part of the SILVERLAKE:WHAT A DRAG compilation (The Negro Problem, Extra Fancy, Lutefisk, Popdefect, etc.) and doing numerous West coast tours, VELOURIA seemed next-in-line for next-big-thing status. Glowing reviews washed in from the shores of L.A. Weekly, BAM, Music Connection, and the L.A. Times; major label A&R scouts ghosted the frequent gigs the band packed at Spaceland, Al's Bar, and Jack's Sugar Shack. Rodney (the lone moniker suffices) played the hell out of "Audrey and Anguish" on KROQ; and things were looking good in Velourialand.
But then things - as they are wont to do - changed.
VELOURIA caught the attention - much to their later chagrin - of a deep-pocketed, intensely insane, peyote-gobbling producer who had not only a studio, but also a fledgling record label. Three and a half long years later, the band had an almost finished LP... a record they hated.
The endless mixing and remixing, guessing and second-guessing of the follow-up drove Scott, Fred & Rick mad to distraction. A typical artist vs. producer power struggle ensued, with the obligatory/cliche outcome: the more VELOURIA labored to take back control of their art, the more unbudgeable the label became. Then the inevitable: the band asked to be let out of their contract, and, after a few more misspent years, the label acquiesced.
Not to be deterred, but quite obviously frustrated and depressed, VELOURIA did the only sensible thing a sensible band at this stage could or should do: they drank heavily and took a long time out - from recording, from gigging and from each other. Scott and Rick played (and still do) in long-running L.A. dreampop outfit The Black Watch and Fred wrote with other people, but when in 2005 VELOURIA re-convened all concerned agreed on one thing: the new sessions should not be overseen by a megalomaniac high on hallucinogens.
Enter expatriate Irish knob-twiddler Tim Boland (Young Dubliners, Throneberry, The Black Watch) - a practiced and sane hand at the board, whose sparkling tones and snappy-catchy production flourishes have lifted many-a pop song into the stratosphere.
This brings us to KISS IT BETTER, Velouria's accomplished new opus.
From the opening number to the crescendoing close, KISS IT BETTER is a polished - but not too polished album - that now old-fashioned thing that's meant to be listened to in one sitting. And then spun again. Culling from such strong influences as The Beatles, Elvis Costello, XTC and sundry seminal punk bands of yore, Velouria's new material is undeniably seasoned, memorable, witty without being too clever, and just plain fun - the sort of songs you find yourself humming quietly five minutes after you've been shouting along with the relentless choruses and charming verses.
Silver Lake has changed a lot in the past ten years: that mom & pop record store is gone - they turned it into a gelato joint; sub-par strip clubs have become prefab strip malls and let us not forget the plethora of kid's shoe stores. But VELOURIA, well, they are still VELOURIA - and with KISS IT BETTER, their cheeky tongues still stuck deep in their collective cheeks, they have made a quantum leap that is that rare thing in the rock world: earned - through a dedication to their craft, their art and their unique and undying vision.
Live at the Buccaneer; Summer '07 - Thanks Avebury!
