I think I mentioned in my entry in Tim Hinely's wonderful Where The Wild Gigs Were, Vol. 2 about how Archie Moore brought copies of the first Slumberland Records release for us to sell on consignment in the University of Maryland Record Co-Op. That would have been very late 1989 or early 1990. That EP featured Velocity Girl, not Gotterdamocrats, the VG-precursor I knew Archie was in with Kelly Young (who I knew because he worked at the bookstore down the hall from our record store). I am not sure how many copies we sold of What Kind of Heaven Do You Want? but that we had it on the shelf behind the register for sale remains a point of pride. Given how many cool records Archie and Kelly bought from us in the final years of the store, it was the least we could do. I am very sentimental about this era, for obvious reasons, and that means that this new Velocity Girl compilation of their earliest efforts is something that's going to earn raves from me.
Collecting a lot of interesting and essential early Velocity Girl recordings, 1989-1992 is out this week from Slumberland Records. This set covers the band's pre-Sub Pop rise, and one can hear an evolution taking place, from the early, noisier stuff like "Clock" with original vocalist Bridget Cross (Unrest, Air Miami) to the subsequent, more pop efforts with Sarah Shannon. It's a sonic souvenir of a moment, or a few, where this band really came into its own and learned how to make truly wonderful music. It's no overstatement to say that this group almost single-handedly put American jangle-rock on the radar during an era when grunge was far more popular.
For a band usually tagged shoegaze -- a term that wasn't even in use until maybe three years after Velocity Girl even formed -- there's a rough, real college rock energy to gems like "What You Say" (from a 1991 Simple Machines compilation). That one and "Tales of Brave Aphrodite" (a Beat Happening cover from another Simple Machines release) still charm enormously, as does, obviously, "Forgotten Favorite", from the "My Forgotten Favorite" single and the ...One Last Kiss (1992) compilation. Sure, "Not at All" from the superb Teenbeat 50 compilation is probably shoegaze, but there's a genuine sweetness in stuff like "I Don't Care If You Go" that reminds listeners just how much this group owed to C86-era British bands. Working in two record stores where Archie, Kelly, Bridget, Dan Searing (Whorl, Glo-Worm, The Saturday People), and Pam Berry (Black Tambourine) were buying the cool stuff, I can attest that this whole group of future Slumberland Records legends was listening to great music and taking clear inspiration from it, with Velocity Girl out in front from pretty early on.
With the addition of drummer Jim Spellman (of Dischord band The High-Back Chairs), Velocity Girl had most of the pieces in place to really hit a new artistic peak. Brian Nelson (of Slumberland Records legends Big Jesus Trash Can) would be added to the group and the five-piece would drop Copacetic on Sub Pop in 1993 (and in a remixed and "fixed" reissue in 2024). However, 1989-1992 is where the Velocity Girl sound took shape. There's stuff here that's jangle-rock, and material that's a little rougher too -- an early version of fan favorite "Warm-Crawl" rocks in that regard, as does a beefy run at "That's Entertainment" by The Jam -- but all of it charms enormously.
You hear this stuff now and think it makes perfect sense that Velocity Girl would have some measure of success a bit later. However, let me tell you, in 1989 I could could count on one hand the number of folks I knew who liked Sarah Records, Creation Records bands, and the like, and two worked at a competing record store (and now write for this site), and two more were in Velocity Girl.
With liners from John R. Davis (Q and Not U, Title Tracks), and delightful artwork from Galine Tumaysan (Seablite), 1989-1992 is absolutely essential for anyone who loves American indie, or who's even the least bit curious how a bunch of suburban Maryland kids with great taste in music cranked out tunes which put Slumberland Records on the map, and claimed jangle-pop on American terms. All while being named after a Primal Scream B-side.
Absolutely essential.
1989-1992 by Velocity Girl is out this week on Slumberland Records.
[Photo: Charles Steck]