Heavy mettle

The Velvet Crush's welcome Changes

by Michael Caito

Velvet Crush

Parting ways with the Creation/Sony 550 label has not diminished the music-making abilities of the Velvet Crush, whose third LP Heavy Changes (Action Musik) presages a spring of booming bounty from the quartet.

Indie-rock has never been an apt genre description of this band and the comparatively well-muscled Heavy Changes -- finally out in America within the next few weeks -- is their most emphatic work to date. Wryly referred to as "our blues album" by drummer Ric Menck, the leaner production by Mitch Easter -- who joined them onstage for a while during early parts of their epic Teenage Symphonies to God trek -- brings just about everything into sharper focus. The album's title is appropriate; every beat and every song is harder, more pronounced. In lesser hands, given the chastising tone on most of Heavy Changes' tracks, this would be another humorless, albeit poppier version of the killjoy alterna-droners who have clogged so many airwaves over the past few years. But we are talking about four blue-chip players with years of touring and studio expertise. Easter was replaced on tour by Tommy Keene, who was later replaced by Providence's Pete Phillips, whose five co-writing credits here suggest that the VC's personnel changes may be behind them. Which is awesome. Point being, even when they air gripes -- mostly about two-faced phonies -- the songs' innate momentum carry the day, leaving indelible beats with "play very loudly in car" etched all over them. In guitarists Phillips and Jeffrey Underhill Velvet Crush have leopards meeting chameleons, with the musical result as much an ode to the groovy '60s as a wake-up pimp-slap for the '90s. Lazier crits may dub it roots-rock, but in that room VC aren't Wallflowers dealing in Petty theft, but hawk-eyed predators stalking -- and unearthing -- the fat-free swingability so many popsters lack. Lead singer/bassist Paul Chastain's voice is mixed out front, which makes sense, because listening now to their earlier records makes it sound like he had a major Marlboro marathon going on back then. He's clear, almost pristine, and ringing like bells on Heavy Changes, and with two effective harmony singers (in both guitarists) the now-rarer multi-vocaled moments are landscape portraits of Byrds and Posies. Menck, whose playing always stood out live and on record, is his usual tasteful self, but Heavy Changesfinds him infrequently dipping into the large bag of backbeat tricks he's always had at his disposal. That may be the biggest signal of all that this is in fact an intentional, yet unforced "blues" record, replete with tortured souls seeking redemption. The Velvet Crush shall be redeemed? Nah, they already have been, by making the labels who passed on this seem both deaf and daft.

As mentioned, this marks a bountiful spring for the band, besides this domestic issue heretofore only available in the record stores of Tokyo and Nagano. The domestic has a bonus track not on the Japanese release, and in a few weeks Action Musik will release Live in Chicago, a five-song CD/LP featuring Keene on guitar, from a Metro show which represented a homecoming of sorts for the rhythm section of Chastain and Menck. Hey Wimpus:The Early Recordings of Paul Chastain and Ric Menck was recorded a decade ago, when, under pressure from a UK label to come up with a band name on short notice, they selected ChooChoo Train. At the Action Musik site Menck describes the mid- to late-'80s Windy City scene thus: "At the time, there were a lot of 'smelly guy' rock bands around our town . . . it was the beginning of wimp-rock for sure!" Velvet Crush's first record In the Presence of Greatness is planned for reissue, as is a new singles collection called Thrown Together, with their next full-length tentatively scheduled for Christmas-time. All are / will be available through Parasol mail-order.

POLL POT (OR, OMIGOD! THEY KILLED KENNY G!). Voting's closed. Sincere thanks to those who took time to register their likes (and dislikes). As usual, we attempted to keep it a Reader's Poll and not a "friends of the band" poll, and there is a difference, which we've learned through having several whacks at doing this. While the write-in option wreaked increased havoc in our FileMaker Pro database (keyboard fatality: "down arrow" button is quite black and may never work again), all were tallied, and for my part I observed that every single ballot got Mary Lee Partington's name wrong. Doh! Other notes: some write-ins fared well, but not well enough to win. Also, online totals from our website, when combined with snailmail ballots, failed to alter any outcomes on either the national or local sides. What was observed most this year (besides dependably hilarious, extemporaneous write-in novellas) was that more readers filled out their ballots more completely -- an effort not lost on the ink-smeared serfs doing the counting. This is heartening. So, this Jean-Paul Sartre quote from The Writer's Life (Vintage) is for all y'all: "What exactly do I think about prizes? . . . It makes me really uneasy to imagine all the furor of applause . . . around a Goncourt winner . . . Furthermore, the idea that one owes one's worth to the judgement of certain people is intolerable . . . Yet . . . there's an agency or manner whereby the prize appears as a social phenomenon, quite independently of those who give it -- rather like the annual return of some sun festival, which arrives to settle capriciously on a chosen head . . .And . . . as the beneficiary for one year of such an honorific institution -- I shouldn't dislike it all that much. My cynicism thus masks a dubious taste for consecration."

Imagine -- something making Sartre uneasy! Thanks again for making your voices heard. On with the shows.

Line 'em up and mow 'em down with the Racketeers for free at the Green Room Friday, with Delta Clutch and Athenian pals Fuzzy Sprouts the Saturday after (May 2). Tonight at the Century features the sensual vibe of Talking to Animals (with URI alum Greg Porter on bass), on after the affable loons of Marvel Kind. I guarantee entertainment there, judging by the tinderbox that is Marvel Kind's latest, Mini (Throwrug Records). A grabber. Friday's the punkrock with Ashley Von Hurter and the Haters reforming with The Loutz, the Double Nuthins and more at the Century. Demand the Haters' excellent cover of "Midget" until Ashley Von clams on you. Ears wide open for a rare Bevis Frond set there May 5, with Medicine Ball (whose new split single with V Majestic "Turning 31" b/w "Sad and Lonely" on Irregular Records) is a gas. On Saturday, Rock Hunt champs The L.U.V.'s headline the Met with Alley Sway and more; Nashville Pussy arrive Tuesday, and the Bosstones hit Keaney (like a thunnnnnderous Luther dunk) Wednesday. Met next Sunday: Dropdead appear with Landed, whose ever-amoebic cast just released Dairy 4 Dinner, a 7" on Load Records. Maybe this time Landed singer Dan St. Jacques (ex-Hydrogen Terrors) won't accidentally set himself aflame and melt much skin. But maybe he will. Along with the new Arab On Radar 7" vinyl ("Swimming with a Hard-On" b/w "Samurai Fight Song"), these are, ahem, heady days for the label which continues to spurt aggravating, Null-Wave anti-rock. According to the enclosed promo sheet, the cover of the Landed 7" pictures the rare fellatio soloist, making them past due for that late night musical guest spot on Onan O'Brien's show. I'd like to say I saw the cover, but ya know, Ben, enough people already tell me to go eff myself, so I just listened. Ilike to listen. Peace out.