The
Velvet
Crush - Free Expression (Expanded)
Let’s be kind and rewind to the sweeping rock-pop-country
fusion of Velvet Crush’s 1999 release, 'Free Expression'… This
new Deluxe Edition of 'Free Expression' has been fully remastered,
and includes a second disc of an album's worth of demo recordings,
*including several unreleased songs*, new liner notes written
by the band, and previously unseen period photographs from the
archives. In 1997 Velvet Crush seemingly faded from the American
pop scene. Exhausted from two straight years spent cramped in
the back of a van touring the United States and Europe, and creatively
depleted from the frustration of trying to record a follow up
to their highly-acclaimed “Teenage Symphonies To God” album,
the band finally imploded after a particularly sordid tour of
Spain, it’s members dispersing to various parts of the
United States to lick their wounds, pick up the pieces and get
on with their lives. But it didn’t end there. After a period
of recuperation and some enthusiastic response from Japan for
their “difficult” third album “Heavy Changes”,
the group’s principal members Paul Chastain and Ric Menck
made the crucial decision to reconvien and record once again, “just
like in the old days”, with their friend Matthew Sweet,
at his home studio in Los Angeles, Ca. The resulting album, called “Free
Expression” because of the band’s newfound sense
of freedom for recording without restraint from record label
or management intervention, re-establishes everything great about
the band in the first place -- short, crisp pop songs layered
with alternately crunchy and chiming guitars, warm blankets of
harmony vocals, an occasional dusty pedal steel guitar, Ric Menck’s
trademark power smack drumming, and the distinctive graininess
of Paul Chastain’s baritone lead vocal. Reviewers responded
with unexpected enthusiasm, and although the band refused to
tour in support of the album, they were obviously back on track
creatively, and continue to this day releasing new albums and
reissuing older material on their own Action Musik label. Featured
in L.A. Weekly: “The bite of early Big Star and the jangle
of classic Byrds have always constituted the twin pillars of
the Velvet Crush sound. Free Expression mixes hard-riffing electric
pop with gentle acoustic musings and gorgeous “cosmic country” reveries
in a Byrds/Burritos vein. A roseate glow emanates from the whole
affair, making Free Expression the sort of record best enjoyed
with the sun streaming in the window.”
AMG Biography: "A
classic power-pop band in the tradition of the Raspberries and
Big Star, Velvet Crush formed in Rhode Island in 1989, although
their roots actually extended west to Champaign, Illinois, where
vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck first met
and began performing together. There Menck founded his own small
label, Picture Book, on which he and Chastain recorded solo material
as well as singles under various group names like the Springfields,
Choo Choo Train, and Bag O'Shells. Picture Book also released
records by the Milwaukee-based White Sisters, led by guitarist
Jeffrey Borchardt, with whom Menck struck up a friendship. When
Borchardt eventually moved to Providence, Rhode Island in 1988,
he encouraged Menck and Chastain to follow; they did, and Velvet
Crush soon began performing their first shows. In 1991, longtime
friend Matthew Sweet produced their debut, In the Presence of
Greatness; a hit with the British music press, the record earned
the group a deal with the influential U.K. label Creation. For
1994’s Teenage Symphonies to God (the title taken from
Brian Wilson’s description of the music intended for the
Beach Boys' legendary Smile LP), Velvet Crush enlisted producer
Mitch Easter, known for his work with R.E.M., and as the leader
of Let’s Active. The long-awaited third Velvet Crush LP,
Heavy Changes, finally appeared on the band’s own Action
Musik imprint in 1998. Minus Borchardt, the group resurfaced
in 1999 with Free Expression." |
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