A Forgotten Favorite

Maryland's Velocity Girl wre never going to be accused of being on the cutting edge of modern-rock innovation, but still managed to build an all-too-short career around a distortion pedal (at first), honey-soaked pop (at the end), and a unique pop sensibility that would reel the listener in and make him wonder why they never rose above the underground. While there's no sense in dwelling on the maybes and mights of VG's never-fully-achieved potential, their dissolution in 1996 left behind some tasty pop morsels that made them, in this writer's opinion, one of the most underrated bands of the 1990s.

Copacetic cover

Velocity Girl - Copacetic

Sub Pop

C+

Before being signed to Sub Pop in 1992, Velocity Girl (vocalist Sarah Shannon, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Archie Moore, bassist/guitarist Kelly Riles, guitarist Brian Nelson and drummer Jim Spellman) released a six-song compilation of early singles ingeniously titled 6 Song Compilation on Slumberland Records. While I reckon that both the EP and their Sub Pop debut, 1993's Copacetic were pretty awesome in their time (my only exposure to the band before their 1994 Simpatico! release was the video clip for Copacetic's "Crazy Town"), both records sound admittedly dated here at the end of the decade.

The formula for both records was to take a basic midtempo pop-rock structure and drown it in a layer of fuzz-drenched rhythm guitar, essentially burying Shannon's or Moore's vocals just beneath the surface and rendering them virtually incomprehensible. Sure, it works to perfection on numbers like "Always" and "Why Should I Be Nice To You" (from 6 Song) and Copacetic's title track and "57 Waltz". But it was obvious (hindsight being 20/20) that their strength lied not in the My Bloody Valentine- influenced shoegazery that they somehow became synonymous with, but rather in songs that let Shannon's vocals shine through. No accident, then, that those songs were well-crafted poppy tunes like "Audrey's Eyes", "Pop Loser" (both from Copacetic and the "acoustic" version of "I Don't Care If You Go" from 6 Song.

Simpatico cover

Velocity Girl - Simpatico!

Sub Pop

B+

On 1994's Simpatico!, VG started to rely more on those strengths, while not completely forsaking the hallmarks of Copacetic. The leadoff track (and VG's biggest single), "Sorry Again", combined both the pop of "Audrey's Eyes" and the drone of "A Chang" into one memorable tune - so catchy, in fact, that the German automaker Volkswagen used the song in a TV ad soon after the record's release. (An aside: It's a shame that the inclusion of "Sorry Again" in the ad didn't do for Velocity Girl what Mitsubishi's use of "Ready To Go" has done for Republica.)

The key to Simpatico!'s charm was the fact that by that point in the band's existence, it had recognized that its sound was, with few exceptions mired in muck; Simpatico! sounds polished in comparison. The record also represented a poppier direction for the band; songs like "Drug Girls", "The All-Consumer", "I Can't Stop Smiling" and the excellent B-side "Marzipan" illustrate this. (And the band deserves points for the use of the "human voice" function of the Casio SK-1 keyboard [or something similar] in its rework of "Labrador" for the "Sorry Again" single.)

Gilded Stars cover

Velocity Girl - Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts

Sub Pop

A

If you buy only one VG record - ever - make it 1996's Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts. It was the band's high-water mark - a record that is, without exception, full-on pop. From top to bottom, Gilded Stars was one sugarcoated tune after another. Whether it's the nifty ascending/descending guitar melody line of "Formula 1 Throwaway", the yearning in Shannon's vocals on "Go Coastal" ("I would go anywhere if you promised to be there" makes me weak in the knees), or the two-part harmonies of "Just Like That", the record abounds with memorable tunes and hooks galore. Sadly, the rest of the world didn't seem to see it that way - why, I'll never know.

I was interning at a newspaper on Long Island in the summer of 1996 when I had the chance to see Velocity Girl. As was my luck, I was in the bath when opportunity knocked ... and the band ended up breaking up in September of that year. There's a lesson in there somewhere. At the very least, though, the sheer unabashed joy that their music brought to the party is worth hanging on to.

--Brandon Grimes

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