Some Velvet Sidwalk were formed in the mid/late 80's with orginal members, Al Larsen (vocals/guitar) and Robert Christie (drums). Their first release was "From Playground till Now" was put out on K records in 1988. In 1989 they played a few shows for Sound Out Northwest. Which was put out by Calvin Johnson's (Beat Happening) label K records. The idea was to play shows in smaller towns, Some Velvet Sidewalk played w/ The Go Team and others. Its a pretty neat idea.Now I'm a little confused because in the credits for "Shipwreck" which was recorded in '90 (but released in '95) Tobi Vali is listed on drums and Donna Dresch on bass. So I think that for some reason Robert didn't play on this album so Donna and Vali filled in a guests (if anyone knows different mail me). In '91 "Apptite for Extinction" was released on Communion Records and soon after Robert left the band, and was replaced by Martin Bernier. At the same time they also added Don Blair on bass. The next year they released "Avalanche" back on K records which was produced by Steve Fisk (of Pell Mell, The Halo Benders and many more) . In '92 they released "Ice Cream Overdrive" on K Records with Steve Fisk playing on the album. Next they released "I Scream" EP in '93, then the next year they put out "Whirlpool" and like a regular 'hit machine' they put out another full length in '95 titled "Shipwreck" (which includes the song "Mousetrap" as featured on Hype). "Shipwreck" was recorded in '90 and intended as a second album but some sort of delay kept it from being released for 5 years. Next released was "The Lowdown" w/ Al, Don, Martin and Paul Schuster. Then in '97 "Generate" was released w/ line up of Al, Nikki McClure, and Paul Schuster. In '97 they played at the Yo-Yo Festival and Al was interviewed for a movie called Songs for Cassavetts.
Eventually SVS broke up. Al joined a band called Polar Bears and is also in a band called The Evil Tambourines.
Here are some SVS related links:
Kill Rock Stars' SVS Factsheet
A SVS Mailing list link I haven't gotten a reply.
This is barely worth listing, but if your desperate for SVS stuff...
A band called The Lowdown, named after a SVS song
If you have any additions/corrections mail me at Gas_Huffer_Grrl@yahoo.com. I know there are a lot of holes in this page so I expect a lot of mail from you guys.
A small SVS page