n an attempt to please the most UCSD listeners, A.S. Programming — bless their souls — will usually stock Fall Fest with a mainstream rock/punk band and a moderately famous hip-hop number, neither being quite what anybody is dying to see, but both acceptable enough to check out. Then, with the leftover money, there’s an attempt to enter other musical genres with a band who is big … in circles of obscurity. Which brings us to The Velvet Teen: a three-man indie-rock band from Santa Rosa that has steadily gained renown since 2002.
The Velvet Teen formed when singer/guitarist Judah Nagler and drummer Logan Whitehurst, calling themselves “The Secret Band,” joined up with bassist/vocalist John Staples. True to the original naming, the band revels in being secretive; their lyrics are elusive, their styles are ever-changing and even the writing on their CD is in clear ink that can only be read under direct light when held at a certain angle. All this ambiguity, however, hovers between being amusing and annoying.
Their original stuff resembled emo-punk with the melodic resonance of Coldplay and the twangy, blown-out guitar of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They put out some catchy songs — even a few danceable tunes, like “Counting Backwards.”
But after touring across the United States for two years, opening for bands such as Cursive and Death Cab for Cutie, audiences complained that their material was growing stale.
In response, The Velvet Teen spent six months recording songs onto their laptop in a recording studio/shed in the Sonoma, Calif. countryside.
The result is Album Elysium, released in August. The big shift in style is controversial: guitars and lyrical clarity are gone. Instead, synthetic arrangements of violins, horns and piano infiltrate every song — some odd, some bizarre, some sounding like an old dial-up modem.
The lyrics still possess the same sad-but-witty morsels of insight … if only we could understand them. Nagler’s voice, noticeably deeper, weaves in and out of songs with scattered trains of thought, failing to leave a strong impression on the listener’s ear.
Nagler claims that the subtle ambiguous effect is intentional, and the outcome is successful; songs envelop the listener with the highly popular emo themes of anxiety and broken relationships, leaving one’s mind to wander its own thoughts.
The main point is that Elysium features very different, slower stuff from their old, catchier tunes — and UCSD students will be some of the first to get a glimpse of it when the band comes to Fall Fest.
Are the lyrics witty enough to sift through? Most likely.
Does the new synthetic style deserve a listen? Probably.
Will the drunken Fall Fest audience appreciate the new subtlety of The Velvet Teen? Probably not.
