David Bridges
TV journo Jim Spellman says his earlier life as an indie rock star comes up in some unusual places. A former CNN reporter who’s now a D.C. correspondent for CGTN America, Spellman was simply recently in New York overlaying the United Nations Regular Assembly when his earlier life resurfaced by means of an unlikely interaction.
“I was interviewing the worldwide minister of Laos, and his press man is like, ‘I like Velocity Woman! I was Googling you and I can’t take into account you’re in that band,’” says Spellman. “It’s absolutely bizarre when it does pop up.”
It’s sure to come back up way more normally now that Velocity Woman has reunited to hold out at a handful of reveals, along with one on Friday night at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom (with opener Film School). The group’s mini-reunion — which moreover incorporates a current of their native Washington, D.C., on Nov. 23 — has been sparked by the discharge of “UltraCopacetic,” a remixed and remastered mannequin of their first album, 1993’s “Copacetic.” (The model new “UltraCopacetic” mix — which moreover incorporates a assortment of singles, B-sides and outtakes, along with a recording of the band’s 1993 John Peel Courses — was launched in August.)
For Friday night’s L.A. current, the band — Archie Moore, Sarah Shannon, Brian Nelson, Kelly Youthful and Spellman — plan to play a mix of fan faves from their three albums, along with a number of of their earlier singles. “Los Angeles was on a regular basis a selected place for us to play,” Spellman says. “Being from the East Coast, LA is such a 180 from the DC/New York/East Coast issue.”
Velocity Woman was a college radio staple inside the early Nineties due to hits like “Crazy Metropolis,” from “Copacetic,” and have grow to be a favorite of film music supervisors — landing their observe “My Forgotten Favorite” on the “Clueless” soundtrack, for example. The band stood out from its Sub Pop labelmates for mixing shoegaze with a brighter indie pop sound — along with catchy harmonies from vocalists Shannon and Moore.
The band’s 1994 launch “¡Simpatico!” was somewhat little bit of a masterpiece, with songs like “Sorry As soon as extra” (which wound up on a Volkswagen industrial), “Labrador,” “I Can’t Stop Smiling” and “Medio Core.” They adopted that launch with 1996’s “Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts,” nonetheless the group disbanded by the start of the twenty first century, save quite a few one-off performances early inside the 2000s.
Jim Falls
All by way of their run, “Copacetic” was the one which obtained away inside the eyes of the Velocity Woman members. The album, blended at Steve Albini’s house in Chicago, didn’t come out pretty how they wished — and the know-how hadn’t however been invented to restore it with out having to re-record all of it.
“We on a regular basis felt like there was additional we’d have carried out to align the final word product with what we now have been hoping for after we put the songs collectively,” Spellman says. “Nonetheless the know-how once more then would have meant primarily starting from scratch. It wasn’t going to happen. Nonetheless as years passed by, the know-how modified. You’ll be able to do all the stuff on a laptop now.”
Velocity Woman’s Moore had been working in TV and film audio in current occasions and commenced discussing strategies to remix “Copacetic.” On the an identical time, the D.C. membership Black Cat requested Velocity Woman to reunite and perform at its thirtieth anniversary celebration in September 2023.
“It was merely as we had begun talking regarding the remix,” Spellman says. “So it felt like points have been aligning. And we talked about, ‘why not’? We type of really threw ourselves into it, like we practiced a ton, and we really labored to, you already know, try to not suck.”
The group hadn’t carried out collectively in 20 years, nonetheless had saved involved. Lead singer Shannon moved to Seattle, the place she now fronts a gaggle specializing in kids’s music. The rest of the band had stayed largely inside the D.C. area. “We’ve been on no account purposely out of contact, merely life stuff meant that we might not communicate that at all times,” Spellman says. “We had social media and whatnot. And Sarah and I might undoubtedly see each other after we crossed paths.”
On account of she’s in Seattle, the home base of their Sub Pop label, Shannon says she hears normally from Velocity Woman followers — and that even consists of members of her current kids’s band.
“It feels great, it obtained right here at merely the correct time for me personally,” Shannon says of the renewed Velocity Woman train. “I obtained divorced quite a few years up to now. I’m recovering from an alcohol downside, and type of attempting to find out the place I’m and what I’m doing and the best way to switch forward. And the band Velocity Woman’s re-emergence has been an unlimited boon for me — not merely making music as soon as extra, nonetheless spending time with the blokes. Performing dwell particularly has been, I can’t take into account a phrase sufficiently large to elucidate how important it’s been to me. It’s fortifying. It’s like, let’s do additional of this. I’m undecided if it’ll be with Velocity Woman. We’re going to be promoting this report, nonetheless it undoubtedly reinvigorated me to make additional music.”
It had been 20 years since they ultimate carried out, so points have been a bit rusty at first. Shannon notes that she couldn’t be mindful the lyrics to considered one of many songs on “Copacetic,” and Spellman admits that there’s quite a few additional from the album they are going to’t play each. “The guitars are in one other tuning, and we’re capable of’t decide it out,” he says. “That’s type of embarrassing, nonetheless there have been a number of weird roadblocks.”
Jim Falls
Nonetheless, Spellman says that first reunion current on the Black Cat launched once more a rush of emotion, starting with seeing Shannon reconnect vocally with the music. “We went into whatever the first tune was, and Sarah exploded,” he says. “She was a complete wild woman inside the entrance of the stage, so partaking, so in sync with the gang. And I was once more there behind the drums, merely type of checking it out, and absolutely attempting to easily comply along with her lead. She instantly was the chief of the complete vibe. It was absolutely inspiring”
The an identical goes with followers who’ve shared how so much Velocity Woman’s Nineties releases affiliate with a positive interval of their lives. “We’ve heard that again and again from people the place some positive tune they affiliate with some interval of their life,” Spellman says. “It’s very humbling.”
And galvanizing — so much so that Spellman says he and Shannon have been engaged on some new music collectively. “It’s barely bit matches and begins, as a result of logistics, however as well as, I consider we now have now merely should get by the use of these couple of reveals.”
Oh, and Spellman’s day job too. “Jim has to get by the use of the election first!” Shannon exclaims.
