Getting their start as the 1980s bled into the 90s, Velocity Girl arose from a new pop underground that had been percolating in Washington, DC and its suburbs, a group of bands clustered around our then-nascent Slumberland Records who broadened DC's punk paradigm with an ear for pop songs and feedback-driven racket. Velocity Girl, blessed with multiple gifted songwriters, particularly knew how to merge euphoric pop hooks with waves of noisy bliss and lovelorn melancholy.

This new compilation '1989-1992' covers the band's pre-Sub Pop years and shows that their skill with a tune was there from the beginning, across several line-up changes and numerous early releases. The all-time classic 'Forgotten Favorite' is included, as is their debut single 'I Don't Care If You Go', featuring original vocalist Bridget Cross (later of Unrest). There are also crucial split single and compilation contributions, a few choice covers (Beat Happening, The Jam) and even a pair of unreleased tunes. Newly remastered and featuring extensive liner notes by DC scene scholar John R. Davis, '1989-1992' is the comprehensive view of their early years that Velocity Girl has long deserved and their fans have long wanted.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clock
2. I Don't Care If You Go
3. Always
4. Not At All
5. I Don't Care If You Go (Acoustic)
6. I Know Exactly What You Mean
7. That's Entertainment
8. What You Say
9. Tales of Brave Aphrodite
10. Forgotten Favorite
11. Why Should I Be Nice To You?
12. Warm/Crawl

'¡Simpatico! (Remastered and Expanded)' gives Velocity Girl’s long out-of-print 1994 sophomore album, '¡Simpatico!', an overdue refresh with a sparkling-fresh mastering job and a treasure trove of bonus tracks from the '¡Simpatico!' era. The original album sounds better than ever, and it’s complemented by a full album of B-sides and rarities.

Velocity Girl formed in 1989 or so at the University of Maryland outside Washington DC with guitarist Archie Moore (Black Tambourine), guitarist Brian Nelson (Black Tambourine), drummer Jim Spellman (Starry Eyes, Foxhall Stacks, High Back Chairs, Julie Ocean, Piper Club), bassist Kelly Riles (Starry Eyes), and singer Sarah Shannon (Starry Eyes, The Not Its). The band combined English-inspired noisy shoegaze fuzz with scrappy US indie rock and classic ‘60s-style pop songwriting. A killer single on Slumberland and non-stop touring grabbed the attention of the indie-rock cognoscenti, and soon after Velocity Girl signed a contract with Sub Pop on a car hood in Hoboken, New Jersey. After touring in support of their debut, Copacetic, the band spent the better part of a year coming up with a batch of songs for a second album. They had never worked that way before – having focused time, and a budget (from a label!), to make an album that wasn’t a self-produced, punk-rock studio thing was a fresh experience. Having played their new material for months in the noisy style of Copacetic, the band found themselves excited about the tunes, but trying to move away from the scrappy, amateur vibe of their previous records. And their influences were a bit different this time around: less My Bloody Valentine and Wedding Present, more New Order.

Somebody at Sub Pop connected the band with John Porter, the one-time Roxy Music member who had produced The Smiths, Billy Bragg, The Alarm, and a bunch of other 80’s stuff. They met up on a tour stop in Los Angeles, at a Hamburger Hamlet. He agreed to produce the album, in a three-week session at Cue Studios in Falls Church, VA. He was exactly what the band needed: an editor, arranger, and taskmaster. As he mercilessly excised every unnecessarily repeated bar, the band realized they’d gravitated to a sound with cleaner lines, and almost entirely ditched the noisy guitar, no doubt influenced by Porter’s presence. Velocity Girl was extremely happy with the results, and '¡Simpatico!' came out in June of 1994. This expanded reissue adds a number of songs recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA, a few months after the album sessions. These sessions provided playfully experimental B sides to the album’s singles, two cover songs (the New Order cover 'Your Silent Face', and a Beach Boys cover) for a single on Merge Records, and a compilation track.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sorry Again
2. There's Only One Thing Left To Say
3. Tripping Wires
4. I Can't Stop Smiling
5. The All-Consumer
6. Drug Girls
7. Rubble
8. Labrador
9. Hey You, Get Off My Moon
10. Medio Core
11. What You Left Behind
12. Wake Up, I'm Leaving
13. Marzipan - Sorry Again EP
14. Labrador (drum Machine Version) - Sorry Again EP
15. Diamond Jubilee - Sorry Again EP
16. What You Left Behind (reprise) - Echoes Of The Nation's Capitol #2 Compilation
17. Your Silent Face - Your Silent Face Single
18. You're So Good To Me - Your Silent Face Single
19. Seven Seas - Seven Seas Single
20. Breaking Lines - Seven Seas Single

Long out-of-print 1993 debut album by beloved indie-rock band Velocity Girl back in print with a new, band-approved mix, and a full album of bonus tracks compiling singles, outtakes, and the band’s 1993 Peel Session.

Formed in 1989, Velocity Girl were one of the leading lights of 1990s indie-pop, fusing the hooks of Britpop with the fuzzy guitars of shoegaze. They released three albums on Sub Pop between 1993 and 1996, and reached the mainstream with a song on the platinum-selling soundtrack to the classic teen film Clueless.

In 1992 the band began work on their debut album, Copacetic, at Easley Studios - once home base to the Bar-Kays and other classic soul bands - in Memphis with Bob Weston (Volcano Suns, Shellac) at the helm, and then mixed the album with Weston in Chicago. While the album had strong songs - pop tunes like “Audrey’s Eyes,” “Pop Loser,” and “Living Well” alongside ambitious explorations like “Pretty Sister” and “Here Comes” - the band had little experience with production and lacked the skills to “drive the boat” in the studio. As a result, the album turned out to be a rather stripped-down affair, lacking the lushness of their prior recordings. To the band’s ear it was jarring, and they soon realized this wasn’t the record they hoped to make. Bob Weston had done exactly what was asked of him and captured the sounds, but the band didn’t do its part to articulate a clear vision. But the band’s slot in the studio was over, and Polvo had just showed up to work on their album, so off Velocity Girl went to shoot the video for “Audrey’s Eyes.”

Copacetic came out in 1993 and people seemed to like it just fine, but within the band there was a sense of disappointment to the point where most members couldn’t stand to hear the record. Between then and now, the band learned a lot about recording, and Archie Moore developed a career in audio work, and the band finally decided to revisit Copacetic. After extensive digging, the 2” tape reels appeared in Jim’s ex-wife’s mother’s house, and in the spring of 2023 Archie began working on a remix. Song by song the new mixes emerged just as the band envisioned them. Soaring vocals from Sarah (who studied opera in college), chiming lead guitar, juicy fuzzed out rhythm guitars and clear pounding drums. The pop songs are much poppier. The sonic blasts are more powerful, and the record hangs together as a cohesive document that flows from song to song. The approach was not to make a 2024 sounding record but rather to go back to the 1992 mindset and create the record the band should have made then.

The result, UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded), is an exciting alternate history of Copacetic. And, while they were at it, the band dug up and refreshed the rest of their studio material from the era: Ultracopacetic includes “Warm/Crawl” from the Velocity Girl/Tsunami split 7”, “Creepy” from the Crazy Town 7”, “Stupid Thing” from the Audrey’s Eyes 7”, and the unreleased album outtake “Even Die.” Topping it all off is the band’s complete five-song 1993 John Peel session, including two tracks that haven’t been heard since the original broadcast. UltraCopacetic is truly the definitive version of Velocity Girl’s first record. 

TRACK LISTING

Pretty Sister
Crazy Town
Copacetic
Here Comes
Pop Loser
Living Well
A Chang
Audrey’s Eyes
Lisa Librarian
57 Waltz
Candy Apples
Catching Squirrels
Warm/Crawl
Creepy
Stupid Thing
Even Die
Here Comes (Peel Session Version)
Always (Peel Session Version)
Crazy Town (Peel Session Version)
57 Waltz (Peel Session Version)
Copacetic (Peel Session Version)