The Veldt headline The Broadway with support from Dead Leaf Echo (EP Release) and Iceblynk!
8:00PM Doors // 8:30PM Show
21+
$12 presale // $15 dos
The Veldt
On the trail of their successful Record Store Day 7” single ‘Symmetry/Slow Grind’, Raleigh-based Schoolkids Records have announced the coming release of The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation Mixtape EP by alternative soul and shoegaze pioneers The Veldt. The four-piece will also be heading out on tour in the USA in support of this release. Identical twins Daniel and Danny Chavis and drummer Marvin Levi originally hail from Raleigh/ Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but the brothers have been East Village residents for the past 29 years. Bassist/ programmer Hayato Nakao, originally from Japan, hooked up with the Chavis brothers while living in New York.
Lifting their band’s name from a Ray Bradbury science fiction story, their own life stories have also been quite fantastic. After signing to Capitol Records in 1989, The Veldt were soon in the studio with dream-gaze guru Robin Guthrie working on their initial recordings, playing American concert halls with Cocteau Twins and The Jesus and Mary Chain, and recording ‘Marigolds’ with Lincoln Fong (Moose). Not long after, they would record their classic ‘Afrodisiac’ (1994), produced by Ray Shulman (The Sundays, Bjork, Sugarcubes) and released via Mercury Records. They have also collaborated with TV On The Radio, Mos Def and Lady Miss Kier (Deee-Lite), and shared the stage with The Pixies, Throwing Muses, Echo & The Bunnymen, Cocteau Twins, Manic Street Preachers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis, Chuck D, Living Colour, and Schooly D.
This past year has also been pretty monumental, with highlights including sold-out tours with Phantogram and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, a European tour, two separate Canadian tours, appearance at some of North America’s and Europe’s hottest psych fests, a spotlight feature on Time Warner Cable TV and being named as east coast support for Modern English. Performing since they were children, the Chavis brothers’ musical roots lead back to the church and southern juke-joints, and listening to music that included gospel, Motown and Pink Floyd. The Veldt formed in the late 80’s in Raleigh amongst the royalty of the legendary North Carolina music scene, including bands such as Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, The Connells, Dillon Fence, The dBs, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Ryan Adams. Pitchfork recently included their album ‘Afrodisiac’ in the top 50 shoegaze albums ever released. Their sound also inspired future generations of alternative artists, including TV On the Radio.
This latest EP sees the band returning to their roots, albeit with plenty of distortion, programmed beats and pedal effects. They’ve also involved A.R.Kane, who produced ‘And It’s You’. Borrowing the title ‘The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur’ from an E.E. Cummings poem, this EP includes five tracks with a raging sound influenced equally by the emotional soul of Marvin Gaye, free jazz warriors Sun Ra and Pharaoh Sanders, various Drake hip-hop tracks, long-term musical kin Cocteau Twins, and their own fertile electric imagination.
Dead Leaf Echo
Brooklyn's Dead Leaf Echo is a music/art collective that released their debut LP Thought and Language in 2013. That premier album was strongly influenced by many 4AD acts, brought into sharp focus by the mixing of John Fryer (Lush, NIN, Depeche Mode) and featuring artwork by 4ADs legendary designer, V23's Vaughan Oliver (Pixies, Bauhaus), which further enhanced their strong aesthetic connections to that label. The band maintains a distinctive ethos --embracing their idols while still forging their own sound. The new EP “BOO” will be released on April 28th 2023 by Papercup Music and followed by a tour of the Midwest and South ending in their homecoming release party show at the Broadway on May 24th. This work features new artwork from V23's Timothy O'Donnell (The Birthday Party, Pale Saints), Roy Burns III (Stiff LittleFingers, Sun Kil Moon), and Gary Prendergast (cutshapemake). Back in 2019, the band had just wrapped a tour of the West Coast featuring a performance at KEXP's "John in the Morning" and flew back to NYC to begin recording their 3rd LP The Mercy of Women the band began preparations to release the record and tour Europe in the fall of 2020. D.L.E.’s frontman LG Galleon was on tour in March of 2020 with his band Clone when the pandemic hit. Back in NYC, the band finished recording the rest of the EP while in lockdown from both home and their practice studio. James Aparacio (Spritualized, Depeche Mode) mixed the EP while Jeff Berner (Psychic TV, Shilpa Ray) did the final records at Studio G. Joe Lambert (Blondie, Deerhunter) was brought in to master. Boo is the most upbeat, Manchester styled song that DLE has released to date and is both a play on words both scaring the narrator and the listener into themes of trust and dishonesty and ultimately surveillance by your significant other. Both their live performances and album, replete with gorgeous packaging and artwork, are crucial entry points to understanding the band.
