Constant Velocity
Lincoln, Illinois, United States
Music
Press
Posted Friday, August 17, 2007
Constant Velocity, "Constant Velocity" (self-released) . . ¨
Constant Velocity, from downstate Bloomington, offer up an endearingly askew debut of indie rock. The recording, the handmade cardboard sleeve, even Alex Smith's vocals seem held together by tenuous strands of tape. Those ragged edges make Constant Velocity's craft more compelling.
The trio's nervously poppy songs bring to mind college rock favorites from The Decemberists to the Violent Femmes. The guitars mostly stick with a jangly, fuzzy indie/classic rock sort of tone, although opener "Consolation" flirts with some surprising distortion. While low-key tunes like "The Smoker" and "Fault" slink along on brittle vocal melodies, more uptempo tracks like "3sa Crowd" and "The Cloud" flit about with art-punk energy. With its copious guitar slinging and Smith's shakily wide-eyed singing, "Genius" plays like a particularly gloomy slab of jam rock.
Constant Velocity's restless approach remains infectious almost despite its own precious brittleness. One hopes this debut's charming, less-than-polished veneer won't be too smoothed over as the band gains experience.
- Jeff Pizek
- Chicago Daily Herald
Constant Velocity's album Muttonhead changes genres so consistently that it's hard to figure out what to label them. Starting with a track that features spacey guitars and some introspective lyrics before hitting some Pavement-like highs with the second track, and country on the third track, the band seems to be interested in trying whatever genre they thinks fits their music. In a way, they most closely resemble the Dead Milkmen, which is a good thing because too few bands take cues from the Milkmen these days. While the album never develops a strong cohesion and is too short at 8 songs, it has a really fun and interesting vibe. You can tell the band has fun with the music (especially on the song Truculent) and never take it too seriously. It's hard not to like this one.
RATING & SUMMARY:
Bottom Line: Fun, arty, and interesting. Worth a listen.
Notable Tracks: After 4, Truculent, In Memoriam
Overall Rating: 3 and a half stars
Reviewer: Daniel Field
- Readjunk.com
Constant Velocity are a punk rock band. Don’t let the name fool you; when I first heard it, I thought that I was in for listening to a band doomed to acquire the dreaded “emo” label. Constant Velocity play a type of punk rock often overlooked and obscured by the more traditional definition of the term. They play a pop driven punk with classic rock sensibilities, often channeling bands like Television or the Minutemen. They don’t sound like they know it yet, or the fact that the rest of the world hasn’t heard of them, but this young band from Bloomington, Illinois rocks harder than a lot of bands attempting this sound with little success.
The debut, self-titled album from Constant Velocity was obviously recorded on a budget. In all honesty, they don’t sound like they care and their ambition drives the tracks on this record, like the bluesy “The Smoker”. It takes a bit to get used to Alex Smith’s vocals, he’s one of those types of vocalists that can’t really sing, but his voice is perfect for the off-kilter delivery from the rest of the musicians.
Speaking of music, I found one of my favorite tracks to be “3sa Crowd”, thanks to the simple 2 minute introduction, which finds the bass and guitar competing. The high-hats give the impression that at any moment the song will erupt into a fast and aggressive number, but instead the song takes us into a bouncy and infectious pop tune about a young girl's crush on a youth minister. The song titled “The Cloud” is one of the only songs that comes close to fitting the traditional punk rock label, but its with Velocity’s ability to write infectious breakdowns to underscore the aggression, that their sound remains truly fresh and exciting.
It’s hard to choose from such a great record a favorite, but I would have to say “Genius” is just that. Clocking in at an epic 6 min and 37 seconds, it slowly meanders in a Door’s like groove and then totally lets loose in a guitar effects laden breakdown worthy of comparison to the classic rock of years past. Then, after another breakdown, the song rips into an upbeat punk rock tune only to slow down again into a keyboard part carefully placed to add to the quirky sensibilities of this eclectic outfit.
More people should know about this band. It’s rather unfortunate that the tour section of their website lists only one show in the near future, which is a shame. Give these guys a bigger budget, unleash them on the road, and the possibilities are endless.
-Jose Vela
07/31/07 - Delusions of Adequacy
Discography
Constant Velocity-2006
Muttonhead-2008
Photos
Bio
A friend gave me a fantastic book last year. It’s called White Bicycles. The famous 60s producer Joe Boyd wrote it. Maybe you’ve read it. In it, he says that the cold, antiseptic feel people get from modern recordings is the result of separately tracking all of the different musical parts. That is why our album sounds different. The microphones go up and we bash it out. What you hear is the way we really sound, warts and all. Just like bands used to do in the 60s.
Something else I read, many years ago in an interview with Camper Van Beethoven, has stuck with me. They said that they strove to make their band be like the kind of friend they would prefer to have. Nobody wants a friend who is monotonously down or constantly up. It has never occurred to us to confine ourselves to one particular sound or genre. How dull. We all listen to a huge variety of music. The eclecticism you hear in that band or The Clash or The Minutemen (Hell, even the Beatles or Led Zeppelin for that matter. People forget that good bands embrace the challenge of different styles.) That is our inspiration.
We are 3 regular blokes from the middle of nowhere, a janitor, a barista and some kind of insurance dude. We live and work and play in a small town in the corn producingest county in the United States. Meeting and beginning work together as flat-broke college kids, we rehearsed for years in the filthy, radon irradiated basement of a comic book store. A good training ground for the filthy punk rock dives we have cut our teeth on.
We have had 8 (8!) bass players. We couldn’t be more pleased to be on the Austin based label, Miscellaneous Music, populated as it is with a group of like minded misfits.
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