naturalvelvet

[naturalvelvet]

Music Video for Natural Velvet's single "Fruits", out now on Friends Records, 2015. Chris LaMartina--Video Much thanks to Mary Ellen LaFreniere, Helen Meyer Phillips, Nicolet Shenk, and Ash Street Studios. https://www.facebook.com/NaturalVelvet

#Natural Velvet #Baltimore #Chris LaMartina #Fruits #post punk #alternative #shoegaze

[naturalvelvet]

LADYFEST WAS NAMED BALTIMORE’S BEST MUSIC FESTIVAL!!!

Thanks to everyone that helped make LF as great as it was! Biggest thanks to the volunteers, the killer bands who played and the venues. In world full of events that feature a bunch of white guys, it was exciting to be a part of one that aimed to showcase awesome music on a more diverse spectrum, and to be able to use the money our event raised to benefit The House of Ruth, an organization that has a real impact on Baltimore City. THANK YOU ALL 

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Listen/purchase: SHAME by NATURAL VELVET ~Hello, Our first full-length "SHAME" is now available online to listen to and download for free. This has been a large body of work for us that was written over a the span of our first year together as a band. A lot of energy was put into this and we would like to finally share and spread that energy with you. A physical tape release is in the works - stay in sync with us

[naturalvelvet]

NATURAL VELVET - Silent Girl (by NATURALVELVET)

#NATURAL VELVET #Baltimore #alternative #post punk #shoegaze #noise rock #alt rock #2014

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demo recording for "Polarity"

#SoundCloud #NATURAL VELVET #post punk #alternative #new wave

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demo recording for "Black and White"

#SoundCloud #NATURAL VELVET #post punk #alternative #new wave

[naturalvelvet]

If you are one of the lucky few who has not cast eyes upon the current cover of NME (or you have and are desperately trying to erase it from your memory), it’s basically a shockingly edited monochrome photograph of Alex Turner’s head accompanied by a pencil sketch of a pointing hand and the caption “ROCK ‘N’ ROLL NEEDS YOU”. I’m not going to dwell on the design but the only company that should be allowed to get away with shit like that without judgement is The Big Issue. I’m not even going to unpack the fact that the list of NME cover bands in the last twenty years features less diversity than a Hitler Youth poster campaign. There are far more pressing questions at hand. For example, why are we still talking about rock ‘n’ roll in 2014 like it’s still a thing? And even if it were, why is Alex Turner apparently the one spearheading its recruitment process? Why does a speech that badly paraphrased things Neil Young said decades ago deserve to be front-page material? For the record, I quite like Arctic Monkeys. I think they’re a decent bunch of songwriters and Alex Turner has an unusually attractive way of transforming the mundane into something poignant - something he had clearly forgotten how to do when making his “controversial” “speech of the century” at the Brit Awards last week, in which he managed to do the exact opposite. “Rock ‘n’ roll will never die?” I’ve read more righteous statements smeared in unidentifiable liquids on toilet cubicle walls. Not that he was being serious, of course. I for one am still convinced that he was auditioning for a play that nobody else will ever see or even know about. I’m not sure Arctic Monkeys have anything to do with rock ‘n’ roll whatsoever, but if we’re going to indulge ourselves and have this dialogue we might at least get the fundamentals straight. A lot of people seem to be forgetting the key fact that rock ‘n’ roll, if anything, is a mentality, a lifestyle, not an umbrella term for a particular style of music. I’m going to go ahead and quote the late great Lester Bangs here, because nobody seems to do that enough these days: “Rock ‘n’ Roll is an attitude, it’s not a musical form of a strict sort. It’s a way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock ‘n’ roll, or a movie can be rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a way of living your life.” Sadly I don’t think Bangs predicted that in 2014, that attitude and way of living your life would climax with intentionally dropping a microphone live on stage after accepting your second industry-voted award while your band mates work through all the facial expressions of a person watching a film with their mum that suddenly features a very long, graphic sex scene. Call me a stoke extinguisher, but I am of the belief that awards speeches are the place for either creative humour (see: that time Gollum won an MTV award) or real-talk (see: anything Ad-Rock has said at an awards ceremony ever). Don’t pussy out and blur the lines between the two in what can most accurately be described as a gross publicity stunt when you’ve been given a sincere platform to do or say something cool. […] Rock ‘n’ Roll will continue to die with each of its pioneers and reinvent itself with arrival of the next. It is inherently tied to commercial success and for that reason is destined to rely on some form of artifice, which is all fine and obvious, but maybe it’s time we actually knocked it off the front pages of our few remaining music magazines and replace it with something that more accurately represents where we are at culturally, economically and politically. There’s so much new, exciting music evolving in the world right now and it physically hurts me to see us clinging so desperately to an anachronistic definition that requires a leather jacket and a bucket of styling wax.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Doesn’t Need You

someone finally wrote the thing properly!!

(via saveyrsecrets)

[naturalvelvet]

Baltimore band, Natural Velvet at the Silent Barn in Brooklyn, NY 22/01/2014

Photos by Dan Motz

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show at NY's Silent Barn January 22nd @ 8 PM , $7 All Ages

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shows from Floristree on 10/11/13 . Thanks once again to our good friend Dan Motz for taking incredible shots for us.

#Natural Velvet #Dan Motz #Baltimore #music #Floristree

[naturalvelvet]

Natural Velvet - "Salome" (by NATURALVELVET) new music video for our EP track "Salome" directed by Stephen Packard and edited by Chelsea Harman.

#Natural Velvet #music video #Baltimore #alternative #post punk #Salome

[naturalvelvet]

photos by our friend Dan Motz from our recent show at Ottobar opening for Peelander-Z

#ottobar #Baltimore #Natural Velvet #Peelander-z #Dan Motz

[naturalvelvet]

Ottobar, Plurals, Christopher Nobody and the Nothing, and Peelander-Z

Last night seems like it was a good success. Things were a bit rushed at first, but mostly us compensating a bit much, most likely. I'm very glad the Japanese/New York punk scene is getting some recognition around town. Playing with such a fun and exciting band as Peelander-Z was a really good feeling, a really nice, smooth kind of happiness, I guess. It was a really open and enjoyable punctuation to the evening.

[naturalvelvet]

The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Live, 1964) (by Paul begler)

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The Gerogerigegege - Nothing To Hear-Nothing To...1985 (by alaturkaliberal)

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here is a Baltimore-heavy, east coast local compilation album our good friends USSA Pleasuredome put together. We have our newest track "Baby Dear" from a forthcoming album on the compilation. All of the tracks are new and unreleased material from all of the bands, which is an honor to be a part of.

#Baltimore #Maryland #Natural Velvet #compilation album #2013 #east coast #music

[naturalvelvet]

We had an e-mail interview with the blog Raised by Gypsies, which you can read here!

#interview #Raised By Gypsies #NATURAL VELVET #2013