Tag: Teenage Symphonies to God

Velvet Crush – Time Wraps Around You ….Power Pop Friday

I first heard this band through a song called Hold Me Up a while back. Cool hooks, guitar sound, and melodies. This band has the distorted and jangly sound well mixed together. This song came off of the 1994 album Teenage Symphonies to God which is probably their best-known album. I have listened to this album a bunch and the songs sound like classic songs that have been forgotten. 

Vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck are the band’s two constant members. They had previously worked together in 3 other bands…Choo Choo Train, Bag-O-Shells, and The Springfields in the 1980s. 

 Guitarist Jeffrey Underhill played with them on their first three albums. The  album was produced by Mitch Easter who would produce R.E.M among other artists. He gets such a warm sound with Velvet Crush. Matthew Sweet has also worked with this band. 

Chastain, Menck, and Underhill reunited in 2019 to tour. 

Time Wraps Around You

To the summer of love, from the winter of fearSeasons change us around, the reasons not clearSo turn the pageTheir innocence can’t be savedBeginning again

Like the motions you make, the wave of your handLike the time that it takes to know that you canStanding byTo try and make you feel alright

This time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youYou know I’ll stay

Through the summer of love, the winter so nearSeasons scatter good friends, and more every yearLooking backThen you findLearning thatIt’s time to leave the past far behind

You know it’s alrightThis time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youThis time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youThis time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youThis time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youThis time wraps around youAnd I’ll wrap around youKnow I’ll stay

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Velvet Crush – Hold Me Up —-Powerpop Friday

This song released in 1994 was on the album Teenage Symphonies to God. It has everything you would want out of a power pop song. They got the name of the album from something Brian Wilson said… “I’m writing a teenage symphony to God,”

The  Velvet Crush formed in Rhode Island in 1989, although vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck first met and began performing together in Champaign, Illinois. There Menck founded his own small label, Picture Book, on which he and Chastain recorded solo material as well as singles under various group names like the Springfields, Choo Choo Train, the Paint Set, and Bag-O-Shells.

The band broke up in 1996 but re-formed in 1998 and has continued to record, releasing their most recent album in 2004. Vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck are the band’s core members and they share singing and songwriting duties. Their debut album In the Presence of Greatness was produced by Matthew Sweet,

Hold Me Up

Dead on the phone
One is too alone
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
Hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone

Time down the road
Nothing much to show
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
You hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone

Touching down and out of sight
And being found to be alright

Life on the phone
Wasted space at home
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
You hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone
You hold me up when I’m gone

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Crush