Velvet Monkeys

Guitarist/manufacturer Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel formed the pop lifestyle tribute music group Velvet Monkeys in Washington, D.C., in the first ’80s. Both had been veterans of Jad Fair’s long-running sound pop outfit Fifty percent Japanese, with whom they might continue steadily to record through the entire 1980s (Fleming was also within the Stroke Music group in the past due ’70s with Bruce Joyner from the Unknowns). Various other members of the garage rock and roll combo included Malcolm Riviera on electric guitar and keyboards, Elaine Barnes on keyboards and vocals, Charles Steck on bass, and many others (the lineup was liquid, to say minimal). The group’s initial documented appearance was for the 1981 compilation Connected (Limp Information). That same season, they released their first full-length, cassette-only Everything Can be Right on their very own Monkey Business label. It had been accompanied by the similar-sounding garage-o-rama Upcoming in 1983. In 1986, they divide a cassette discharge, the avant-pop Big Big Sunlight, with outdated pals Fifty percent Japanese. The group after that took a rest, with Fleming and Spiegel shifting to NY to become listed on fellow musician/manufacturer Kramer’s pop-deconstruction device B.A.L.L. Through the sojourn, they released a compilation of early materials with Rotting Corpse Au-Go-Go (1989). Upon B.A.L.L.’s apparently acrimonious demise, they re-formed Velvet Monkeys with visitor music artists Thurston Moore, J Mascis, and Pussy Galore’s Julia Cafritz for 1990’s idea record — and swan tune — Rake, a take-off for the exploitation soundtracks from the 1970s (like Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly). Fleming and Spiegel came back the favour by eventually playing on and/or creating recordings by Sonic Youngsters, Dinosaur Jr., and Totally free Kitten. Velvet Monkeys also made an appearance on several compilations through the 1980s, like the Various other, Sub Pop 9, Teach to Devastation, Let’s Ocean, and Deadly Spawn. Furthermore, they released an individual on Sub Pop (using the Beatles’ “WE WILL GET IT DONE in the street” around the flip) along with a double-single of early ’80s demos (Better Living) on Moore’s Ecstatic Serenity label. In 1990, Fleming, Spiegel, and Riviera morphed, since it were, right into a fresh group: Gumball. 2 yrs later on, Rake’s “They Contact It Rock and roll” was included on the soundtrack to Alison Anders’ Gas Meals Lodging (alongside songs by J Mascis among others). Six years later on, House Party, that was documented for — but by no means released by — SST in 1985 with Workdogs’ Rob Kennedy and Scott Jarvis (two spouse Japanese vets), premiered by God Bless. The spotlight was a ten-minute edition from the Stooges’ minimalist dirge “Small Doll.” Although that they had been eliminated from the picture for five years by that time, Velvet Monkeys hadn’t been totally forgotten, even though Fleming and Spiegel possess since become better-known for another rings with which they are associated.