The Velvet Teen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Velvet Teen
Origin	Santa Rosa, California, United States
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Indie Rock Baroque Pop
Members
Judah Nagler Casey Deitz Matthew Izen
Former members
Logan Whitehurst (deceased) Josh Staples

The Velvet Teen is an Indie band from Northern California.

The Velvet Teen was founded by Judah Nagler and Logan Whitehurst as a side project from their other bands, Tin Circus and Little Tin Frog. Judah and Logan recorded the EP "Comasynthesis", which had an electronic sound, in 2000. It featured Judah doing most instrumentation and singing, alone; but Logan provided live drums for some tracks and sang one himself. In 2001, soon after that EP, they were joined by bassist/vocalist Joshua Staples and recorded another EP, The Great Beast February, which had more of an alternative sound.

That year, they caught the eye of Slowdance Records owner, Ezra, and were signed to the label. In 2002, they collaborated with Death Cab for Cutie's guitarist, Chris Walla, on their first full-length album Out of the Fierce Parade. Logan Whitehurst, who is also an accomplished artist, created the etchings used as the album's artwork. Two videos from the album ("Radiapathy" and "The Prize Fighter") were featured on Subterranean, an MTV2 program.

Their second full-length album, Elysium, was recorded on a laptop by Judah and Ephriam Nagler, and mixed at Kingsize Soundlabs in Los Angeles by Dave Trumfio and Mike Krassner. In stark contrast to their earlier work, the album does not use any guitars at all. The album's core instrumentation is piano and string arrangements. The string and horn ensembles were arranged by Adam Theis.

Several weeks before Elysium's U.S. release in the summer of 2004, Logan Whitehurst left the band, both for health reasons and to follow a solo project, Logan Whitehurst & the Junior Science Club. Casey Deitz of The Americas, from Chico, California, was welcomed as the new drummer/vocalist.

In 2006, the band recorded and released their third album, Cum Laude!, with Judah as producer and his brother Ephriam Nagler as recording engineer. "Cum Laude!" had an odd, progressive sound that was more fast and lively that any of their previous work. They supported the album on Minus the Bear's 2006 tour.

In November 2006, Josh Staples left The Velvet Teen in order to fully focus on his other band, The New Trust. Then, on December 3, 2006, Logan Whitehurst died of brain cancer at his home in Los Banos, CA.

On February 28, 2007, Judah posted a message on The Velvet Teen's official website confirming that the band would continue. They started touring again in the fall. Nagler took over the bass/vocal duties, and Matthew Izen of the Polar Bears and formerly of The New Trust played guitar.

1 Discography
2 External links

[edit] Discography

[edit] EP's

Comasynthesis EP (March 2000)
The Great Beast February EP (February 2001)
Immortality EP (November 2001)
GyzmKid EP (May 9, 2006)

[edit] LPs

Out of the Fierce Parade March 19, 2002
Elysium July 20, 2004
Cum Laude! July 25, 2006

[edit] Imports, Re-releases

Plus, Minus, Equals (The Great Beast February And Comasynthesis) (July 16, 2002)
Out of the Fierce Parade (Japanese Version) (June 4, 2003)
Elysium (Japanese Version) (May 22, 2004)
Secrets Safe, A Buried Box (Japanese Only Compilation CD) (October 29, 2004)
Elysium (Double 10" Vinyl) (June 16, 2005)
Cum Laude! (Japanese Version) (June 28, 2006)