Opening Thursday’s sound portal were Worthless, whose vocal harmonies, shadowy organ magic, and Gilmore-y guitar work created a melty lava lamp dream of a set.
Next was Coke Weed with their psych-folk jams from Maine. With trade-off lead guitars and Nina Donghia’s beautiful smoky vocals we heard an impressive set—I can’t wait to see them live again.
Brooklyn’s own Prince Rupert’s Drops blasted us into the heavier portion of the evening with psychedelic vigor. Among other badass songs, we heard their new single “Stay Awake” for the first time live and a righteous rendering of “Run Slow,” which burned for ten minutes.
The Velcro Lewis Group is a force and led by blind frontman, Velcro Lewis/Andrew J. Slater–along with 5-octave range, singing drummer Hawk Colman, soul-injected guitarist Travers Gauntt, groove-hammering bassist Halden Spoonwood, and sonic menace Lawrence Peters on electric washboard and bass vocals.
We chatted up the hot buttered soul of Velcro Lewis in advance of Thursday night and we’ll journey into their incredible new album, discuss their ass-kicking, future funk sounds from the stage to the recording room, and naturally, vinyl collections. All aboard the spaceship Impala.
The next VLG album, Open the Sky arrives October 15th on, ahem, BBIB Records! The album encompasses bluesy funk rock tracks like “Bernadette,” to an almost 16 minute psych burner on the B side, “Occulus Of The Winged Man.” Talk a bit about the sonic journey from A to B?
“Open The Sky” is a very personal album and deals with content familiar to everyone. We sequenced the album as if it were a journey. “Bernadette” is about escaping reoccurring trouble, fighting it off, and successfully moving on.
“Eagle Momma” takes your newfound confidence to task. You start off chasing after unobtainable ideas, then failing, as we’re all prone to do. By the end you have found yourself in a deep, dark pit screaming to warn others not to go through the same shit.
In “No Dream,” your own neurosis and baggage get the best of you. You’re now finding it hard to shake anything off what’s happened. You’re second-guessing everything. You’re delusional and hallucinating until you clean up and accept who you are.
Ocular delights will be supplied by Drippy Eye Projections and by way of introduction to the psychedelic light show, we spoke with NYC’s own visual psychonaut Curtis Gordino of Drippy Eye Projections. We’ll drop into the oil wheel with Curtis and discuss Drippy Eye, the interplay of visuals in live shows, vinyl inspired creations, and the lovely lava lamp sounds of his band, Worthless.
Tell us about the genesis of Drippy Eye Projections—how was the idea born and who are you artistic influences?
Well, Drippy Eye has been a project I’ve been working on for about 3 years now. The idea was conceived when our band in high school needed a light show. I saw a few light show videos from Josh White and Mark Boyle and was hooked. Ever since then it’s been an unhealthy obsession of mine.
What technology do you need to create the visual experience? Anything invented in the last 20 years?
You can use anything to create a light show. That’s why I’m so hooked on it, everything in my life could potentially be involved in my light show it just takes some thought to figure out how to rig it up to project it onto a wall. I think there are new things invented in the light show everyday, it’s endless. It’s also constantly being reinvented because you can’t buy anything specific for this besides oil wheels, but everything else is your own bag.
