It's a pretty ballsy move for a band to name an album, Teenage Symphonies to God. Every rock snob worth his or her weight in vinyl knows the story of Brian Wilson's abandoned Smile project and how his overwhelming goal to create "teenage symphonies to God" drove him straight into madness (by way of his sandbox and his bedroom). While it's unclear whether or not the members of Velvet Crush went cuckoo after recording their breakthrough 1994 album, there's no denying that they ended up with a great pop album.
They've continued to release great stuff, and Glorious Noise jumped on the chance to send our new man on the scene, Ryan King, to interview VC drummer, Ric Menck. Read the full interview.
Advertisement
Email
Comments
Great interview! sounds like a really down-to-earth guy...I love "Teenage Symphonies..." It was one of my favorite albums when I was in college, but I haven't listened to it in years...I'm going to put it on when I get home!
i really thought that "teenage symphonies to god" was going to get over in a big way back then, i really did. it had all the elements... catchy jangle pop, the mathew sweet connection (who was all over the charts and mtv then), a great looking album cover, and plenty of accessible radio songs, hipster cache, and mainstream appeal. what happened? i'm sure it had something to do with poor promotion, or the shift of all marketing effort by epic/creation to oasis at the time. or not. all i know is that the world at large missed out on one hell of an album.
An honest interview with an elusive man...way to go!
Beckie, thanks.Vitas, you got it Jack. From what I know, Teenage Symphonies came out right as Oasis started blowing up. Epic/Creation's shift toward marketing Oasis meant that Teenage Symphonies got underpromoted. And yeah, that *is* one hell of an album. Might be my favorite, right up there with Free Expression.
i still haven't picked up "free expression". i sort of lost track after having a hassle trying to find "heavy changes" - yes, i could have special ordered it, or bought it from cdnow.com, or somehow got my hands on it, but i'm one of those people who love to hunt down and buy things in record stores - and thus eventually shifting my obsessive record hunting elsewhere. what are anybody's thoughts/opinions on the solo collection "the ballad of ric menck"? i just couldn't get into it. sure, it's an interesting document of early recordings and long out of print singles, and a great testament to the development of a talented musician, but i find it hard to really get into.
Before I was a VC fan, I saw it on a rack in Amoeba in San Francisco. I was like, "the ballad of himself? who is this guy?" Now I realize he was just going about the title in his own idiosyncratic way. There's a song called "Ballad of Yesteryear" on Free Expression, for example. Ric's writing is peppered with references to rock action, rock and roll, smash hit, etc. The Hold Me Up video on Parasol is hilarious because it's goofing on the whole commercial language used to market music. It's obvious to me that Ric and Velvet Crush just love to play with the language of rock. And who doesn't?