Velvet Teen

The Velvet Teen working on new LP ++ stream their non-album single "Mean Mind"

Long-running, shapeshifting art rockers The Velvet Teen haven’t released a full-length album since 2015’s All Is Illusory, but that’s finally going to change soon. “We have over an album’s worth of songs in process at the moment, and our goal is to finish an LP before the end of the year,” says vocalist Judah Nagler. “Right now it’s looking like it will be a ‘shelter in place’ recording. We just did a short tour with Caspian, [whose guitarist] Jonny Ashburn just added some guitars to a song we’re working on.”

Exciting news! While you stay tuned for that, we’re premiering a stream of “Mean Mind,” which came out a couple years ago on a Japanese, tour-only 7″ picture disc with “Parallel Universes” but hasn’t gotten a digital release until now. “There are no plans to include this on any forthcoming releases,” Judah says. “We just felt it was long overdue to let others hear it.”

The song, which was co-produced by Young & Sick, sounds unmistakably like The Velvet Teen but it’s also a little more on the atmospheric, psychedelic side than you might expect from this band, and it comes with with a well-matched trippy visualizer that really helps take you there.

“Thematically, the song speaks to negative self talk and evokes depression as an actual person in the role of friend and lover,” Judah says. “The lyrics came after a period I dealt with where it was hard to even get out of bed, so the ‘lover’ imagery seemed to embody that relatively well. It also makes me grateful to for that period to have passed, as I haven’t felt that way in some time.” Watch/listen below. Remaining copies of the picture disc are also on sale at Bandcamp.

In related news, Velvet Teen (and New Trust) member Josh Staples’ band Mare Island have a a new single and Velvet Teen drummer Casey Deitz’s band Peace’d Out (with members of The Movielife, RX Bandits, and No Motiv) recently released a new album.

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