Balarama Music

Allow Me To Present: Codeine Velvet Club

Mar 16

Doug2000s codeine velvet club, lou hickey, the fratellis No Comments

It’s exciting for me to say that Balarama Music has done its first interview today with the lovely & talented Lou Hickey of the band Codeine Velvet Club. Huzzah! You should definitely check that out by clicking here. If that band name sounds familiar, well it should. Not only have I referenced the band many times here since I first heard of them in September, but I also ranked their debut album as the third best album of last year (see the rest of the list by clicking here). Now, I’m not writing about CVC simply because Lou granted me an interview. It’s great she did, but I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while. With The Beatles countdown going on, it’s been a little hard to write about other stuff. With that said though, Codeine Velvet Club is a band that everyone should be checking out right now so let’s dive right into them.

CVC is really the collaboration between Lou Hickey (did you read the interview yet?) and Jon Lawler. His name won’t sound familiar to my readers here, but I have talked about his main band many times here before: The Fratellis. My fandom of that band is really how I got into CVC. After discovering The Fratellis, their debut album Costello Music from 2006 quickly became one of my favorites from the last decade and their follow-up Here We Stand from 2008 easily contained one of my favorite songs from the last decade in “Mistress Mabel,” a song I love to cover when I’m playing at open mike nights across Richmond. When I’m a fan of a band, I know it’s weird, but I almost have to stay updated on the band. Whether it’s checking Wikipedia or the band’s webpage, I find a way to stay abreast on any new rumblings from the band. It could be a new album in the works or just a random B-Side being released on a soundtrack; I want to know all of it. I’m just a curious guy like that which is really why this site exists in the first place. Anyway, originally hearing that the band wanted to release two albums in 2009, I was ecstatic. Of course, it didn’t turn out this way, but I kept checking back for any bits of news I could. News of a solo album by Lawler came & went and it wasn’t until a random day in September searching through Wikipedia (I’m addicted!) that I came across three words that would drastically change my iPod for the next six months: Codeine Velvet Club.

Apparently, Jon had started a new side band with a singer I had never heard of with an amazingly suave name. They had a website up that even had the video for their first single, “Vanity Kills.” So I watched it and listened. I was amazed so I played it again. And then again. Then I called my fiancée & told her to watch it. Then I had my friends watch it. Before I knew it, I was telling everyone about this encapsulating sound that Jon & Lou had trademarked with their club. This sound that was almost a new millennium take on lounge music – the type I could smoke my tobacco pipe & drink scotch to with while others around me did the same. That was it – I was hooked. The only problem was that the release date for the album wasn’t until December so I was going to have to wait for more. But thankfully, like The Fratellis had done in the past, they were releasing a couple of songs/recordings as free downloads on the site. Itching for the new stuff, I grabbed the few songs and was able to quickly fall in love with the rocking tune “Little Sister.” But I needed another fix like a heroin junkie so I searched to see where Lou Hickey was from & got some of her material from her two EPs. A bit different than I expected, but I was nonetheless enamored with the spunky “One Mango Tango.” My fix wasn’t over and it was a long three months of playing the same songs over and over again. Come December, the album finally got released and I’m not going to lie – I was scared. It’s really easy for me or anyone to get excited over something forthcoming and build it up until it’s nearly impossible to match those expectations. I did it with Spider-Man 3 (horrible) and John Mayer’s Battle Studies (what a letdown). Despite my hesitations though, I dove in and quickly discovered just how great the band was. From start to finish, each song brought something new to the table and each song had me playing it over & over again. Roadtrips, short or long, quickly became all about having CVC on the iPod blasting through the speakers whether it was with my fiancée or my best friends. CVC, to me, was easily one of the best bands around.

Do I sound like an over-zealous fanboy? Sure, but if you haven’t heard them, you can’t really understand so here’s a song for you. The song is their second single from the album and perhaps their best song, “Hollywood.” It’s a driving song that is sure to pull you in for a ride as it tells you a cautionary tale about the risks of fame, money, et cetera. Hauntingly charming vocals and a near-big band sound set the stage for the song before a bombastic chorus puts the cherry on top for the song. Everything comes together in the end for a blow-off that’s as powerful as the cautionary tale should be. Before you know it, it’s done and you’re putting it on again just to hear that sound once more. I really challenge anyone to listen to this song and be anything but impressed. I’ve spent a while raving about the band so why don’t you check them out? When you’re done, check out the rest of the album too. Trust me when I say it only gets better.

Song: Hollywood
Band: Codeine Velvet Club
Album: Codeine Velvet Club
Year: 2009

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