¡Simpatico! (Remastered and Expanded) gives Velocity Girl’s long out-of-print 1994 sophomore album, ¡Simpatico!, an overdue refresh with a sparkling-fresh mastering job and a treasure trove of bonus tracks from the ¡Simpatico! era. The original album sounds better than ever, and it’s complemented by a full album of B-sides and rarities.

Velocity Girl formed in 1989 or so at the University of Maryland outside Washington DC with guitarist Archie Moore (Black Tambourine), guitarist Brian Nelson (Black Tambourine), drummer Jim Spellman (Starry Eyes, Foxhall Stacks, High Back Chairs, Julie Ocean, Piper Club), bassist Kelly Riles (Starry Eyes), and singer Sarah Shannon (Starry Eyes, The Not Its). The band combined English-inspired noisy shoegaze fuzz with scrappy US indie rock and classic ‘60s-style pop songwriting. A killer single on Slumberland and non-stop touring grabbed the attention of the indie-rock cognoscenti, and soon after Velocity Girl signed a contract with Sub Pop on a car hood in Hoboken, New Jersey.

After touring in support of their debut, Copacetic, the band spent the better part of a year coming up with a batch of songs for a second album. They had never worked that way before – having focused time, and a budget (from a label!), to make an album that wasn’t a self-produced, punk-rock studio thing was a fresh experience. Having played their new material for months in the noisy style of Copacetic, the band found themselves excited about the tunes, but trying to move away from the scrappy, amateur vibe of their previous records. And their influences were a bit different this time around: less My Bloody Valentine and Wedding Present, more New Order.

This expanded reissue adds a number of songs recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA, a few months after the album sessions. These sessions provided playfully experimental B sides to the album’s singles, two cover songs (the New Order cover “Your Silent Face”, and a Beach Boys cover) for a single on Merge Records, and a compilation track.

Label
Sub Pop
Genre
Alternative LP
Sorry Again
There's Only One Thing Left To Say
Tripping Wires
I Can't Stop Smiling
The All-Consumer
Drug Girls
Rubble
Labrador
Hey You, Get Off My Moon
Medio Core
What You Left Behind
Wake Up, I'm Leaving
Marzipan - Sorry Again EP
Labrador (drum machine version) - Sorry Again EP
Diamond Jubilee - Sorry Again EP
What You Left Behind (reprise) - Echoes of the Nation's Capitol #2 compilation
Your Silent Face - Your Silent Face single
You're So Good to Me - Your Silent Face single
Seven Seas - Seven Seas single
Breaking Lines - Seven Seas single

RHYTHM