Back in the day, as the kids say, I never saw a Velocity Girl video on the old MTV and said: "I know 2 of those guys!"
No, I pointed at the TV screen with my old man cane and said "Two of those guys were my favorite customers at The University of Maryland Record Co-Op!"
I'm not gonna get all misty-eyed about that basement shop in the student union except to say that my musical taste was -- more or less -- set by the time that that place closed.
With the exception of a very handful of bands (Manics, Luke Haines, SFA, Kenickie), nothing would ever thrill me as much as the bands from that era.
And in 1989 or 1990, I could count on nearly one hand the people that knew the Creation Records and Sarah Records acts that I loved so much. One of those guys formed a band and a label (Black Tambourine and Slumberland Records, respectively), one guy played bass in another (Velocity Girl), one girl joined a whole lot of good bands (early version of Velocity Girl, Unrest, Air Miami), and another guy was in even more (Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl, Lilys, Heartworms, The Saturday People, and so on).
Those were the cool(est) customers at the Co-Op in 1989 and 1990 (and The Record and Tape Exchange in 1988). I didn't really talk to Pam Berry until years later but I knew who she was back then as she came in to buy vinyl with Archie all the time -- great hair and great taste in tunes.
Anyway, on to Archie. Everyone knows the guy and everyone likes the guy and with good reason.
The success of Velocity Girl felt like a vindication that D.C. was not just Dischord. He and Slumberland's Mike Schulman really provided a chance for people to hear another sort of sound to come from the D.C./Maryland/NoVa area.
And they got kids into some great bands; anyone who looked up where Velocity Girl got their name probably quickly got hooked on Primal Scream and that whole C86 scene.
Anyway, Archie is a man of many talents but today I'm going to highlight a recent project, bye!, as well as some rarities from Black Tambourine.
You can play all the noise-pop your heart desires via the links below.
(And the wayback machine found that pic on the Facebook page of Black Tambourine -- not to be confused with the up-and-coming Brit band The Black Tambourines! -- and it's dated March 1990 which means it's roughly around the time of my 23rd birthday when I went to dinner with The Blue Nile thanks to the dude from Frontier Theory who worked at A&M Records.)
Play and download the excellent "Everything Is Okay" below!
Chemtrail Surfer from bye! (Archie Moore)
Black Tambourine Cassette from Black Tambourine