Living Well: A Review Of The New Expanded Edition of Copacetic By Velocity Girl On Sub Pop

I've told this story before but it relates to how I listen to Copacetic, the debut Velocity Girl album. I knew Archie and Kelly as regular customers at the University of Maryland Record Co-Op before Velocity Girl was formed. They had extraordinary taste -- when we liquidated our vinyl to go all CD/tape in 1989, Archie (and Pam Berry of Black Tambourine, and Dan Searing and others from that scene) bought a ton of our coolest titles, and when Submarine Bells came out, I remember telling Kelly it was in stock already so he could buy it first on the night before its official release date -- and that musical taste was an indication of how they would approach the creation of their own records.

When I first heard Copacetic in 1993, I remember being a little disappointed at how it sounded. The tunes were there, but they weren't jumping out at me like the compositions of the bands I knew and loved, and ones I knew those folks loved too. As the band indicates in the press materials, Bob Weston did what was asked of him back then, but the results just weren't what the five-piece wanted, and time wasn't on their side in redoing it then. Thankfully, Archie Moore got access to the masters in 2023 and set to work remixing Copacetic. And, thankfully, we can now talk about the Sub Pop release of UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded) today.

So the results of that remixing are very, very good indeed. "Crazy Town", already a gem of a single, is brighter and full of shiny delights. Velocity Girl never really got enough credit for how smartly they blended the rush of shoegaze with the catchiness of college rock here. (And for you kids in the back: in 1993, no one used the term dream pop!) The less conventional "Pretty Sister" and "Here Comes" have benefited enormously from the remix; these two reveal far more nuance and mood than the 1993 mixes allowed, with the songs suggesting an exploratory side to this band perhaps not noticed very much back then. The swirl of "A Chang" and the R.E.M.-ish intro to "Copacetic" are easier to appreciate in this 2024 mix too. And, of course, "Audrey's Eyes", already nearly an anthem, crashes forward with so much enthusiasm that an old-timer like me gets wistful about how much music like this signified back then.

For many of us, this kind of thing was our music. The majors were swarming over alt-rock landscapes looking for the next Nirvana, but there was a lot of variety out there besides grunge waiting and hoping to get picked up. And Velocity Girl not only gifted Sub Pop with one of their best non-Nirvana sellers in 1993's Copacetic, they also took a wealth of cool influences to the edges of the mainstream. For all of us who had already been listening to Creation Records, C86 groups, and Flying Nun bands, Copacetic showed how those things could influence the creation of American rock. But for lots of presumably younger listeners, the sound of Velocity Girl was likely a gateway drug to discovering all that other stuff for the first time, kinda like how I only first listened to Wire and Pere Ubu because Hüsker Dü name-checked those groups in interviews.

Not only does UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded) offer a better version of the first Velocity Girl album, but it serves up a wealth of bonus cuts. "Warm/Crawl", from a split 7-inch with Tsuanami, is here, as is the spry "Creepy" from the "Crazy Town" single. Those two are real treasures, as is the lumbering proto-punk of "Stupid Thing" from the "Audrey's Eyes" 7-inch. Drummer Jim Spellman, a veteran of Dischord band High Back Chairs, brings some harDCore flavor to these numbers, his kit-work on "Stupid Thing" especially standing out for its power and directness. The real rarity of this whole set is "Even Die", a previously near-impossible-to-find album outtake where Sarah Shannon's vocals reveal a grit not as obviously heard on the album tracks themselves. All those lost goodies are joined by the full 5-song John Peel session from 1993. The sound on all of these cuts, including the Peel versions of the album cuts, is louder, more in-your-face than on either version of Copacetic. I mention that to highlight the power of these musicians, but also remind readers once again just how un-jangle-y these folks could be when given the opportunity.

If you're here to relive the Nineties, or get some Velocity Girl rarities in your collection, or enjoy Copacetic in its best, purest form, you need to buy UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded) today. This is a real significant improvement on what was already a seminal record in American indie rock. With a sound far more expansive, and mix rich in audio delights previously muddied up, UltraCopacetic is a must for even a casual fan of this group.

UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded) by Velocity Girl is available via Sub Pop and the Bandcamp link below on download, vinyl, and good old reliable CD!

For those of you who are in the D.C. area, Archie, Brian, Jim, and Kelly will be at the superb bookstore Mojomala in Silver Spring on Friday, August 16, from 6 PM to 8 PM for an UltraCopacetic listening party and discussion.

[Photo: John Falls]