The Young Veins had their album release party yesterday, June 8th, at Origami records in LA, a record label but also a tiny, tiny store that only sells vinyls. The place is a narrow corridor with an upstairs level that can be reached by a spiral staircase. The band performed upstairs and people had the feeling to be in a pit hole, breaking their necks to look at their heroes. I guess only 30 people could have fit there, and these people were teenager girls, at probably 90%,… God I felt old!
As document by Helen Bach on rock nyc: almost a year ago, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker formed the Young Veins after quitting their former Las Vegas band Panic! at the Disco. Ryan was the main songwriter for Panic! and he and Jon left the band alleging creative differences as the main reason.
Ryan, Jon as well as the other members Andy Soukal (guitar, bass), Nick White (keyboards, he played keyboards for Bright Eyes) and Nick Murray (drums) are all extremely young, and with their juvenile looks you would never guess they would venture in the 60’s, the childhood-teenage years of their parents.
The sound is definitely embedded in the past, and does not have anything to do with the rock music of 2010, as they sure don’t use any electronic equipment but instead vintage instruments like the Wurlizter piano.
“Take a vacation” is pure Beatles mania intertwined with Kinks riffs, a few Beach Boys harmonies, and probably a few other things from famous 60’s bands I have forgotten,… the Byrds? I know Phil Spector is serving jail time right now, but the title track could have been one of his productions. The songs ‘Take a vacation’, ‘Cape Town’, and ‘Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t’ could be some lost songs of an unidentified 60’s band that would have digested its complete sonic environment. It is pretty hard to distinguish what they have exactly borrowed from the Beatles or the Kinks from what they have really composed since the songs are still inventive beside their obvious inspirations.
It is a recipe for ear delight and even if the concoction seems a little prefabricated, there is no reason to abstain from this pleasurable 60’s gluttony. More British invasion than psychedelic rock, the songs are quite short (the whole album is less than half hour) but made of catchy and upbeat tunes.
Last night, Ryan Ross, Jon Walker and Andy Soukal played guitar, alternating for the vocals, and Jon sang alone on ‘Everyone But You’, whereas Ryan did most of the vocals on ‘Take a vacation’, ‘Cape Town’, ‘Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t’, and The Other Girl’. ‘Young Veins (Die Tonight)’ had this particular Kinks feeling, a feeling even more present when Ryan used a tambourine on ‘Change’.
If music touches at our genuine collective memory, it sure is a winner. It’s effortless, you are on familiar soundscape and you recognize it immediately as part of your inner world. Now I wonder about radio airplay for the Young Veins? On oldies stations?