DEBUT LP FROM 90’s NYC CULT HEROS. • FIRST TIME IN PRINT IN 20 YEARS.

Post-Punk? Indie-Rock? Post-Hardcore? The Van Pelt walked between all these worlds. Spoken/sung vocals, anthemic pop hooks, fiery guitars and a tightly wound rhythm section made them stand outs of the DIY basement scene they emerged from.

RELATED TO: The Lapse, St Vincent, Blonde Redhead, Enon, Jets to Brazil,
The Butterflies of Love, Vague Angels, Native Nod, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Original recording released 1996.
• 2017 reissue remastered for vinyl from the original tapes.
• First time in print in 20 years.
• New artwork featuring archival photos and lyrics.
• The Van Pelt will be presenting the reissues live during 2017.

90s NYC indie heroes The Van Pelt have had a lasting power far greater than so many of the other once bigger bands of that era have had. The sort of interest that has neither waxed nor waned over the decades since they disbanded, yet just mysteriously continues on despite their discography being out of print since the end of the last millennium. So what is it that sets them apart? Too soft to have ran with the AmRep or Touch and Go crowds, not hip enough to have made sense on Matador or Merge, ernest yet not histrionic enough to make it onto the “best emo bands” lists, not weird enough to be on bills with Arto Lindsay and Thurston Moore, etc. In a sense, their outsider status comes not from the wings, but from the dead center eye of the storm. The 90s were happening all around them, they were witnesses thereof, yet they emerged transcendent of it all. You Follow? Maybe it’s worth having a listen to see what I mean.

Barcelona’s La Castanya records is treating us with the first ever rerelease of the two Van Pelt albums to mark the 20th anniversary of Sultans of Sentiment, their benchmark album. They teased us in 2014 that this might be on the docket with the release of Imaginary Third, a collection of singles and unreleased Van Pelt tracks which were originally intended to have been the components of their third album, including the alt-famous “Speeding Train”. Now we’ll finally have access to their entire discography. The first album, Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves is an explosion of anthems belted out as if the war was already lost yet they were hoisting that tattered banner anyhow until there wasn’t a shred to salvage. The momentum coming out of that album had every major label in the States salivating at the possibility of turning them into the next Nirvana. Instead, The Van Pelt followed it up by pulling the van into the garage, leaving the engine running, funneling the exhaust into their lungs, and blissfully deciding to bow out of the race with the epic Sultans of Sentiment. Of course as the story goes, their intended financial flop was the exact opus that jettisoned them into the history books. Buy both albums. You’ll need them both.

CREDITS:
Neil O’Brien: drums
David Baum: guitar, backing vocals
Chris Leo: guitar, vocals
Toko Yasuda: bass, backing vocals
Ted Leo: Additional backing vocals, percussion
Justin Nortillo: Additional backing vocals
Recorded September 1995 at the Showplace & Sweetwood Sound Co.
Enginered by Alap Momin. Assisted by Keith De Blasi.

Produced by The Van Pelt.
All selections by The Van Pelt.
All lyrics by Chris Leo.
Remastered from original tapes by Tom Ruff at Asbury Media.
Layout and design by Bobby Gilanyi.