Black Velvet Flag | |
---|---|
Origin | New York City |
Genres | Lounge, comedy music |
Labels | Go-Kart |
Past members | Jeff Musser Fred Stesney Jason Zasky |
Black Velvet Flag was a New York City-based comedy music trio, known for their humorous, lounge-styled covers of songs by Southern California punk rock bands, and for performing while wearing tuxedos. [1] [2] They became known in 1994, after performing on the New York music scene, which suddenly propelled them to fame in just six months. [3] Their only full-length album, Come Recline, was released in 1995 on Go-Kart Records. [2] In 2003, an interactive documentary of the band, entitled The Rise and Fall of Black Velvet Flag, was released; it was directed by Sheldon Schiffer. [4] [5]
Black Velvet Flag was named the best unsigned band of 1994 by Rolling Stone 's poll of music critics. [1] AllMusic's Jack Rabid called the album "One of the funniest records released this year." [2] In the Washington Post , Mark Jenkins wrote of the band's act of covering punk songs in a lounge style that "...this is a joke that doesn't need to be told more than once." [6] Trouser Press 's David Sprague concluded that the album "...falls somewhere between Dread Zeppelin feebdom and a '90s approximation of Frank Sinatra's late-'60s hipster era, during which Ol' Blue Eyes tried his best to bask in the glow of the summer of love— [7] Chris Norris of New York was also critical of the band's style, writing that their "hardcore-as-lounge gag" was "funny for about twenty seconds and only if you've never seen Repo Man ." [8]
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington D.C. and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics".
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Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine is a cover band and comedy act, performing popular songs in a lounge/swing style. Lounge singer Richard Cheese is a character created and portrayed by Los Angeles-based actor/comedian/singer Mark Jonathan Davis.
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Edward James "Ed" Hamell, performing as Hamell on Trial, is an American punk rock, anti-folk, spoken word musician, described by Righteous Babe Records as "loud, fast music informed by politics, passion, energy and intelligence, played by a guy with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor".
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Steven Blush is an American author, journalist, record collector and film maker who is best known for his book American Hardcore and the movie of the same name. Blush has written five books, is the founder of Seconds magazine and has written articles for many magazines. Two of his books have been made into movies. Blush's work mainly specializes in hardcore punk music.
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