Teething Veils
“There’s nothing quite like Teething Veils. Teething Veils has a certain indefinable magic all its own — a magic borne out of finding beauty and meaning in life’s tender moments. To refer to Teething Veils as a band that revels in melancholy is to miss the point — their songs are about the transformative power of catharsis and release. Everything about Canopy of Crimson reflects a commitment to artistry and an eye for detail that is truly rare. The album doesn’t just take you on an emotional journey – it transports you to its own sonic universe where sorrow, joy and transcendence all live in harmony.”
5 Questions with Teething Veils We Fought the Big One
“If the latest from this self-described chamber-folk outfit feels funereal, it isn’t just because bandleader Greg Svitil sings like a eulogist, or because Hannah Burris knows how to make her viola weep. It’s because funerals allow emotions to be purged and smothered, making time feel stranger than slow.”
-Chris Richards, Washington Post
“Sea and Sun is the lushest and most focused full-length from Teething Veils, the Etxe Records chamber-pop outfit of singer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Svitil, viola player Hannah Burris, and whichever string players, reedists, brass sections, and accordionists they can cram into the studio (in this case, Inner Ear) on a given day. These little songs—sepia-toned yet searching, eccentric yet melodically inclined—add up to something that feels like its own pocket universe, sometimes wistful, sometimes the kind of menacing only achieved via a late-career Tom Waits death rattle. RiYL: Leonard Cohen (the dark later stuff), Tindersticks (the gorgeous early stuff), Conor Oberst’s vocals without Conor Oberst’s tics.”
–Washington City Paper
“If you’re keeping score, this album (“Constellations”) is 19 songs shorter than the last disc from Greg Svitil’s odd musical vision Teething Veils. However, what he lacks in quantity he makes up for in quality. The two songs here, both 25 minutes each, are actually the same song, with the second song being the first song in reverse. “Constellations,” the forward song, builds dense atmospheres with intricate guitar work steered by Svitil’s baritone voice. “Dimmer” is where the tape reel is played backwards and remixed, and is a sadder, eerie affair that doesn’t resemble the song it mirrors all that much really. An unusual listen and ideal for ears that are tired of the mundane.”
–New Noise Magazine (4 out of 5 stars)
“It would be easy to simply call this track post-rock, but there’s much more going on than. The poetic lyrics detail the reflective isolation after the end of a relationship in a way that’s simultaneously direct, thoughtful, and otherworldly. This is music that tempts you to enter into the darkness that envelops every single note and every single word it contains. I bet if you take the time to listen, you’ll find a way to enjoy every emotionally devastating moment of it.”
–DCist
“Slow-moving arrangements, full of intense shifts in mood and texture, bury listeners beneath a mountain of weighted guitars and crashing percussion, leaving them alone to explore feelings of loss, anxiety, frustration, and even a little joy…The album’s downtrodden tone builds, evolving into something that is emotionally rich and, at the same time, eerily cold. It’s a gripping dynamic that conjures unsettling images of emptiness, only to fill the void with just enough interaction to spark an overwhelming sense of relief. And Constellations provides an uninterrupted arena for listeners to explore their emotions: The album is comprised of two tracks, both clocking in at around 25 minutes. The timing isn’t a coincidence: The B-side of the album is a mirror track, crafted in full from the A-side’s reel of tape played backward…whether you listen to Constellations as two distinct tracks or one long, ambitious arrangement, its ability to drown out distractions and stir up real emotions—good or bad—is refreshing, exhausting, and strange.”
–Washington City Paper
“People who listen to music purely for entertainment, looking for the quick, tuneful ear candy fix, will certainly run screaming from Teething Veils. But for those who like to dissect every moment of an album, nearly trying to get inside the songwriter’s head and see how they perceive the world, this is nothing short of fascinating.”
–The Daily Vault
“This is not a playful album. Velorio’s 21 tracks move slowly, pulled downward by the weight of their melancholy. With stark and vivid detail, Teething Veils’ frontman Greg Svitil sings about staring at wounds as they slowly close and morphing into a bitter man, giving Velorio its heft—about 10,000 pounds of it. Svitil and his conspirators perform the rustic, low-fidelity, and low-key tunes with a conviction that preserves a soft glow of intimacy. His singing voice sounds a lot like talking, and it tends to manifest in gentle whispers or groggy sighs, like the sounds of a tearstained boozehound emerging from the fog of an unplanned nap…There are moments of peace, even joy, in these 21 songs, like in the weezing accordion melody on the jaunty “We Walked Through Leicester Square.” Teething Veils knows its way around a funeral procession, but the band can still make misery sound lovely.”
–Washington City Paper
Names like Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazelwood, and Scott Walker are hardly among the more common musical reference points in DC’s indie rock and underground music scenes, but those are exactly the artists that Teething Veils calls to mind on its ambitious debut album, Velorio. Over the course of the album, Teething Veils’ singer/ songwriter Greg Svitil examines the shattered pieces of past relationships, tracing the hidden contours of heartbreak, memory, longing, and obsession through an unavoidably personal lens.
–The Vinyl District
“Velorio” is subdued, shrouded in sadness, and compellingly diverse. Accordion waltzes, cello, viola, piano, and organ complement (and many times dominate) Svitil’s guitar, his vocals but an instrument in the challenging soundcape, not buried in the mix but not overwhelming it, either…With all of the instrumentation available, it has plenty of room to open up like a bottle of bold red wine, releasing aromas and flavors to you as the sprawling 21-track album progresses…This isn’t your “indie” album, if by indie you mean genre. If you mean indie in its work ethic, you got it.”
–Mobtown Breakdown
“Svitil and company have the space to spread their wings and do they ever. From accordion dance music to shorts bursts of metal to ’60s inspired pop and just about everything in between, the amount of textures explored here is as well done as it is shocking. Heavily on the maudlin side, Velorio is far from happy music, often detailing dissolved relationships, though much beauty is weaved amid the harrowing organs, aching violas and Svitil’s deep voice that speaks and sings.”
–Inforty
“An epic collection of melancholy, nasal-sung, off kilter pop bee stings. An by pop I mean metal, 60s organ weirdness, whatever it is Jad Fair does, chamber music, nightmare soundtracks, church dirges, contemporary classical, and Brian Wilson on downers music.”
–Rocktober
“It begins with a moderate tempo that induces a light psychedelic rock feel akin to Richard Buckner. Vocally, it’s closer to psyche-folk mast Mark Fry. This was a lovely set that flew by. When I fall into a trance like this, these 32 minutes feel more like 10.”
–DC Rock Live
“”Cobblestone” (is) a gravelly narrative that seems to concern the harsh light an environment can place on a fraught relationship. Yeah, there’s some exposition, but the most stirring moments wax impressionistic: “The afterglow is hanging, the gentle lull is prescient, the midnight moon perspires, dripped across our window,” Svitil sings in a tense rasp.”
–Washington City Paper
Etxe Records
–Parklife DC
Silo Halo
“The key is that these are songs with a strong personality and not just exercises in attractive noise. There is attractive noise, particularly on “Rosalind”, but it is a pleasurable coda on top of a moving song. The title cut is particularly moving with its melding of Tuxedomoon and Sonic Youth moves. This band establishes a mood around their songs and finds intriguing ways to work their guitars and keyboards around the melodies with a solid drum beat underneath.”
–DC Rock Live
“Silo Halo…is adept at creating a lonesome rumble. The four songs on Blackout Transmission, Silo Halo’s second release on Etxe Records, all expand past the five-minute mark, and they’re all studies in the interplay between warehouse-sized reverb, Nathan Jurgenson’s ever-active drumming, and dryly melodic human utterances from bassists/guitarists Greg Svitil and Christopher Goett (the label’s co-owner)…Very little on Blackout Transmission is delicate, but there is vulnerability underneath it all. Even the sudden percussive breakdown during the title track feels like it’s probing an uncertain future.”
– Washington City Paper
“Blackout Transmission is vaster, grander…joined by a wistful edge that wanders through the songs, from the relentless title track to the dreamier “Urban Canyons & Beginnings.” At times, the record has a post-rock feel; at others, it’s unabashed avant-garde noise. Silo Halo slips effortlessly through dusk to dawn, speared onwards by a search for something lost. Listening to Blackout Transmission is returning to streets you used to walk every day until it hit you, suddenly, that you hadn’t been there in years. Even as it drives forward, the record demands an acknowledgement of what once was and, in turn, the full story of a place, lingering in the air as the sun rises.”
– District Beat
“Night and the City makes a more cohesive statement than just about any other local indie-rock album I’ve heard this year”
– Washington City Paper
“Silo Halo has crafted a disc that truly has everything … This is hands down the best record I’ve heard so far this year, a record that is nothing short of stunning… ”
– The Daily Vault
“Ambient and space-y instrumentals split up the quick paced, energetic riffage and the buzzing hooks find the perfect balance between noise and melody with a raw, visceral feel. This is the best record I’ve heard in 2012.”
– Tom Haugen, InForty.com
“…songs that feature bell-like guitars and Christin Durham’s soprano… yet the album opens with waves of pulsating noise, and industrial din is just as integral to the sound as the gentler elements.”
– Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post
“Even the feedback was neatly done… Most of the songs sound like they mayl turn into Mission of Burma’s “That When I Reach For My Revolver” or anything by Joy Division.”
– To Hell With Good Intentions Fanzine
“Somewhere between the beautiful drone that begins with intro track Silhouette, and ferocious roar at the close of side one with I’m Still Slamming My Head Against A Brick Wall, we found our sweet spot in the song Wonderful Gift. Speaking of gifts, any one of the understated songs belonging to ‘Night and the City’ could easily serve to highlight this impressive LP…”
– Milk Milk Lemonade
“…short bursts of love and loss, exorcising past ghosts and confronting present adversity. These confessions float higher than a helium-filled Trojan horse in zero gravity when told through an eight-track album that becomes increasingly infectious with every spin.”
– Coal Magazine
“…artistic noise that extends from the psychedelic shoegazer to the experimental frontiers of art rock … an album that can already be considered one of the greatest albums of the year. This Washington DC trio impresses with the quality use of and nuances given in their wall of sound.”
– The Blog That Celebrates Itself
“…a band that uses their 3-person multi-instrumentalist/vocal attack like a well oiled pitching staff. Each member taking turns with their unique style and approach throughout the arrangements. The listener is treated to smart, uplifting lyrics and complex musical change up’s while the classic male-to-female vocal back and forth’s keeps the songs interesting and free-flowing.”
– Jaded Bitterman, Bums Logic
“…dynamic moody emotion and swoony, lovely aesthetic richness on this DC trio’s post-post-punk, pre-post-rock debut.”
– Rocktober Reviews
“For most bands that revel in static and high volume, the squall reigns supreme. Silo Halo distinguishes itself from the pack by always ensuring the melodies and hooks are never lost amid the drapes of all enveloping noise.”
– Rick Taylor, We Fought the Big One
“Silo Halo’s first song was sort of Hüsker Dü-ish, and the rest fell somewhere near the territory of driving, energetic art-rock that reminded me of the non-twee parts of the C86 movement; maybe something like The Fall or the Wedding Present or the Pastels or McCarthy or something.Their last song was an epic, shoegazery, dreamy guitar-noise flare-out ballad, it started out pretty Cedermarky but ended up squarely in PsychoCandy territory.”
– James, Nailgun Media
Band Interview: The Blog That Celebrates Itself (TBTCI)
The Antiques
Brightest Young Things 10.10.08
“They remind me of listening to OK COMPUTER when I was 16, to the weird guitar and organ sounds, head in the clouds and feeling utterly floored by the sounds. The Antiques have two guitarists, a drum machine, an organist, a bass player, and organ with two keys held down by tape and a drum machine that doesn’t know how cool it is. I first saw them opening for Sonic Boom, I didn’t get to hear any song cos the vocals were too reverb-y, they had the dude from Kohoutek on drums and their drummer sat on a chair cos he was on crutches. During the last song, Greg, the singer fell on his knees and started playing with his pedals, Sam, the drummer repeatedly scratched his guitar Craig the bass player was hitting his bass on his amp and Kevin, the organist was unplugging his stuff and packing it.
They have a couple of releases of which I bought ‘sewn with stitches’ a claustrophobic creepy self hating record that I couldn’t bear listen cos it made me want to curl up in a ball and cry like a baby (ref: spiritualized, spacemen 3, joy division, suicide). Most songs read like diary entries and post break-up letters, and Greg sings in a flat monotone (hey, it worked for New Order) with the vocals way front of the mix. At first this was a bit unsettling cos I loved the way his vocals were buried when they played live, kinds like when bands say they use vocals like an instrument.
So back to the songs, “bedsit bones” is white disco, opener “tied to nowhere” is a garage stomp that recalls the bunnymen at their lightest, and “there’s nothing to explain” is just a perfect song in every sense of that word. All chiming guitars and twelve string guitars, when they play it live Sam makes his guitar sound like a millions women wailing or cats being burnt alive. They do not sound like an American band and thank fuck for that, they remind me of late eighties UK. Its shoegaze. Pedals, organs, reverb, pedals, hair in their faces (they audience, not the band) and more pedals.”
-To Hell With Good Intentions, issue 5
“‘Sewn In Stitches’ is a bitter claustrophobic collection of melancholic psych tinged shoegazing for fans of ’80s British glum rockers Echo and the Bunnymen, The Comsat Angels , The Sound and The Chameleons and early 90s Brit shoegazers, Ride…In the mist of all this bitterness, rancour and self immolation Greg produces some classic glum rock including a great moment when he rhymes glistens with aneurysms (‘Auburn Aumbry’)… ‘Sewn with Stitches’ is an exhausting, emotional and entrancing album that gets better with each listen. I don’t now what effect baring his heart and soul on the record had on Greg but I certainly felt purged after just one listen. File under cathartic.
-the devil has the best tuna (click for full write-up), july 28, 2007
“…I mostly agree with some of the previous reviews of The Antiques in that there is a feeling of early 80’s British pop/rock threaded heavily with that time defying lo-fi garage sound we know so well. The difference found and contained within the the brand new CD “Sewn In Stitches” is that there are seemingly no limits or guidelines to which the sound is relegated. The healthy dose of organ accompaniment lends another dimension to the sound and the reverb levels don’t hurt things at all. If, for no reason whatsoever, we were given three words to describe this music? Haunting, hollow and lovely would be the front runners although I might not be doing the slightest bit of justice to the music you are hopefully listening to right now…”
-milk milk lemonade (click for full write-up), july 28, 2007
“After the year unfortunately last itself Alcian Blue dissolved have, remained the volume members not idle and have under the name “Safranin Sound & design” a small Label in Washington established. Here publish a row of young volume out of the atmosphere of Alcian Blue. Next to Screen Vinyl image (former Alcian Blue members), Ceremony, The Offering, safe ace home also The Aniques. A class portfolio! Would like to introduce I here deputy for the Label the Antiques that have now the receptions of 2004 until now on its neune CD “Sewn witch stitches” together vicinity: Grow psychedelic Dreampop with atmospheric song that are very melodieorientiert unaufgeregt daherkommen and with the hearing. On the websites are found a row songs to the download, at the same time also a 15 minute live reception of Awake. Recommended.
–The Last Pop Song
“A complete album that you should own and hear from start to finish with no deviations whatsoever. It features fourteen wonderful (melancholic) songs that capture (and pierce) your sad old jaded heart. This is not sweetness and light but stories of loves-u-have-lost, with melting guitars and a bass in your head. It has been far too long. However, the desperateness of the lyrics and deep-drawl vocal delivery is counter-punched with a kind of spikey, cynical guitar-led “pop” that reminds me of The Go-Betweens at their absolute peak, possibly mixed in with a little early to mid-period Felt. I recommend this album highly and ask you to open all ears and take a listen (from the first few seconds of fast and furious spunkytastic album-opener, Tied To Nowhere, I think you will be hooked in and cooked for tea…).”
-And Before the First Kiss (Glasgow) album review, May 31, 2007
“For fans of semi-obscure ’80s British acts such as Comsat Angels and the Chameleons UK … well, here is your new favorite band. The songs are dramatic without being overwrought, as the band doesn’t get bogged down with unnecessary instrumentation. A thick organ sound envelops tracks such as “Painted Post Road” and “Don’t Stand in My Room,” which plod along gingerly while Greg Svitil gives a perfect deadpan delivery of lines like, “Don’t light up my life / Yours is the light I don’t need / When did you become such a creep? / When did you become so psychotic?” Things are more sprightly on “One Day You’ll Be Sorry Too” and “Auburn Aumbry,” recalling some different obscure ’80s U.K. acts — let’s say Felt and Orange Juice this time. People who are serious about their 7″ record collection will seriously love this album.”
–Washington Post Going Out Gurus album review, May 10, 2007
“The meticulously crafted songs are full of drama, sometimes heavy on thick organ, other times with reverb-laden guitar.”
-Washington Post.com, May 10, 2007
“Sewn With Stitches is an unqualified success in every sense. Each track was clearly meticulously crafted and executed brilliantly, and the end result fills the listener’s ears with some of the most beautiful and heartfelt sounds they’re likely to hear this or any other year.”
-Rick Taylor, We Fought the Big One
Colony
Washington City Paper 7.20.2012
Washington Post 7.14.2012
DCist 7.13.2012
DC Theatre Scene 7.13.2012
Huffington Post 7.12.2012
How to be a Human
DC Theatre Scene 7.18.2010