The Daily Tar HeelThursday, October 22, 19873
Devotion
By ALLISON PIKE
Staff Writer
A strong double bill of progressive
and rock-driven pop comes to Cat's
Cradle on October 27th in the form
of The Veldt and Black Park Record's
A Picture Made.
The Veldt is a local band whose
members live and work in Chapel Hill
and Raleigh. Members include singer
guitarist Daniel Chavis, his twin
Danny Chavis on lead guitar, bassist
Joe Boyle, keyboardist Mahlon Boul
din and drummer Steve Hill.
The Veldt does not consider them
selves a dance band. Daniel says that
he and his brother grew up watching
Soul Train, but they really don't dance
well. "The reason we play the music
that we do is because you really don't
have to dance to it." he says. But
that doesn't mean they haven't ever
inspired an enthusiastic crowd to
start bopping and swaying to their
music
Although they do not have a
recording contract as of yet The
Veldt takes their work very seriously.
Drummer Hill takes his work so
seriously that he moved to Chapel
Hill from New Bern to play with The
Veldt Why make such a drastic career
move? Hill says that he was looking
for a band to play in when his uncle
saw The Veldt perform in Greenville.
Hill's uncle was so impressed with the
band that he urged Hill to try out
And. as Hill says. "Everything's
working out real well."
The Veldt with its current lineup,
has been playing together seriously
since April. The Chavis brothers and
Boyle have been playing together off
and on for about two years. After a
stint in a band called The Armory,
the Chavises and Boyle teamed up
with Bouldin. They said they went
through several drummers before Hill
came along.
Ask members of The Veldt what
they call their music and you will get
similar answers from each. Boyle says.
"I never know what to say. It's got
a little bit of everything." He does
say that The Veldt is a kind of
"progressive pop." but Boyle is quick
to stress that the band does not want
to be known as a pop band. "Alter
native" is a better word, he says.
Drummer Steve Hill adds that the
music is hard to describe because "it's
all so different." But if he had to call
it something. Hill would say that The
Veldt has a British sound. In fact, the
band has been compared to the
: Smiths and the Cure.
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Daniel Chavis has a simple answer
to the question. "I usually don't say
anything because I don't want people
to keep calling us that" he says.
Chavis does like the comparison of
The Veldt's music to the British
sound because he listens to British
bands like the Cocteau Twins and
Echo and the Bunnymen. Incidentally.
Chavis said the "biggest moment" of
his life came recently when The Veldt
met Echo and. the Bunnymen.
, Chavis adds that one of the best
compliments he has received was
when a girl told him after one of their
shows that The Veldt was one of the
most "different" sounding bands she
had heard.
Why is the Veldt so different? One
factor may be the diversity of their
songs. One song. "CCCP." has been
compared to U2's sound. It's about
a Russian girl growing up during the
Bolshevik Revolution. Daniel said got
the idea for this song when he
observed a Russian-influenced clo
thing display at Modern Times on
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A Picture Made will perform Oct 27 at Cat's Cradle
Franklin Street Other songs by The
Veldt include "Share My World."
"Aurora Borealis" and "Marshmallow
Skies."
Future plans for The Veldt? Boyle
says "We all just want to put
everything into the band. We want
to travel and play anywhere we can."
Hill adds that his goals are to "write
a Jot of great music and be very
successful."
The Veldt's enthusiasm is best'
displayed in Boyles' remark, "We'd
play every day if we could."
A Picture Made is another devoted
band whose members hail from
Pittsburg, Kansas. The band, singer
songwriter Bryan Plumlee, guitarist
Eric Harris, bassist Brian Jones and
drummer Steve Ritter. has recently
signed with Black Park Records of
Raleigh, and is receiving rave reviews
from music critics around the country
and even in Canada.
A Picture Made's connection -with
Black Park came about as a result
of a show the band played with the
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in Kansas City last fall. The two bands
liked each other's music so much that
A Picture Made was invited to open
for the Connells for a two-week tour
of the Carolinas and Virginia. Ed
Morgan of Black Park was so
impressed with this Kansas band that
he immediately began contract
negotiations.
A Picture Made's appeal seems to
be derived from their emotion
packed, rock-edged pop sound. Music
writers have compared singer Plum
lee's emotional performance with
that of Bono and Jim Morrison. At
a recent performance in the Triangle,
it was reported that Plumlee got so
involved in his song that he bent his
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Even the Replacements liked them
enough to invite A Picture Made to
do some Midwest dates with them.
Plumlee says that the band did not
start out intending to be emotional.
"Our idea was to go out and play a
part -We didn't know what it was
all about until we got the songs that
were really neat and said something
and we felt it. really.
"We don't want to go out and
write everything down and figure
everything out. Because we'd just
rather have it come from here." he
says, patting his heart.
This past July, the band went to
Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studio in
Winston-Salem to record a six-song
EP entitled Past The EP will not be
released until winter, but critics who
have heard the new songs at A Picture
Made's shows have nothing but great
things to say about them.
Intense is a word that seems to
crop up in nearly all of the band's
reviews. This intensity probably
comes from their devotion to their
music. Plumlee says. "The thing we
want to accomplish with music is just
to try to be good and to sustain
ourselves doing it" He adds.
"Because we love it so much, we just
love to do it and there wouldn't be
1 anything in the world we'd rather
do."
Music fans have a chance to witness
A Picture Made's intensity when the
band plays with The Veldt next
Tuesday. A writer from The Bob in
New York perhaps summed up what
the band has to offer best: "It's
essential to your rock 'n' roll health
and peace of mind to see and hear
this band. Remember, A Picture Made
is worth a thousand words."