Draft:Velo-Deluxe

Velo-Deluxe are an American indie rock trio from Bloomington, Indiana fronted by John Strohm (musician) that debuted in 1994. Other members include drummer Mitchell Mustin Harris, and bassists Kenny Childers and Vess Ruhtenberg who was brought in for some final tours and recordings once Childers left the band.

The band released one album in North America, the UK and Australia. Their recognition was greater in the UK while in the US their shows were relegated mostly to the Midwest due to label and touring issues where they shared the stage with other notable bands from the region such as Red Red Meat, Polara, Guided By Voices, Hum, Veruca Salt as well as Indiana favorites of the time Sardina, band, El Nino, band, The Impossible Shapes, The United States Three, among others.

History
Velo-Deluxe was an indie rock band formed in 1994 in Bloomington, Indiana by John Strohm, 27 at the time, when he brought in Mitchell Harris, and Kenny Childers to work on some demos he had recorded prior. Mitch, a 19 year old freshman at Indiana University Bloomington, was the drummer for Marmalade and was recommended by Mark Maher who was a local music engineer and bassist. Kenny was a 21-year-old student at Indiana University who had previously played in the band Go Man Go. The core line up provided a high energy and more aggressive sound that Strohm wanted for a new batch of songs. The label releasing the record, Mammoth Records (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) had initially signed Strohm up for a multiple record deal based on his prior work with Blake Babies and then Antenna.

The band was named after a brand of vacuum cleaner which Strohm saw when he lived above a vacuum store. It also referenced the buzzing and intense sound the band came to be known for which combined noisy guitar driven indie rock tinged with jangle pop, psychedelia, shoegaze, punk, country music and trace elements of soul music.

Velo-Deluxe playing at Indiana University's Culture Shock in 1995 helped convince Chris Swanson to move to Bloomington, Indiana from Fargo, North Dakota, after a Billboard article that painted the Midwestern college town's scene as the next incubator for up-and-coming bands.

Velo-Deluxe were not featured in the article and were already touring the UK at the time but were in Indiana to play the show and made an impression on the visitor. The Swanson Brothers would eventually create the Secretly Canadian record label in 1996 as well as other iconic labels in the Bloomington, Indiana area.

Discography
Superelastic, their first and only full album, was recorded in 1994 at Echo Park, in Bloomington, Indiana. For production, Anjalie Dutt was chosen due to her engineering and production credits for My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver as well as the fact that she had just finished working on the first Oasis band record.

Mammoth Records initially appeared less happy with the noisier aspects of the record and were not making many moves for the band to tour heavily. After a CMJ music showcase in NYC, however, the band were noted in some of the English music papers as having made a strong impression. Likely due to Strohm's strong connections to The Lemonheads (playing initially drums and then guitar at various stages in that band) and enjoying the new sound, UK labels became interested. Dedicated Records (Spiritualized...) put out Superelastic in England and elsewhere in Europe which led to several tours of the band in the UK and Europe in 1994-1995.

A UK only EP simply titled "Velo Deluxe" was released with a song from the record plus 3 additional new songs in 1995.

Reception
Rolling Stone magazine in their Dec 15th, 1994 issue 697 gave Superelastic 4 out of 5 stars in a review by Parke Puterbaugh stating "It's abstract at times, animated by a barrage of dissimilar elements competing for your ear, suggesting a dynamic fusion of contradictions: ugliness and beauty, hope and despair, lassitude and resolve, momentum and inertia." The review ultimately celebrates Strohm's varied songwriting influences, dystopian lyrical tone, and inherent contradictions, drawing similarities between the bands loose yet heavy feel and the guitar sounds with that of an action painter's style but with the use of effect pedals and a songwriter looking to make sense of a chaotic world.

The band was featured in 1995 in VOLUME 13: The Lucky Issue' a CD based magazine released in the UK that featured exclusive tracks of diverse indie artists including Radiohead and Juliana Hatfield, whom Strohm played with in Blake Babies.

Videos & Management
A video for the single "Skin & Bones" was directed in 1995 by Tim Rutili from the band Red Red Meat / Califone. The band was managed from 1995 until they ended by Hellfire Enterprises Ltd, run by Scott Booker and most known for managing The Flaming Lips.

Post Velo-Deluxe Projects / Careers
Childers left the band after the initial European tour with Dodgy to head back to Bloomington and eventually joined The Mysteries of Life led by the husband-and-wife team of singer/guitarist Jake Smith and drummer Freda Love, both formerly of Antenna (although Freda would the band after the first record and appear on later records). Childers would later graduate from and work for Indiana University while putting out decades of his own material under the name Gentleman Caller. He was replaced for touring with the band by Vess Ruhtenberg, the former Antenna and Zero Boys guitarist. More UK and European tours followed with Drugstore (band), Del Amitri and Out Of My Hair.

Following some attempts at new demos, the band lost it's energy and decided to move on. Strohm and Harris formed an alt-country outfit called John P. Strohm and the Hello Strangers, and began playing with local musicians (El Nino's Glenn Hicks, area pedal-steel player Dennis Scoville and guitarist Steve Woods) taking on a huge shift to a more Gram Parsons influenced sound. They released one album called Caldonia on Flat Earth Records

After this Strohm moved south eventually attending law school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, while Harris enrolled in New York University Tisch School of the Arts and moved to Manhattan where he worked in sound and editing for independent films for several years. Strohm would emerge as a highly successful entertainment lawyer (Alabama Shakes, Bon Iver, The Civil Wars, Sturgill Simpson...) and eventually moved into the role as President of Rounder Records in Nashville, Tennessee. He continues to release material under his own name and occasionally make new music and tour with his earliest band, Blake Babies.

Meanwhile, Mitch Harris became a practitioner and professor of Traditional East Asian Medicine after time spent studying in California and China. He moved back to Indiana and continued to release music, both as a drummer and producer of his own music (The Ditty Mu, Bustin Mustin) and on other projects including working with legendary lo-fi songwriter Jorma Whittaker from Marmoset (band) and releasing Jorma and Movie Bare's Lollipop Gold on the boutique record label St. Ives via their parent company Secretly Canadian and being reunited with former Velo-Deluxe bassist to drum and eventually co-produce a record (Wake) with Kenny Childers in his band Gentleman Caller. Harris currently lives in Chicago where he runs acupuncture and herbal clinics and self releases experimental rock projects such as ZiPS with Yuri Alexander, Boom Baat with Alexander and Mitch's brother Matthew Harris (The Chosen Few, band Indiana) and produced The Streets on Fire's record This Is Fancy.

Childers co-wrote with Indianapolis native sisters Lily & Madeleine on their first and second albums on Asthmatic Kitty and continues releasing his own material and balancing other songwriting projects. Vess Ruhtenberg, while not being part of the original and thus early and only sound of the band went on to continue his own projects including The United States Three, The Pieces, Action Strauss and play with The Mysteries of Life, The Lemonheads and other musical bands and projects as guitarist, engineer or producer including reuniting again with Mitch Harris on the album Lollipop Gold.

Studio albums

 * Superelastic - Mammoth Records US, 1994 / Dedicated Records UK, 1994/ Mushroom Records Australia, 1995


 * Skin & Bones (7", Single w/ B-side, 45 RPM) - Mammoth Records US, 1994 / 2 versions


 * Superelastic (7", Single w/ B-side, 45 RPM) - Mammoth Records US, 1994


 * The Ballad of Lobster Boy (7", Single w/ B-side, 45 RPM) - Dedicated Records UK, 1995

EPs & Compilations

 * Vello-Deluxe EP / UK - Mammoth Records US / Dedicated Records UK, 1995 / 3 versions


 * "Volume (magazine) #13: The Lucky Issue" / UK, 1995

Videos

 * Skin & Bones - Tim Rutili, 1995

Management

 * Hellfire Enterprises Ltd Oklahoma City, 1995-1997