The Booda Velvets Biography
With a blend of lush distorted guitars, melodic vocals, and layered soundscapes, The Booda Velvets craft songs that are passionate and intelligent. Their music explores dynamics ranging from intense and visceral to dreamy and serene, with an undercurrent of pop sensibility that occasionally rises to the surface.
The Booda Velvets are known for delivering emotionally-charged performances that explore a diverse musical spectrum. "Our collective influences are all over the place, from folk and early punk to new wave and hip hop," explains lead singer Dan Cromie. "So our songs end up painting a broad musical spectrum. It lets us take our audience with us on more of an emotional journey than just going to see a rock show." Drawing upon varied roots, The Booda Velvets’ collaborative songwriting has evolved to create a unique sound that combines strong melodies, evocative lyrics, captivating guitars and solid grooves.
The Booda Velvets continue to create a buzz while touring throughout the Northeast. They took the NXNE Festival in Toronto by storm when they played to a packed house, garnered critical success and were touted as "the best act of this year’s festival" by Chart Magazine. The band also performed at the Philadelphia Music Conference 2000 and their songs were featured on the conference’s CD compilation and website. In addition, they have showcased at the 1999 and 1998 CMJ Music Marathons, and were selected from among hundreds of bands as the winner of the 1998 Guinness Fleadh Band Search. With their single "Cassius Clay", The Booda Velvets were the focus of an Artist Spotlight on MP3.com, the industry’s premier website for mp3 files.
Lead singer Dan Cromie, bassist Jamie Balling and drummer Jonathan Yang originally met at school in Philadelphia. Shortly after moving to New York City, they found guitarist Adam Wolfe Lerner through a bizarre ad in the Village Voice. Ever since, The Booda Velvets have been playing electric and acoustic shows throughout the East Coast, including such notable NYC venues as The Mercury Lounge, Arlene Grocery and The Knitting Factory. Their self-titled EP, co-produced and engineered by Doug Henderson (Firewater, Cop Shoot Cop, Orange 9MM), recently sold out at local NYC record stores, adding further evidence to their rising popularity.