Black Velvet Flag

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]

Reception[]

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 — not that either assessment will keep Black Velvet Flag from the next century's thrift store bargain bins."^[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]

Discography[]

• Come Recline (Go-Kart, 1995)
• Go-Kart vs. the Corporate Giant; Volume #1 (Go-Kart, 1996)

References[]