It's Those Velvetones Again!

The Velvetones are back and in a country mood!

Barrelin' Down the Highway with the Velvetones

Who else is feeling cooped up at home and needing a road trip? You may not want this one, but here it is, anyway! :D

Mysterious Rum: A Boozy Music Video

Our new music video, "Mysterious Rum," is now online! I can't believe it! This has been about a year in the making. Most of our music videos don't take quite that long but, due to the beach location, the fact that we had to contend with winter after our initial recording session, and the need to re-record a section of the song, it was a drawn-out process.

I remember sitting in Washington Square Park in NYC last July, writing the first draft of the lyrics on my phone. From that day to our first recording session was over three months, filled with writing and arranging. We got the song recorded then, boom, it was the holiday season, then winter. No beach shooting for us. Actually, at that point we didn't even know where we'd shoot. It wasn't until May that we learned our wonderful friends, Alissa and Toby, had beach access and were only a couple of hours away. They opened their home to us and, thanks to them and Chris - another fabulous friend - we had access to a boat and some other amazing props. We couldn't have done it without them, along with our composer, arranger and musicians. Teamwork makes the dream work and we had a dream team for this one. Now, on to the next one!

7:30ish in the morning. We'd already been at it for a while!

Toby makes sure we're actually in the shot.

Recording at Benny's Wash 'n Dry in Brooklyn.

Coming Tomorrow: Our New Music Video!

It's taken many months longer than we originally anticipated, but our next music video is scheduled to go live on YouTube tomorrow morning! Our past music videos were ambitious, but this is our most ambitious to date and I'm dying to see the finished product, which Paul is still editing.

In making past videos we've worked with a recording engineer/arranger and composers. This time we had a composer (we write the lyrics to these little masterpieces ourselves), an arranger, musicians and a recording engineer. There were lots of moving parts and I learned a ton, which I plan to put to good use, as we want to do two more music videos this year. Well, I want to do one every week, but they're expensive to produce! We're aiming for mid-summer for our next one - wish us luck!

In the vocal booth

The view from the vocal booth. Paul looks emphatic about something!

The fabulous Dennis in a scene shot at Lun Wah Restaurant and Tiki Bar

Get Ready: Glendora Is Due For A Comeback!

We're hard at work on our next music video and the star of this one will be none other than Glendora! She's been laying low as of late, but she has a lot to say and it can only be expressed through music. Look for it by mid-March! She's ready for her closeup!

Catching Up

I'm so pleased that our first music video of the year is online! This was the culmination of about four months of work and we're very proud of it. Paul did an amazing job with the editing, Ricky Ritzel wrote a tune I love and Rick Jensen was our arranger and recording engineer. I can't thank them enough, along with Nell Mellon and Otto's Shrunken Head for our bar location shots, Kurt Peterson for his support and rehearsal space, and Cindy Rolenc for hand modeling, since there is only so much editing can accomplish! If you haven't seen it, click here!

Cocktailing Cousins

If you click the above link to watch the video, you'll notice it takes you to Dailymotion and not YouTube. We've recently begun posting our episodes there, along with YouTube and Facebook, and I have to say they've been WAY more supportive than YouTube has ever been! They're wonderful about retweeting and the music video was even posted on MSN because of them! It has over 2000 views on Dailymotion and under 100 on YouTube. You don't need a math degree to figure that one out!

Tomorrow we're shooting our Cinco de Mayo episode, which will go online Tres de Mayo, but that's not the point. We're thrilled to be working with Sangre de Vida and using their tequilas and mezcal and will have two cocktails in this one! 

Sangre de Vida tequilas and mezcal (center)

The costume shop is open!

Finally, I'll be posting more cocktails created in honor of our AIDS Walk New York sponsors later this week. We've been busy creating (and of course drinking) them - just haven't gotten around to posting them yet!

See you soon!

Our Music Video Is Coming Together!

It typically takes us a week or so to pull together an episode of the show. I'll write it early in the week, test recipes and shoot the food mid-week, then we'll shoot several on a weekend day and Paul edits on Sunday. A music video takes a lot longer, but I'm pleased to report our next musical offering is on track to go online by the end of the month! The song was recorded earlier this month, we'd already shot some video at home, and yesterday we shot some of the sequences at Otto's Shrunken Head, in NYC! We're so grateful to them for their support of the show and their hospitality! Here's a small taste of what you can expect:

Lights, camera!

Director Paul "tests" drinks.

Guess who?

A tiki bar is so convenient for "apres shooting" celebrating!

We have more work to do, but it was a great day! We need to get a few more shots, then Paul can don his editor's cap and pull it all together!

Recording Session

We recorded the song for our next musical episode today! The weather was crappy, the trains were late and slow ..it could have felt as though everything was working against us, but I'm pleased to say it went well! I'm really proud of this song. It's the second one on which I've co-written lyrics and I may be biased, but I think it's a lot of fun. You can judge for yourself in a few weeks! 

Now we have to actually shoot the video!

Recording session!

 

Coming Soon: Our Next Music Video!

I'm on my way into NYC to get the song arranged for the next Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en music video! This is the second song on which I've (co)written lyrics (though most of these are mine 😏) and I'm so excited for this one! Our friend, the incredibly talented Ricky Ritzel, wrote the music and I'm dying to see what our arranger comes up with! We have a lot to do, but I'm determined to have it online by the end of April - stay tuned!