Writing on "Velorio" and shows

Here are some choice samples from reviews of our album "Velorio," including links to the full reviews in case you would like to read them.   

"People who listen to music purely for entertainment, looking for the quick, tuneful ear candy fix, will certainly run screaming from Teething Veils. But for those who like to dissect every moment of an album, nearly trying to get inside the songwriter's head and see how they perceive the world, this is nothing short of fascinating."
-The Daily Vault

“This is not a playful album. Velorio’s 21 tracks move slowly, pulled downward by the weight of their melancholy. With stark and vivid detail, Teething Veils’ frontman Greg Svitil sings about staring at wounds as they slowly close and morphing into a bitter man, giving Velorio its heft—about 10,000 pounds of it.  Svitil and his conspirators perform the rustic, low-fidelity, and low-key tunes with a conviction that preserves a soft glow of intimacy.  His singing voice sounds a lot like talking, and it tends to manifest in gentle whispers or groggy sighs, like the sounds of a tearstained boozehound emerging from the fog of an unplanned nap...There are moments of peace, even joy, in these 21 songs, like in the weezing accordion melody on the jaunty “We Walked Through Leicester Square.” Teething Veils knows its way around a funeral procession, but the band can still make misery sound lovely.”
-Washington City Paper


Names like Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazelwood, and Scott Walker are hardly among the more common musical reference points in DC’s indie rock and underground music scenes, but those are exactly the artists that Teething Veils calls to mind on its ambitious debut album, Velorio.  Over the course of the album, Teething Veils’ singer/ songwriter Greg Svitil examines the shattered pieces of past relationships, tracing the hidden contours of heartbreak, memory, longing, and obsession through an unavoidably personal lens.
-The Vinyl District

“Velorio” is subdued, shrouded in sadness, and compellingly diverse. Accordion waltzes, cello, viola, piano, and organ complement (and many times dominate) Svitil’s guitar, his vocals but an instrument in the challenging soundcape, not buried in the mix but not overwhelming it, either...With all of the instrumentation available, it has plenty of room to open up like a bottle of bold red wine, releasing aromas and flavors to you as the sprawling 21-track album progresses...This isn’t your “indie” album, if by indie you mean genre. If you mean indie in its work ethic, you got it.”
-Mobtown Breakdown 

“Svitil and company have the space to spread their wings and do they ever. From accordion dance music to shorts bursts of metal to ’60s inspired pop and just about everything in between, the amount of textures explored here is as well done as it is shocking. Heavily on the maudlin side, Velorio is far from happy music, often detailing dissolved relationships, though much beauty is weaved amid the harrowing organs, aching violas and Svitil’s deep voice that speaks and sings.”
-Inforty

“An epic collection of melancholy, nasal-sung, off kilter pop bee stings. An by pop I mean metal, 60s organ weirdness, whatever it is Jad Fair does, chamber music, nightmare soundtracks, church dirges, contemporary classical, and Brian Wilson on downers music."
-Rocktober

DC Rock Live * October 31, 2011 (review of a live show that took place on october 30)
http://dcrocklive.blogspot.com/2011/10/fuxa-kuschty-rye-ergot-teething-veils.html

"This is a one-man show with vocals and electric guitar. It begins with a moderate tempo that induces a light psychedelic rock feel akin to Richard Buckner. Vocally, it's closer to psyche-folk mast Mark Fry. After a couple wobbles, this music settled nicely. The second cut was almost pure-psyche folk magic in the Mark Fry style once again (perhaps a little tougher). He did an excellent cover of the Ramones "Pet Sematary" and his original songs were easy to get involved with. This was a lovely set that flew by. When I fall into a trance like this, these 32 minutes feel more like 10."