Velvet Chain is a bi-coastal alternative rock band whose sound features a mixture of

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, and pop, with a jazz/funk flavor. (The band has sometimes been known to refer to their work as "space-jazz" or "moody groove music" - which is also the title of one of their albums.) ''Velvet Chain'' was formed in 1993 by Jeff Stacy (legal name “Jeffrey Calamusa”) (formerly of “Heat Your Shack” and “

Tunnelmental Tunnelmental, originally titled "Tunnelmen" and later alternatively known as "Tunnelmental Experimental Assembly" (T.E.A.), are an English " Punktronica" music band originating from Swindon, U.K. and now based in Los Angeles, U.S. Formed in 19 ...

”) and Erika Amato, the creative core of the band. They found mainstream attention after they appeared on an episode of

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, ("Never Kill A Boy On The First Date") and later had a song included in the show's

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

. Their music has also been used on other TV shows, including HBO's

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City (newspaper column), newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the ...

, MTV's

Road Rules ''Road Rules'' is an MTV reality show that was a sister show of the network's flagship reality show, '' The Real World''. The series debuted on July 19, 1995, and ended on May 9, 2007. This allowed ''Road Rules'' a total of 14 seasons and 12 yea ...

, CBS's

Beverly Hills, 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to by its short title, ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling under his production company Spelling Television. The series ran fo ...

and ABC's Big Shots. The band last played live in 2007. Core founding members Jeff Stacy (Jeffrey Calamusa) and Erika Amato were working on a new album before Jeff's untimely death in August 2020. Erika is continuing to work on the album and plans to release it at a later date.

Discography

*Groovy Side (1996), out of print *Warm (CD-5) (September, 1997), out of print *Warm (full length) (December, 1997) *Frenchie Vinyl (1998), out of print *The Buffy EP (1999) *Moody Groove Music (2000) *Velvet Chain Live at the Temple Bar (2000) *The Velvet Chain Custom Album (2001), this album allows the buyer to pick the tracks, artwork and title of the album. There are also several preset choices available. *Asteroid Belt (2003) *Space Patrol (EP) (2004)

Members

Current members * Erika Amato - lead

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

s Former members *Jeff Stacy -

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low b ...

*Brian Reardon -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Marc Antonio -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

*Dan Wistrom - guitar *Brett Chassen -

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s *Jeff Mince - drums and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

*Tom Calzini - guitar *Sarah Josephs - keyboards *Craig Van Sant - drums *Jay Stolmack - woodwinds Additional musicians *A large number of collaborators have also been involved with the various albums. See specific albums articles for more details.

References

External links

The NEW Official Velvet Chain WebsiteDefunct Velvet Chain WebsiteVelvet Chain facebook page
{{Authority control Trip hop groups Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 1993