vee device
Rock meets opera and works of a Soviet writer
www.nextnc.comIt’s not everyday an accordion, mandolin and violin join together with guitars, drums and bass. Add to that a strong voice and powerful sound portrayed with deep passion, and you get northern Colorado’s vee device.
With a style all its own, vee device presents the first installment of its three-part rock opera entitled “Love Will Tear Us To Shreds: Act I — And Quiet Flows The Dawn.”
When meeting vee and &roid, half of vee device, they seem like they’re just simple guys who happen to come up with crazy ideas. They describe their style as “post-modern pop” or “folk-infused chamber pop, with elements of classical.”
The idea for this album: a Russian rock opera based on Isaac Babel, a Soviet journalist, playwright, and short story writer who lived from 1894 to 1940, came from vee’s mysterious brain.
“Two or three years ago, I read the works of Isaac Babel,” vee says, “and there’s actually a song on our first album (Out Of The Darkness) about him, so I just decided to do a rock opera album.”
“People in America don’t know about him or really about us,” &roid said. “And this is our third album!”
vee device, normally a four-person band, is joining forces with five other musicians to round out the opera sound. Water glasses are used to add tonal depth while psychedelic sounds and sudden transitions in rhythm keep the music interesting.
“We hope people appreciate the difficulty of putting together a rock opera,” vee says. “It’s an ambitious project.”
The Tanukis, “A guitar, a piano, percussion, two slavic runts, one Italian rapscallion and a farcical take on the darker part of life,” open the show with members from vee device joining in on a few songs.
NextNC -- Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By Rebecca LaPole