Raleigh, North Carolina pioneering shoegazers The Veldt have shared their new single “The Everlasting Gobstopper“, alongside and accompanying video.
Recorded and produced by Robin Guthrie in 1989, the track is the debut single from the album ‘Illuminated 1989,’ to be released on September 01 via 5BC.
Formed in North Carolina in the 1980s, The Veldt surrounds identical twins DANIEL CHAVIS (vocals, guitar) and DANNY CHAVIS (guitar). Influenced by Cocteau Twins as readily as Marvin Gaye and free-jazz warriors Sun Ra and Pharaoh Sanders. Referencing European post-punk while embracing modern hip-hop, these trailblazers work with transient dreamscapes as fluidly as solid song structures. Their sound would inspire future generations of alternative artists, including TV On the Radio.
Now The Veldt is releasing the single digitally and as a 12” vinyl single via Disc Drive and their own imprint 5BC Records with the B-side being ‘Joshuu Lullaby’, a previously unreleased vinyl exclusive, produced by Robin Guthrie in 2023.
Commentin on the track, Daniel Chavis says:
As the benchmark of the new sound we had started to develop, ‘The Everlasting Gobstopper’ was a throwback to our younger days of our family getting together on holidays when Willy Wonka will be playing and the certain atmosphere would be filled with a sense of love and security. Upon reminiscing about this, my brother Danny came up with a riff and then called it the everlasting gobstopper as a lullaby to put his daughter (then maybe one year old) to go to sleep. Thus was born this sound that would develop into what we have right now.
This is significant – the birth of the sound that we have come to develop until present, because back then we were quite a different band. Robin pretty much shaved off all the excess and led us toward the sound we have now, so ‘The Everlasting Gobstopper’ is the cornerstone that Robin helped us to lay for our own unique sound, which we still have to this day.
The video for ‘The Everlasting Gobstopper’ was produced by Jammi York and Danny Chavis’ late wife Yuko Sueta.
Get the track here and watch the video below.
Tour Dates With Dead Leaf Echo
05/6 COLUMBUS, OH @ Cafe Bourbon St.
05/8 CHICAGO, IL @ Montrose Saloon
05/9 NASHVILLE, TN @ The Eigth Room
05/10 INDIANAPOLIS, IN @ Healer
05/11 ST. LOUIS, MO @ Evangeline’s Bistro & Music House
05/12 MEMPHIS, TN @ Hi Tone
05/13 FAYETTEVILLE, AR @ Nomads Trailside
05/14 ARLINGTON, TX @ GROWL
05/15 AUSTIN, TX @ Chess Club (with Bloody Knives)
05/16 NEW ORLEANS, LA @ Gasa Gasa
05/17 BIRMINGHAM, AL @ The Nick
05/18 ATHENS, GA @ Flicker Bar
05/19 WINSTON-SALEM, NC @ Monstercade
05/20 RALEIGH, NC @ The Pour House Music Hall
05/21 WASHINGTON, DC @ The Pocket
05/22 PHILADELPHIA, PA @ Ukie Club
05/24 NEW YORK, NY @ The Broadway
Photo by Teresa Moore
