The Vandelles 'self-titled EP' album

Born out of two New York bands merging their distorted sounds, The Vandelles’ self-titled EP bubbles with equal parts sweetness and sheer terror. The Vandelles’ smooth whisper-heavy vocals over a tangle of surf guitar and explosive rhythms. While the quartet can't escape obvious comparisons to The Jesus and Mary Chain and Danish duo The Ravonettes, they put a truly American-noir rock spin on things with the comforting simplicity of The Ramones and The Ronettes. For a proper introduction to this boy/girl zombie beach party, listen to “Lovely Weather,” a standout track that will have you dancing in the dark. Well, maybe the pitch black.

biography
Thanks to their ripping guitar lines- and even finer harmonies - The Vandelles define the distaff side of the Noir Rock sound. Their biggest hits, including "Lovely Weather" and "Swell to Heaven", remain among the most potent and enduring recordings of their era. Formed as a merger of two local vocal groups, The Mercenary Gang and Del Black Aloha, The Vandelles take aspects of Link Wray and The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Ronettes and My Bloody Valentine, Buddy Holly and The Ramones, to create a sound that's uniquely theirs.

While crooning softly in the background, they take old school rock and roll your parents used to listen to and run it through screaming, blown out amplifiers. Having played shows from austin tx to nyc The Vandelles have developed an infamous live show that is an audio and visual assault. Garage cats, cowboy beat poetry, and the Wall of Sound. This is Noir Rock and Roll.

who is who?
Jason Schwartz: guitar, instruments, vox.
Dave Herbert: guitar, instruments, drum machine.
Suzanne Pagliorola: drums, percussion, drum machine.
Lisha Nadkarni: bass, instruments, vox.

press quotes
Lostmusic
February 2007
"It's difficult to gauge them on just a few tracks, but it seems to me that although they've a sound which runs retro to their influences, and quite convincingly so, there's a bit more to it than that. While we get surf rock laced with noise on the surface, upbeat on the surface "turn me on and over and over again/when i get up on this vinyl vixen/shell twist and shell turn/till she gets me down again", sonically it (almost) always seems to have a dark outlook engulfing it."
Tom K, U.K.

SoundProof Magazine
"This modest-looking four-piece can unleash such hypnotic ferocity - pounding drumming assaults, whirlwind guitar distortion and ethereal vocals that rival bands such as Singapore Sling and The Raveonettes. I felt like I was getting a glimpse of a tripped-out shoe gazer band from the early '90s - Creation Records footage coming to life in front of me."

NYC.com Music Guide
January 2007
"If David Lynch were to go on a summer holiday road trip through Texas, this would be the soundtrack to his little jaunt. Dirty, dark and corrupted - Noir Rock doesn't come much better. Think Jesus and Mary Chain meets Jon Spencer meets 60's Garage rock. "

Billboard Magazine
August 2006
"Acts like the Vandelles keep one foot in pre-psychedelic surf rock while remaining true to the shoegazer movement of the 1990s."
Rachel Surwit, N.Y.

CMJ
Rabecca Raber calls the vandelles a "noir garage rock quartet that blends girl-group harmonies, vintage '50s rock 'n' roll and layers of fuzzed out distortion"
www.cmj.com

fluxblog
"I was thoroughly zoned out when I saw the Vandelles play a Beg Yr Pardon show at the Delancey on Tuesday night, but that may have been the ideal state of mind for their extremely loud but exceptionally tuneful set of arty nihilistic surf rock. They played without any stage lighting; illuminated only by diagonally projected loops of surf films and computerized psychedelic swirls of color that lent their performance both a touch of ironic humor and a bit of menace." Matthew Perpetua

Ear Farm
"I had a few preconceived notions, given that their name sounds like a band out of the '60s and that the music played before they took the stage was, well, mostly '60s dance music. So did they sound like a band from the '60s? Only in terms of wet reverb and vibrato, which is to say they certainly take cues from '60s surf rock (which was reinforced by footage of surfing being projected behind the band as they played). The Vandelles are more than that though. They don't sound strictly surf-revivalist like, say, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet but rather take things upward and outward along the lines of Man or Astroman? mixed with Happy Mondays."

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The Vandelles - self-titled EP