The Velvet Teen

The Velvet Teen is an Indie band from Northern California.

The Velvet Teen was founded by Judah Nagler and Logan Whitehurst as a side project from their other bands, Tin Circus and Little Tin Frog. Judah and Logan recorded the EP Comasynthesis, which had a more prominent electronic sound, in 2000. It featured Judah doing most instrumentation and singing alone; but Logan provided live drums for some tracks and sang the song "Penning the Penultimate" himself. In 2001, they were joined by bassist/vocalist Joshua Staples and recorded another EP, The Great Beast February, which had more of an alternative sound.

That year, they caught the eye of Slowdance Records owner, Ezra Caraeff, and were signed to the label. In 2002, they collaborated with Death Cab for Cutie's guitarist, Chris Walla, on their first full-length album Out of the Fierce Parade. Logan Whitehurst, who was also an accomplished artist, created the etchings used as the album's artwork. Two music videos from the album ("Radiapathy" and "The Prize Fighter") were featured on Subterranean, an MTV2 program.

Their second full-length album, Elysium, was recorded on a laptop by Judah and his brother Ephriam, and mixed at Kingsize Soundlabs in Los Angeles by Dave Trumfio and Mike Krassner. In stark contrast to their earlier work, the album does not feature any guitars at all. The album's core instrumentation is piano and string arrangements. The string and horn ensembles were arranged by Adam Theis.

In 2006, the band recorded and released their third album, Cum Laude!, with Judah as producer and his brother Ephriam Nagler as recording engineer. Cum Laude! had an odd, progressive sound that was more fast and lively than any of their previous work. They supported the album on Minus the Bear's 2006 tour.