History / Bio of Artist

Velocity Girl came together around 1989 at the University of Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. The original lineup included guitarists Archie Moore and Brian Nelson — both also of Black Tambourine — along with drummer Jim Spellman and bassist Kelly Riles. Singer Sarah Shannon joined in 1991 and became the face of the group going forward. Shannon was actually a trained opera singer, which you can hear in the range she brings to these songs. The band named themselves after a Primal Scream B-side, which tells you everything you need to know about their taste level.

They were one of the first non-Pacific Northwest bands to sign with Sub Pop — legend has it the contract was signed on the hood of a car in Hoboken, New Jersey. Their 1993 debut, Copacetic, reportedly became the second best-selling album in Sub Pop’s catalog at the time, behind only Nirvana’s Bleach. By the time they got to ¡Simpatico!, they had a real label budget, a proper outside producer, and a much clearer sense of the record they wanted to make.

“John Porter cut every repeated bar, cleaned up the guitars, and pushed Sarah Shannon’s voice to the front. The band was not happy about it at first. Then they heard the playback.”

Album Description / Why It’s a Classic

After the noisy, shoegazey Copacetic, the band wanted to pull back on the distortion and trust the songs more. They were listening to a lot of New Order at the time — less My Bloody Valentine. Producer John Porter, who had worked with The Smiths and Roxy Music, pushed them hard: cutting repeated sections, tightening arrangements, and essentially forcing them to stop hiding behind the guitars. The result is one of the cleanest, most enjoyable indie pop records of the ’90s.

Sarah Shannon’s voice sits right up front this time, and it makes a real difference. Guitarist Archie Moore adds harmonies on several tracks, which gives the whole thing a fuller sound without feeling overproduced. I always liked this album because its sharp hooks really stick with you without losing what made them interesting. The album was a risk with its cleaner sound and focus but those qualities also give it a modern energy that works today after more than 30 years. That is a hard thing to pull off.

The new remastered and expanded edition just came out last Friday on Sub Pop, adds eight bonus tracks recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA shortly after the original sessions wrapped — B-sides, covers, and a compilation track that round out the picture of where the band was at that moment.

Singles

“Sorry Again” was the lead single and it is still the song most people know. It kicks off the album with a guitar line that grabs you immediately and does not let go. Shannon sounds completely in command and the hook is airtight. “I Can’t Stop Smiling” also got a push — Spike Jonze directed the video for it — and both tracks got steady college radio play throughout 1994.

Neither song has aged badly. If anything, they sound better now than they probably did at the time, when everyone was trying to slot the band into comparisons with Lush or My Bloody Valentine. This record made the case that they were something a little different.

Deep Cuts

These are the ones fans of the record come back to once the singles stop being enough.

Artists With Similar Fire

If ¡Simpatico! clicks for you, these are worth your time.

Start with Alvvays’ Antisocialites — same knack for a guitar hook wrapped around a melody you can’t shake. And if you want to go back to where a lot of this came from, Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque is required listening.

The band signed their Sub Pop contract on the hood of a car in Hoboken, New Jersey while on tour. Their song “My Forgotten Favorite” later landed on the Clueless soundtrack in 1995, putting them in front of a much bigger audience than most Sub Pop bands ever reached. And “Sorry Again” ended up in a Volkswagen commercial — not bad for a group that scrawled their name on a car hood to make things official.

What Has the Band Been Up To?

After their third album, Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts, came out in 1996, the band broke up mostly due to regular life — members getting married, relocating, needing steady paychecks. They played a one-off reunion show in 2002 and went quiet again for another two decades. Singer Sarah Shannon is based in Seattle now and fronts a children’s music group. The rest of the band mostly stayed in the D.C. area.

In 2023 they got back together for a handful of shows, which by all accounts went over really well. That led to Sub Pop reissuing Copacetic in 2024 as UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded), with reunion shows in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. that fall. Now ¡Simpatico! is getting the same treatment and honestly it is the more exciting of the two reissues.

About the Reissue

¡Simpatico! (Remastered and Expanded) came out last Friday (February 13, 2026) on Sub Pop. The original 12 tracks were remastered by Golden and the album got updated artwork from Ed Fotheringham. The whole thing runs just under an hour — 20 tracks total — which means the bonus material is nearly as long as the album itself.

The eight bonus tracks were recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA shortly after the original sessions wrapped. They include B-sides from the “Sorry Again” EP (“Marzipan,” a drum machine version of “Labrador,” and “Diamond Jubilee”), a compilation track called “What You Left Behind (Reprise),” and two cover songs released as a single on Merge Records: a take on New Order’s “Your Silent Face” and a Beach Boys cover of “You’re So Good to Me.” There is also one more unreleased track rounding out the set. The covers in particular are worth the price of admission on their own — the New Order one especially sounds like it could have been on the main album.

For vinyl buyers, Sub Pop pressed a limited Loser edition in North America on opaque jade blue and opaque violet vinyl. The UK and EU version comes on petrol and magenta vinyl.

There is no word yet on new material, but between the two reissues, the reunion shows, and what sounds like a genuinely active band, it does not feel like they are done. The catalog is in good hands and it is great to have these records back in print and sounding this clean.