The Venus — a freaky, '60s-inspired psychedelic space-rock band from St. Petersburg — releases a long-awaited, debut full-length on Friday, and Venus frontman Alexander Charos finished the album just in time.
“I spent the last 48 hours glued to my laptop finalizing everything, and I’m completely drained,” he told CL on the Wednesday before the release show.
The road to the album started in 2016 when Charos was playing in four different, very collaborative projects. He really liked them, but also needed an outlet where he could have more creative control without having to have it attached to Alexander & the Grapes, his other band which has heavier personal subject matter in its material.
“It was nice to do something that was just about having fun,” Charos said of The Venus, which got a lot of its inspiration from old sci-fi movies and surf-guitar records.
“In my mind, the two complimented each other well, so I created a universe based on those two themes and the songs just kept coming.”
LIFT OFF
St. Pete space-rock band The Venus muscles up the Joe Meek sound on “Saturn Grind” — listen
Charos started recording with his brother Philip Charos on drums and suddenly ended up with more songs than he knew what to do with, so he eventually edited all of the tracks into one hour-long song meant to be listened to in one piece. Feedback from friends on that version was positive, and Charos made plans to re-record the entire thing before finally deciding that the demos were, indeed, the album.
“It felt right,” Charos said. “But since they were demos, I did not take a lot of care in getting good tones, and I was smashing the tape with every instrument.”
Everything was recorded quick and dirty just so Charos could listen back to ideas immediately, and that made mixing the record a nightmare so intimidating that it led him to avoid the album completely.
“It really tested my sanity as an engineer,” Charos, who runs Yoko Phono studio in St. Petersburg, added. “I would mix the album then be unhappy and mix it again, and again and again.”
The Venus is going on tour in November and is set to record an EP called Ancestor Simulator when it returns. Another full-length country album called Martian Prairie is in the works, but Charos is ready to share the LP that drove him nuts with CL readers.
“Eventually I had to just accept the record for what it is,” he said. “A beautiful fucking mess.”
Listen to that mess, see The Venus’ tour dates and get more information on the show with coldwave-electro outfit Ortrotasce, St. Petersburg electro-pop duo Blestian, and Nashville breakcore and noise act B|_ank t, below
The Venus Album Release w/Blestian/ Ortrostasce/B|_ank. Fri. Oct. 2, 8 p.m. $10. Paper Crane, 910B, 5th Ave. N., St. Petersburg. INFO.
The Venus 2018 Tour Dates
10/26 — St Petersburg, FL @ Paper Crane
11/07 — Athens, GA @ Flicker Bar
11/08 — Washington DC @ Slash Run
11/09 — Baltimore, MD @ Reverb
11/11 — Brooklyn, NY @ Muchmore’s
11/13 — Philadelphia, PA @ Pharmacy
11/14 — Asheville, NC @ Fleetwoods
11/15 — Savannah, GA @ El Rocko
Recorded in 2016 at Yoko Phono Recording, St Petersburg, FL by Alexander & Philip Charos.
Mixed in 2018 by Alexander Charos.
“All Your Gods” recorded and mixed by J. Mendicino.
Crew:
Alexander Charos – vocals, guitars, bass, bouzouki, keys, drums, percussion, drum machine, electronics,
Philip Charos – drums, percussion, keys, electronics
Ground crew:
Jason Charos: trumpet
Chase Swan: guitar on “Spacesick”
Andrew Pellegrino: drums on “Spacesick”
Written by Alexander Charos.
Album cover by Michael Miller.
This article appears in Oct 25 – Nov 1, 2018.
