B-Side Guys

Time capsules emerge in unexpected forms. For Athenian experimentalists The Velvoids, a poem written by frontman Vice Lesley during 2020’s initial pandemic isolation has transformed into “Don’t Die Young,” a haunting transmission from that suspended moment when mortality seemed simultaneously distant and immediate.

The track, co-produced by Tom Biller (whose credits include work with Jon Brion, Beck, and Elliott Smith), serves as preview for the band’s forthcoming album ‘JERSEY COTTON’ (due April 25th on vinyl and digital platforms). What distinguishes this offering is how it preserves the intimate claustrophobia of its creation while expanding its emotional dimensions through careful sonic architecture.

With only a fragment of lyrics revealed—”Babies grow from a mother’s lip/When they don’t they’re seeking one another/Sister and brother in choking white phantasm”—the track creates immediate surrealist imagery that captures pandemic-era disorientation. The opening line subverts natural order, suggesting both the power of maternal utterance and the unnatural isolation that separated families during lockdown. The “choking white phantasm” evokes both clinical sterility and ghostly absence, imagery that resonates differently in 2025 than it would have in its 2020 origin moment.

For a band that has existed at the fringes of Greek rock since 2003, “Don’t Die Young” feels like both continuation and departure. The Velvoids have cultivated a deliberately obscure presence despite sharing stages with luminaries from Marky Ramone to Black Lips and collaborating with Television’s Richard Lloyd. This strategic elusiveness (including releases never issued in digital format) allows the band to maintain artistic independence while developing a cult following that values discovery over accessibility.

What emerges on “Don’t Die Young” is a sound that honors psychedelic traditions while avoiding their more indulgent tendencies. The lo-fi production approach preserves the home-recording intimacy without sacrificing emotional impact, creating productive tension between the track’s expansive thematic concerns and its contained creation circumstances.

For a band from Athens—a city whose ancient ruins serve as constant reminder of civilization’s impermanence—exploring mortality during global pandemic feels almost inevitable. Yet The Velvoids approach this theme without melodrama, instead creating a dreamlike space where existential questions float rather than land with definitive weight.

As preview for ‘JERSEY COTTON,’ “Don’t Die Young” suggests an album that transforms isolation artifacts into communal experience—precisely the alchemical process that defines the most resonant pandemic-era art.