VILLAGE GREEN
Village Green, 1991: John Morsen, Jeff Kelly (in hat), Trent Kelly. Brothers gonna work it out!
VILLAGE GREEN: Ocean-size Melodies from the Land of the Coastal Rain.
(Especially recommended for fans of RIDE, Crowded House, Split Enz, and The Chills.)
Village Green was at its heart and core, two brothers. (Yup, one of those bands). Jeff and Trent Kelly grew up in the same small room and shared a love for all types of music, as well as a dream of one day possibly entering that world as music makers. Fame and fortune were never the quest though, only a chance to be a part of the magic of creating and performing. The fact that they lacked any apparent musical abilities growing up in no way dampened their dreams.
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Hear VILLAGE GREEN on their Green Monkey BANDCAMP page:
greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/village-green
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You can also hear VILLAGE GREEN on SPOTIFY and APPLE MUSIC:
By the time the Kelly Brothers were in college, Punk rock had removed all their past inhibitions and, to a dangerous degree, also stoked all their ambitions: they actually thought they might be able to form a band. Once Trent’s first band, The ACCIDENT broke up, he began writing songs for the post-wave, early ‘80’s era. Once Jeff assured him these were ‘actually good’, that was all they needed to finally take the plunge. They named their group after a resort in Oregon where their family stayed on the way to visiting Disneyland in the mid-1960s. (The song ‘Tyee’ captures the feeling of growing up in America at the time.)
Trent and Jeff’s PANIK MECHANIKS at the Whatcom High School Talent Show, 1980.
If there is a common thread that runs through much of VILLAGE GREEN’S music, it was the dreamy and romantic recollections of childhood, featuring its unique qualities of innocence and longing. Never angry, cocky, or even whimsical, VILLAGE GREEN’S songs were always marked with a somber and searching sentiment. When the band was finally poised to show the world their choicest creations, Grunge hit the Northwest like a tsunami and their self-produced debut album was wiped off the musical landscape, like a tender weed emerging from the cracks of a busy thoroughfare.
Perhaps their timing was off, but that’s ok, because it never lessened their earnest resolve to make sound art through imagination, in an effort to aurally paint ‘the other’ for those who shared their curiosity. Nor should the passage of time lesson your enjoyment, as you still have plenty of opportunity to meet The Brothers Kelly at that place they created…Village Green.
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In loving memory of The NATIONAL HATS.