Michelle, The Lapelles balance youth, talent and success

There’s one impressive aspect about Minneapolis’ Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and one downright scary one. Firstly, it’s exceptionally impressive that the band was able to pen, record and self-release their debut record “Orange Peels and Rattlesnakes” in under half a year after their formation. Second, and this is the scary part, the band admits they’ve vastly outgrown the representation of themselves on said record. O.K., perhaps that’s not “The Evil Dead” scary, but it is certainly commendable and rare, especially considering that Lucy and her Lapelles sound extraordinary on “Orange Peels.”

The Lapelles are currently riding the wave of adoration and attention that is the result of being picked as the Twin Cities best new band by City Pages. Armed with ukuleles, accordions, cellos, guitars, basses and drums, they’ve cultivated a lush, energetic sound. Let’s call it “post-folk Appalachian string rock.”

While all six members of the band are accomplished musicians in their own rights, the real weapon is Michelle’s voice. A high-register but driving rifle of a voice, it summons Regina Spektor but boasts a more soulful swagger. Together, she and the Lapelles meld seamlessly to form a sound that’s almost too promising to be true.

A&E had the opportunity to chat with the band prior to their Nov. 21 show at The Cedar Cultural Center. There was tea, a wandering infant-child that belonged to the drummer and much discussion on the most pressing of topics — vomit.

How has being voted the best new band in City Page’s “Picked to Click” competition changed things for the band?

Michelle: We’ve gotten more people at our shows.

Schuster: It helped us get more radio play.

Michelle: More so than before, but they were just playing us on “The Local Show” before. Now they’ve played us on regular air time.

Lucy, I read you have some pretty notable stage fright. How’s that been since the shows are getting bigger?

Michelle: It’s gotten a lot better.

Is the stream of vomit on the illustration inside your CD indicative of it?

Michelle: Am I puking on the CD illustration?

There’s a stream of something coming from your mouth.

Mclain: It might just be melody. Or vomit. Or both. Melodious vomit.

Michelle: When we recorded the Radio K thing, I held back vomit. That was pretty bad. But yeah, it’s not too bad anymore.

Now that it’s been out for a while, in retrospect, how do you guys feel about the record [“Orange Peels and Rattlesnakes”]?

Graham: We’d only been playing three or four months when we recorded it. We just really needed to put something down. We’ve varied on every single song. We’ve sped every one up; we’ve slowed every one down. We’re moving beyond the album.

Schuster: It sounds like a band that needs to grow into itself more. And that’s exactly what we were at the time. I still love listening to it from time to time because it reminds me of that moment.

Michelle: We’ve come so far since then. It’s a nice moment, but we’ve gotten so much better. And when people buy the record, and come see us play, they’re like, “It’s so much better to see them live!” Not that the record’s bad; what’s great is you can listen to the album and say, “I like these guys.” But then come see us live and be like “I REALLY like these guys.”

Being a bigger band, do you guys mesh well when you collaborate on songs? Or do certain members tend to pull the sound in certain directions?

Boman: I think we’re all open enough to listen to the ideas other people want to bring up. I think we’ll try ’em all and, depending on what everyone is satisfied with, we’ll go with that. But there’s never an extreme butting of heads.

If you had my job, how would you guys describe your sounds?

Michelle: One guy called us something like “folk-gypsy-jazz mountain-pop.”

Boman: I always liked “Victrola punk.”

Honing very rooted, traditional music, how do you guys manage to make it so relevant?

Michelle: It’s not a conscious thing. I think [it’s] the fact we’re all in our 20s but listened to all this older music. We’re taking where we are now and melding them with our influences from past music.

Freeman: We might play something that sounds like gypsy or Latin, but we always try and keep a more contemporary feel that you can dance to. We all love to dance. You can kick something up a notch by putting a beat to it.

Mclain: Basically, we drop it like it’s hot. [Laughs]

Your first record was self-released; do you guys have any desire to sign with a local label?

Graham: We’re gonna try and take the music as far as we can, and we’re gonna do it as best we can without signing anything. If it gets to the point where we need it, then we’ll do it. I don’t think we need it now. We’re doing great.

What do you guys want for the future of the band?

Michelle: We just need to continue doing what we’re doing. Writing new tunes and going to cool places. Make people feel good. Playing more shows in front of more people.

In keeping with A&E interview tradition, what is the band’s favorite beer?

[Spawns much conversation]

Graham: Surly Bender, Two Hearted Ale and anything home-brewed.