venturing lore doc

From the SoundCloud bio:

Venturing was a band from Britton, South Dakota, active between 1990 and 2002. The band consisted of five members: Steve on the drums, Barney on the bass, Fawn and Daisy on the guitars, and Melanie, who sang. They were pretty big in the midwest in the mid-90s, and I think they even had a couple of hits! Although I'm unsure because I first heard of them when I found a signed T-shirt while digging around in my mom's room. I upload tracks as I get them since these are so hard to find. So if you have any venturing songs, please send them to me! I've put my email down below so you can contact me :)

Violet's e-mail: violet87016@hotmail.com

The timeline

  • 10 August 1990 - the band begins its existence
  • 1990 - "Demos for Me" is released
  • 23 June 1991 - "It Comes and Goes" is released
  • 1992 - concert in Springfield MO, 1992 (origin of Death of Pride recording)
  • 11 June 1995 - "Arizona EP" is released
  • likely between 1995 and early 2001 - "Just the Way I Imagined" is released
  • 02-26-2001 - Steve's death; also mentioned in the account URL.
  • 02-27-2001 - date of Brown County Gazette article
  • 04-08-2001 - date mentioned in the filename for "Daisy's at Work", presumably when it was recorded
  • 13/14 January 2002 - "Beachgoer" is released; venturing disbands
  • 14 January 2022(?) - Jane Remover replaces "Call my Phone" with "death of pride (venturing cover)".
  • 03-11-2022 - "Blind [demo 2001]" and "Death of Pride" are uploaded, marking the first uploads on the venturing account

The band

The full names of the band's members, alongide a mixing engineer, are listed in the description of the Arizona EP:

Credits:

Melanie Dizzy - vocals

Daisy Knight - guitars & synths

Barney Cruz - bass

Steve Dales - drums

This list is notably missing Fawn (maybe that's Vonnie?).

The two other names in the EP's description are:

Vonnie Fitz - guitars

Alexis Napalm - mixing & mastering

Releases

Demos for Me [10 August 1990]

  • Dropout Season [demo]
  • (605) 114-1010

It Comes and Goes [23 June 1991]

  • Aberdeen Dream Sequence
  • Death of Pride [Live in Springfield MO, 1992] (bonus track)
  • For Miles
  • No Control

Arizona EP [11 June 1995]

  • Stand Up Donor
  • Cream Soda
  • Vulture City
  • I Love My Friends

Only one we have a full track list to.

1 of 1 CD from 1995 given to me by my cousin Max. He said he had to travel back in time to get it - that the band took a month-long trip to southwest Arizona in between albums. Crazy to think right now I could be standing on the same ground that they stood on.

Just the Way I Imagined [late 90s-early 2001?]

Probably the second-to-last album released by venturing, they were on-tour for this album right before Steve's death according to the newspaper clipping. No other surviving information.

Beachgoer [14 January 2002]

NOTE: Tracks marked in bold are confirmed to be part of the album, all others are just assumed to be part of it based on the cover. Given that this is the cover for nearly every uploaded song, there's no confirmation of whether these are all from Beachgoer or not. (Now that the tracks all have upload dates, these are probably all from Beachgoer.)

  • Daisy’s at Work, I’ve Studied the Male Anatomy and Now Stephen Dales Is Dead (capitalization changed to sentence-case later; only track to have the date set to 13 January 2002, all the others have 14 January 2002 seems to have been fixed)
  • Beachgoer (I Fall in Love) - outro
  • Sweet / Dye
  • David Ortiz Pillbox
  • Yearn the Day Away
  • Blind [demo 2001] (later renamed to just "Blind (demo)")

Other songs

  • Sister (no date/album given)

Important events

Death of Steve

Stephen "Steve" Dales was the drummer of the band. He tragically passed away after a car accident. An image of the newspaper headline for Steve's death was linked alongside "Daisy's at Work", but the link is unfortunately dead (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTBhYLoWYAI34Ta?format=jpg&name=4096x4096).

About Violet

According to the soundcloud bio, the venturing account is run by Violet, who found out about venturing when she found a signed T-shirt for the band. Not much is known about her, but in the description of "Yearn the Day Away" she says this:

Sorry I was gone for a bit!! I recently picked up a job at the local Sprouts for some summer money. I haven't been able to be online as much as I'd like to, but just the other day I was sent this by one of you guys!! Here are the lyrics (Or what I think the lyrics are) -Violet

Notably, no further information about Violet or the tracks has been provided in the descriptions since then. (Some previous tracks had descriptions...)

Alongside the release of the Arizona EP, the profile was updated; this revealed two things:

  • In the description of the EP, Violet mentions a cousin - Max - who gave her the CD; she says "Crazy to think right now I could be standing on the same ground that they stood on.", suggesting that she is from Arizona.
  • Violet's initials are revealed to be V.Y.D.

About streaming service uploads

Regarding unofficial streaming service uploads: the initial response was "Those are unauthorized.", and later:

I emailed Daisy a while ago and she just got back to me! She's only okay with the high-quality versions being uploaded, and on my behalf. But those are so hard to find so please don't set your expectations too high. Eventually I'll find them all in the correct quality and all of their music will find a home on streaming services, but please be patient.

Notable info

  • Jane Remover played "Aberdeen Dream Sequence" during the Hypochondriac tour with Breakence: https://youtu.be/QXWaB3_-C50?t=266 
  • In response to being asked about the guitars that the band members played: "In an interview, I think Fawn said she had a Gibson Firebird, Daisy had a Stratocaster and I think Barney had a Fender bass. I don't fully remember, I'm still trying to find that interview somewhere, haha! But I hope this helps."

at some point in early 2024(?) "Daisy’s at work, I’ve studied the male anatomy and now Stephen Dales is dead" got renamed to make the title sentence-case. Also there are now release dates for various albums.

The Jane Remover-Venturing Continuity Theory

or, that section where we point out the similarities between Jane and venturing songs.

  • "Cage Girl" by Jane Remover features the lyric "I bite down, I bite hard"; the same lyric appears in "For Miles" by venturing.
  • A similar vocal ad lib can be heard in "Cream Soda" by venturing and "Lips" by Jane Remover.

Both of these songs will be on the upcoming Jane Remover album, "Census Designated". "Contingency Song" will also be on that album, so… TODO - see if there's a connection to be made there too?

2023-10-14: Jane tweeted: "She had scoliosis, a cream soda bottle, a revolver, a fucked up haircut & a dream" (emphasis mine)

2023-10-20: Census Designated is out: and holy shit, Backseat Girl has a cover of David Ortiz Pillbox! Also it has the line "The queen plays her cards right", referencing Death of Pride.