V. Genevieve (Acoustic)

General information

Full-length, self released
June 18th, 2005

Much rumoured acoustic version of Genevieve, it doesn’t exist, although a small fragment of “Laudanum” was released online by Josh to keep the mystery alive. Bizarrely, an extremely negative review of this release, written in Italian, appeared on a webzine called Amnesia circa 2005/6.

Here’s what Josh said about it in the Elskrin Interview:

It wasn’t recorded June 18th, it was handed out then. It was recorded a while back at another show which we performed under a different moniker (since we had become so fed up with the Velvet Cacoon name). The show it was recorded at was from December 2004. It was pretty humorous actually. The owners of a gothic-themed wine bar asked us to do an acoustic set one night. We agreed, but only under the condition that our “rider” was fulfilled. The rider insisted that the back dressing room be plenished with rare assorted fruits (persian limes, rum cherries, river grapes), hibiscus tea flowers, five boxes of liquorice flavored Altoid mints, a hammer & 20 copper nails, spiced tofu and two bottles of Black Opal wine. We figured they would’ve realized it was a joke but when we showed up and went in the back to tune up we saw all that stuff sitting out, even the hammer and nails. That’s something I won’t soon forget. It’s easily the best recording we’ve done.

This is the rider that josh was talking about:

• assorted fruit bowl (pomegranites, strawberries, rum cherries, mango, river grapes, persian limes)
• vegetarian deli tray with spiced tofu
• vegan pot noodles
• tea (chamomile/hibiscus flower) - caffeine free
• 6 bottles perrier
• 2 bottles jagermeister
• 2 bottles black opal chiraz
• 12 bottles fat tire beer
• 2 lb. block of bakers chocolate with pinot grigio
• 2 cans engine cleaner
• 3 empty mason jars
• 1 bottle listerine
• 1 bottle lemon juice
• 4 bottles zicam nite
• 12 bottles delsym
• 1 box ziplock bags
• 1 hammer
• 20 copper nails
• 1 thermometer

In 2006 Josh shared a sample of Laudanum (subtitle “Sunday”):

No, the v.Genevieve stuff is very clean and pristine, for example:

All the songs have clean sung vocals, it’s very natural and rich sounding. Also, as you’ll notice in the above clip, lots of the songs have alternate parts that don’t appear on the FMP version. The above clip isn’t from the album, as it was recorded on a Gretsch that cost more than most peoples cars(!) and not an acoustic, but its basically the same thing.

The band Procer Veneficus did an acoustic cover of P.S. Nautical: