The Verve Pipe Celebrating ‘Villains’ 30th Anniversary

Back in 1996, The Verve Pipe were moving into their home on radio and MTV with their excellent album, ‘Villains’.  RCA, their record company, was plucking songs off the album for adoption and several babies found new homes. 

“Spoonful of Sugar” was somewhat known, a single from their second album, ‘Pop Smear’ in 1993, but once ‘Villains’ appeared, The Verve Pipe would rock out the rest of the decade gaining new fans with every release.  The band have been performing songs from the album in their current live tour and have celebrated with several social media posts and even a newly-made Victrola created by Stuck on Decoupage.  The limited edition autographed turntable was made available for purchase back in March.  Now the band have announced via Patreon that they are releasing a new vinyl anniversary version of the album.

The lead single, “Photograph” vaulted up the Modern Rock chart to #6 and had some play on mainstream pop radio where it reached #53.  The potential was high with their songwriting strong enough to go beyond the alt. rock world.  Then came the grunge song “Cup of Tea”, which had very strong vocals and a dramatic hard rock arrangement – that hit #35 on the Mainstream Rock chart.  Then the biggie hit the big time – “The Freshmen”, the delicate and emotional post-grunge classic that crossed over to pop radio hitting #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock chart. 

The Verve Pipe secured their place in post-grunge and 1990s alt. rock history with “The Freshmen”, a song that loosely was related to an abortion had by Brian Vander Ark’s girlfriend years earlier.  The momentum continued with a fourth single, “Villains” which reached #22 on the Modern Rock chart and #24 on Mainstream Rock.  The album was still selling well deep into 1997, finished #69 for best-selling albums of any genre in the U.S., and eventually went platinum.