The Velvet Underground Pictures

New Music Report: Cornershop

Rolling Stone contributing editor Christian Hoard’s “Christian Rock” new music pick this week is Cornershop’s Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast. The band — one of the great alt-rock bands of the ’90s — is led by Anglo-Indian frontman Tjinder Singh and mixes drones, Velvet Underground-style guitars, sitar, bits of electronica and dub. The new disc leans more toward classic rock, which here serves as an inspiration and a loose theme (there are Rolling Stones riffs, soul divas and lyrics about the B

Published: 2010-03-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: New Music Report, Podcasts, Videos

Watch Found Footage of Suicide, The Ramones at Max’s Kansas City

Along with CBGB, Max’s Kansas City was one of the most famed venues of New York City’s 1970s punk era. The nightclub on Park Avenue South featured performances by the Velvet Underground, the Ramones and Iggy Pop and served as a home away from home for Andy Warhol and his circle of artists and musicians. First opened in 1965, Max’s was also the site of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Aerosmith’s first New York City shows, and after closing in ‘74 and reopening in 1975 as Max’s II, the

Published: 2010-03-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Videos

John Cale Shoots Down Velvet Underground Reunion

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Pavement, Faith No More, Public Image Ltd., the Specials and Soundgarden are just a handful of artists returning to the stage after a long hiatus, but John Cale insists the Velvet Underground haven’t caught reunion fever — or at least, he hasn’t. Cale told BBC 6 Music that despite offers to play some major music festivals, he has no interest in reforming the iconic New York group with his former bandmates. “It’s not something that I can see happening on the basi

Published: 2010-03-01 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Reunions, Rock News

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs: Live at Rolling Stone

When power-power guru Matthew Sweet teamed up with the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs for a covers record in 2006, the pair tackled songs from the Sixties and Seventies — like the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” and Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” The two returned this summer with a sequel, Under the Covers, Vol. 2, which boasts bright, bouncy takes on the Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia” and Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes.” The pair popped by the RS studios recently to show o

Published: 2009-10-02 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Live at Rolling Stone, Podcasts, Videos

SEE THEM, FEEL THEM

Even Lou Reed cracked a smile at Joes Pub last week. The cozy Astor Place venue nearly exploded when legendary rockers Pete Townshend and Reed played Velvet Underground songs - the first time the two have ever performed together. Reed, on the...

Published: 2007-02-25 Provider: New York Post Keywords: Townshend, Fuller, show, music, Attic, Joe, Mascis, Pub, Reed, great, live, songs, always, case, play, music

Fricke’s Picks: Classic Oz Rock

Issued in 1986 — at the twin zeniths of the first psychedelic revival and Australia’s post-punk underground — and just reissued in a deluxe two-CD set, Free Dirt (Aztec Music), by the Sydney band Died Pretty, is a classic debut album on both counts. “Just Skin,” “Next to Nothing” and “Through Another Door” are built on late-Sixties templates — the frantic-Bach dynamics of the Doors; the scouring drone of the Velvet Underground; singer Ron Peno’s high, clear belting, like an operatic Iggy Pop — reinvigorated with a jagged modernism and brash, beckoning hooks. Free Dirt was the Died Pretty’s first full-length release after three singles and an EP, and this set wisely brings them all together, including the 10-minute “Mirror Blues,” an obvious homage to the Velvets’ throb epic “Sister Ray” and one of the few equal to the task.

Published: 2009-02-26 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Fricke's Picks

Readers’ Rock List: Final Albums

Last week, saddened by the sudden breakup of Be Your Own Pet, we asked our readers to tell us their favorite final albums. After counting the votes, the Beatles‘ Abbey Road — released before but recorded after Let It Be — was the runaway winner, edging swan song albums by Hendrix, Nirvana and many more. And while Velvet Underground’s Loaded and the Doors‘ L.A. Woman both made the top 10, we had to disqualify them as neither is technically a last album (Both Squeeze and Full Circle sadly count.) For the list of your favorite 15, check below: 1. The Beatles - Abbey Road 2. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland 3. Nirvana - In Utero 4. Sublime - Sublime 5. Nick Drake - Pink Moon 6. Joy Division - Closer 7. Soundgarden - Down on the Upside 8. The Police - Synchronicity 9. Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne 10. Pantera - Reinventing the Steel 11. Tupac Shakur - The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory 12. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Uprising 13. The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come 14. Jeff Buckley - Grace 15. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Published: 2008-08-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists

Fricke’s Picks: Black Angels

Even by the nonstop-rock standards of 2008’s SXSW festival, it was weird to see a band that seems to live on ultraviolet light, out in broad daylight, making rippling-tremolo drone on the lawn of a downtown Austin restaurant. But local tripsters the Black Angels bring the aura of mid-1966 — the drilling guitars of early Velvet Underground shows, the raga inflections of late-show Fillmore jams, the acid-prayer stomp of Austin avatars the 13th Floor Elevators — everywhere they go, including the levitations on their second album, Directions to See a Ghost (Light in the Attic). Mid-Eighties echoes of Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain also roll through the scoured-guitar sustain and Alex Maas’ rocker-monk incantations. But he knows what time it is. “You say the Beatles stopped the war,” Maas sings in “Never/Ever.” “They might’ve helped to find a cure/But it’s still not over.” Even so, this medicine works wonders.

Published: 2008-04-23 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Fricke's Picks

Fricke’s Picks: The Garden of Forking Paths

String Theories The Garden of Forking Paths (Important) is a record of converging passions: an overview of the post-John Fahey improvising-folk renaissance through newly commissioned solo pieces for stringed instruments — acoustic guitar, lute, cello and Japanese koto. “The Broken Hourglass,” by the British guitarist James Blackshaw, the album’s curator, shows why he is a rising star himself. His twelve-string arpeggios tumble through cavelike echo with railroad-train force and balletlike finesse. Cellist Helena Espvall’s “Home of Shadows and Whirlwinds” skids from atonal groans to hovering modal runs like John Cale’s viola minus the rest of the Velvet Underground. In “The Mirror of Eternal Light,” the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs. Koto player Chieko Mori’s opening and closing pieces are also duets — Mori playing with her virtual twin. But the effect is pure, private prayer.

Published: 2008-03-13 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Fricke's Picks

Lou Reed Named Keynote Speaker of SXSW

The South by Southwest Music Conference has convinced Lou Reed to be its keynote speaker this year. The former Velvet Underground

Published: 2007-12-20 Provider: Artist Direct

The Fifteen Greatest Box Sets

This weekend, Rock Daily celebrated the box set — that glossy ultimate mixtape that brightens up any coffee table but can lighten your wallet by the ton. We pooled your nominations with ours and came up with a list of the fifteen best worth your buck: 1. Star Time, James Brown 2. Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection, Ray Charles 3. Anthology of American Folk Music, Various Artists 4. Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, Various Artists 5. Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music, Various Artists 6. The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991, Bob Dylan 7. One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found, Various Artists 8. The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983, Johnny Cash 9. Arkology, Lee “Scratch” Perry 10. No Thanks! The ’70s Punk Rebellion, Various Artists 11. Crossroads, Eric Clapton 12. Back to Mono, Phil Spector 13. Peel Slowly and See, Velvet Underground 14. Live/1975-85, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 15. The Funk Box, Various Artists Photo: Furlong/Getty

Published: 2007-08-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists

Readers’ Rock List: Solo Albums

Last week, inspired by Thom Yorke and Atoms for Peace’s performance of The Eraser in New York, we asked for a rundown of your favorite solo albums by artists known for their work in bands. After nearly 100 votes, many from Pearl Jam fans, Eddie Vedder’s Into the Wild soundtrack beat out Yorke and solo LPs from members of the Beatles, the Strokes and the Velvet Underground. We can think of some pretty major ones left off the list — Iggy Pop’s The Idiot stands out as one glaring oversight — so be

Published: 2010-04-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock Lists