This one is a CD that lives in the other car I often drive, (the one without the Sleep CD), and man, what a great record. In my little piece on The Index last month I made the comment that the music they were making on their self titled debut probably didn't have a very large or loyal audience at the time; regardless of the fact that WL/WH reached a considerably larger audience upon release during the same time period and has now become considered a legit 'classic' (even in the eyes of the worst, most played out 'music' publication of all time), the mutant weirdness the VU was blasting on this platter was even less accessible, substantially so in fact. I would guess that even a lot of folks that consider themselves VU fans can't handle this monster. This is the record I always think of when bands like the Strokes get compared to the VU, or claim them as an influence. I immediately wonder if they've even heard this record...Just imagine what would happen if the Strokes released a record containing even a tenth of the insanity on this album; people would fucking lose it, and no one would get it.
Though I do enjoy the Velvet Underground and Nico, as well as Lou Reed's first few solo records, I'm not a fan of much of anything the VU did after this (no John Cale? no thanks), and if it weren't for this record I really don't think I would care nearly as much about this band as I do. This is seriously about as out there as 'rock' music gets even still today, it's every single inch covered by obscenely noisy distortion and feedback, gloriously crude lyrics, and enough weirdness to outdo the rest of the band's entire studio recorded output; and the fucking thing came out over forty years ago. Beyond genius. Perfect
If you haven't heard this album, you absolutely must do so as soon as humanly possible, though I'm not including a link for this one since you can find it just about anywhere that sells music, other than maybe Wal-Mart (which is fine because you shouldn't be buying music there anyway).
No comments:
Post a Comment