new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Hmmmm. The Velvet Underground formed in 1964, wore a lot of black and a lot of paisley, played weird folk songs about heroin, hooked up with Andy Warhol, who made them record an album with a weird, tuneless, compelling starlet named Nico, and the rest was rock n' roll legend.

The Velvets' core was Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen "Mo" Tucker. Teamed with Nico, who sang on a few of the songs, the band released their debut The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1966. The album is full of little epics of disturbance, decadence and destruction. If you're not seriously moved the first time you hear "Heroin," you have no soul. Nico's doom-laden voice hovers like a vampire over "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Femme Fatale" and the whole masterpiece affects a tone and noise the likes of which we rarely hear these days. It's a contender for the best rock album ever.

After that auspicious beginning, the band continued plowing a trail of unanimous critical praises which never translated into sales, releasing two further albums, White Light/White Heat and The Velvet Underground before John Cale left the band in 1969. He was replaced by Doug Yule as the group continued constant live performances. Tucker also left the band, to have a baby. Reed, Morrison, Yule and session drummers recorded the Loaded album in 1970 and then Reed split. Yule's brother brother Billy came on as the permanent drummer, and eventually Morrison left. Finally, a Velvet Underground existed which never had any of its original members, releasing 1973's Squeeze and disbanding.

Loaded didn't win the band any new fans; in fact when it was released in 1970, it failed to match even the meager chart placings of their earlier albums. The album has aspirations of commerciality, with straightforward, honest songwriting, but it is dense and strange and demands a lot of patience, with payoffs like "Sweet Jane," "Rock and Roll" and "I Found a Reason." Rhino's sumptuous reissue, apart from a very detailed set of liner notes, includes the full, unedited versions of the songs, a second disc with alternate mixes and demos of the same ten songs, with a further thirteen demos, unreleased songs and outtakes spread across the two discs.

Outside of the band, Cale and Nico worked together from time to time throughout the 1970s while Reed had the most success. Reed and Cale reunited in 1989 after Andy Warhol's death to record the Songs for Drella album. Sterling Morrison apparently continued session work, though not for any chart acts, while Tucker, much to the shock and dismay of the music industry, dropped out of the business and was working for Wal-Mart in a desk job in rural Georgia before she decided to record again. (There's no dismay in Georgia, where we've been pleased to host her and receive her locally-produced product on Lakeshore Drive Records; she's a godmother to indie.)

The original four Velvets decided to reunite in 1993 for a few concerts in Paris compiled on the Live MCMXCIII album. The CD is incredibly listenable, despite a set list which veers madly like a rollercoaster from upbeat pop into the nasty numbers like "Black Angel's Death Song" and "Heroin." The "Velvet Nursery Rhyme" is ridiculously perfect, and every inch of the stupidly jaunty "The Gift" is as oddly compelling as ever.

The band split after the shows, leaving behind documentaries and a box set and the satisfaction that they didn't sully their weird, inspirational cult legend with their new work. Sterling Morrison died in 1995, in all likelihood sealing the band's legacy. (3/02)

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: The Best of the Velvet Underground (Words and Music of Lou Reed) (1989, ***)
A good sampler or introduction to what this band was all about, with a good essay in the liner notes and 15 original songs that have been covered by dozens of artists through the years.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico): Bataclan (Paris, 1/29/72)
Definitely track this down! While not technically a Velvets' album (none of the three were actually in the band when it was recorded), it's a 13-song set where Lou sings five songs, Nico five (including her recent, and magically pained "Abscheid" and "Janitor of Lunacy") and John three. They're followed by two tracks from an afternoon rehearsal and two tracks of Lou live in London later that summer. Very good quality transfer, although Lou's mic tends to waver from time to time.