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Schizotypic · 07-15-2009, 01:15 PM

The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967)

This is for all of you people out here who have not heard this album. Think of my album review like a childrens book, yeah you could chuckle, but if you listen I'll get your ass from point A to B.

I'd like you to meet Lou Reed.

One thing you should know about Lou is that he's been around the block. Like he has really been around the block. As a teenager he struggled with homosexual feelings, resulting in mental institutions and treatment of electroconvulsive therapy. Here: YouTube - Lou Reed Kill Your Sons He also dipped his hands into heroin addiction and S&M sex. Luckily for us, he was playing around with rhythm, blues, country, etc before he was even in high school- so we end up enjoying things like this: YouTube - Lou Reed - White Light / White Heat from Rock n Roll Animal Why yes, he does kick fucking ass.

This is John Cale.

John, like Lou, can play. Here's them together live, really old, performing Smalltown from their 1990 album Songs For Drella: YouTube - Reed & Cale DRELLA 1: Smalltown/open house/style it takes The important thing about Cale is that he picked up the viola at a very early age and went on to do classical, noise, and a technique he took from minimalism called drone. "drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built"

My friends, I give you Andy Warhol:

He was a very artistic man, here's a link to some of his most popular work: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...print-1968.jpg Um... well, he did pop-art. Coco-cola and stuff. If you didn't know that already, that picture was probably ironic, but wait, it gets worse.
----------------------------------------------------

So here we are and it's 1963. Andy is an up and coming artist, doing pop-art paintings of controversial this and that. Lou just moved to New York and was playing in garages until he got hired as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He and Cale get thrown together. Reed and Cale lived together on the Lower East Side, and two of Reed's college acquaintances Sterling Morrison (guitarist) and Maureen Tucker (drummer) are added to the group, they formed The Velvet Underground. Andy at the time was surrounding himself with underground artists and caught wind of them. He helped the band immeasurably as far as notoriety, and urged to add European former model Nico to the lineup. Of course they didn't really, thus the name:
----------------------------------------------------
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
If your not persuaded by this point to get this album I'm astonished, but I guess it can be hard to get. Let me tell a little bit about the actual album itself and what to look out for. Before I do, I'd like to officially state on Musicbanter (as long as it's been from the time I started this journal) this is still my favorite album in my life so far, and in my current opinion the best. Anyway, getting back on track, this is clearly one of the most influential albums of at least the past sixty years. Lou Reed's lyrics are that of an unbiased knife of raw truth, and with mighty balls, cutting into the bones of the untouched and unsafe subject matter of late 1960's. The music is filled to the point of spilling over with diversity. Sunday Morning, the first track on the album, is soft and comfortable, while the rest of the album is more raw. The music is as close to realism as you can get with the use of drone in songs like I'm Waiting For My Man or Heroin. Calmer songs make you feel like your being hit by a cold breeze in the freezing ocean. Your calm and tranquil, but at the same time it's bracing, this includes I'll Be Your Mirror or All Tomorrows Parties. There's also a notable use of beautifully done discordance meshed into raw noise and peaking into chaos in songs like European Son or The Black Angel's Death Song. The album never really hit commercial success but is on Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums Of All Time as number 13, as it's influences branch off from noise rock, rawness, and drone- I'd be listing things for another half hour if I were to sit down and find all the different ways music went branching off those three. In conclusion, If you have never heard it, and you want to- PM me asap.

One of the best albums around, get this MB.
With honesty and desire to share, MB's Schizotypic.

6/5

Ration: 1/5

07-15-2009, 01:15 PM	#3 (permalink)
Schizotypic Souls of Sound Sailors Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Mojave Posts: 759	The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967) This is for all of you people out here who have not heard this album. Think of my album review like a childrens book, yeah you could chuckle, but if you listen I'll get your ass from point A to B. I'd like you to meet Lou Reed. One thing you should know about Lou is that he's been around the block. Like he has really been around the block. As a teenager he struggled with homosexual feelings, resulting in mental institutions and treatment of electroconvulsive therapy. Here: YouTube - Lou Reed Kill Your Sons He also dipped his hands into heroin addiction and S&M sex. Luckily for us, he was playing around with rhythm, blues, country, etc before he was even in high school- so we end up enjoying things like this: YouTube - Lou Reed - White Light / White Heat from Rock n Roll Animal Why yes, he does kick fucking ass. This is John Cale. John, like Lou, can play. Here's them together live, really old, performing Smalltown from their 1990 album Songs For Drella: YouTube - Reed & Cale DRELLA 1: Smalltown/open house/style it takes The important thing about Cale is that he picked up the viola at a very early age and went on to do classical, noise, and a technique he took from minimalism called drone. "drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built" My friends, I give you Andy Warhol: He was a very artistic man, here's a link to some of his most popular work: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...print-1968.jpg Um... well, he did pop-art. Coco-cola and stuff. If you didn't know that already, that picture was probably ironic, but wait, it gets worse. ---------------------------------------------------- So here we are and it's 1963. Andy is an up and coming artist, doing pop-art paintings of controversial this and that. Lou just moved to New York and was playing in garages until he got hired as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He and Cale get thrown together. Reed and Cale lived together on the Lower East Side, and two of Reed's college acquaintances Sterling Morrison (guitarist) and Maureen Tucker (drummer) are added to the group, they formed The Velvet Underground. Andy at the time was surrounding himself with underground artists and caught wind of them. He helped the band immeasurably as far as notoriety, and urged to add European former model Nico to the lineup. Of course they didn't really, thus the name: ---------------------------------------------------- The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) If your not persuaded by this point to get this album I'm astonished, but I guess it can be hard to get. Let me tell a little bit about the actual album itself and what to look out for. Before I do, I'd like to officially state on Musicbanter (as long as it's been from the time I started this journal) this is still my favorite album in my life so far, and in my current opinion the best. Anyway, getting back on track, this is clearly one of the most influential albums of at least the past sixty years. Lou Reed's lyrics are that of an unbiased knife of raw truth, and with mighty balls, cutting into the bones of the untouched and unsafe subject matter of late 1960's. The music is filled to the point of spilling over with diversity. Sunday Morning, the first track on the album, is soft and comfortable, while the rest of the album is more raw. The music is as close to realism as you can get with the use of drone in songs like I'm Waiting For My Man or Heroin. Calmer songs make you feel like your being hit by a cold breeze in the freezing ocean. Your calm and tranquil, but at the same time it's bracing, this includes I'll Be Your Mirror or All Tomorrows Parties. There's also a notable use of beautifully done discordance meshed into raw noise and peaking into chaos in songs like European Son or The Black Angel's Death Song. The album never really hit commercial success but is on Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums Of All Time as number 13, as it's influences branch off from noise rock, rawness, and drone- I'd be listing things for another half hour if I were to sit down and find all the different ways music went branching off those three. In conclusion, If you have never heard it, and you want to- PM me asap. One of the best albums around, get this MB. With honesty and desire to share, MB's Schizotypic. 6/5 Ration: 1/5 Last edited by Schizotypic; 08-23-2009 at 01:45 PM.