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Breaking: Comedian Tom Scharpling Is At A Stabucks With Lou Reed
There are few things more surreal than when you’re sitting at a coffee shop, scrolling through the cute animal stories on your Google Reader, and an actual, real, live celebrity wanders in and plops down across from you. It’s like, “Whoa, wait, aren’t you supposed to be at home being fed individual espresso beans by your beautiful teenage lady servant? What are you doing at Starbucks, of all places?” More »
First Song Off Lou Reed/Metallica Collaboration Album Is As Terrible As We Feared
Oh, Loutallica. Why must you do this to us? More »
A Discussion of Lou Reeds Bizarre New Collaboration with Metallica
The strangest news item I read today involves a new collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica. It seems the former Velvet Underground frontman has teamed up with Lars Ulrich and the gang to record an album of songs based on writings by the German playwright Frank Wedekind. Yikes! You can read the whole item here.
Once again, I tapped the Gchat account of the brilliant Kasey Anderson for a discussion of Lou and Lars. More »
10 Subversive Rock Songs Used In Commercials To Sell Stuff
Remember the Lou Reed/Susan Boyle controversy-that-wasn’t-really-a-controversy? In brief, Susan wasn’t allowed to sing Lou’s song “Perfect Day” on America’s Got Talent and everyone thought it was because Lou wasn’t a fan of the reality show performer. But it turns out Lou maybe didn’t have a problem with Susan tackling his song after all, and he even ended up directing the music video for her cover of the tune.
Well, the aging punker totally never had a leg to stand on. As anyone who has seen HP’s most recent commercial now knows, Lou is totally lame! The ad, which is sort of a general survey of their products, features a version of Lou’s transsexual-and-hustler-themed 1972 classic “Walk on the Wild Side” with insanely uncool lyrics that reference HP’s products. Ridiculous, right? Pretty much. Check out our video gallery of nine other subversive tunes that were misappropriated by the advertising powers that be. More »
Video: Why Did Lou Reed Direct Susan Boyle’s “Perfect Day” Cover?
Wait, what? Lou Reed directed a music video for Susan Boyle? Is this a move so subversive we don’t even realize it’s subversive? Months after he was accused (perhaps incorrectly) of banning Susan from singing “Perfect Day” on America’s Got Talent, Lou stepped in to direct her music video for his 1972 song — and it’s mostly just shots of Susan hanging out in scenic areas of Scotland. We’re all aware this song’s about hardcore drug addiction, right? More »
CMJ Show Report: Dean and Britta’s 13 Most Beautiful Songs For Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
A few years back, the Andy Warhol Museum commissioned indie rock supercouple Dean and Britta to compose an album’s worth of recordings to play under Warhol’s famous screen tests. The 50th performance of the show coincided with CMJ, and for me it was the highlight of the festival.
If you haven’t seen Warhol’s screen tests, they’re a series of black and white videos that the pop artist shot obsessively for three years, capturing just about every “interesting” person who came through his studio doors. He’d stick his subject in front of a camera and leave him to fidget, stare or do whatever else one does when alone with a recording device (become the next Justin Bieber?). They videos are normally silent, so Dean and Britta’s accompaniment was less an intrusion than a way to hone in on and enhance each character’s mood. More »
Gallery: Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade Lets Freak Flag Fly
The Coney Island Mermaid Parade might be one of the few last vestiges of “old” New York’s theatricality. Which is to say, every year it’s okay to dress up like a drag queen fish, hang out with the Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed (pictured above, with life-partner and performance artist Laurie Anderson), or go tromping around the boardwalk covering up just enough body parts to not get arrested. It’s one of the more colorful traditions in the city, and this year… More »
Devo Holds Cat Listening Party
Usually listening parties are exclusive affairs for a select few of devoted fans. But Devo, in all their weird 80s brilliance, decided to livestream their VIP listening party of their new album, where the only guests are a bunch of cats. Yes, this is perhaps the most amazing thing you’ll see all week. The cats don’t even seem to give a crap about the music, and in that way they are much like hipsters.
This sort of reminds us of… More »
My Boyfriend Wears Guyliner — And I Think It’s Hot
The night I met my now-boyfriend — that’s him, to the left — I was pretty drunk. So drunk, in fact, that the next day I had to ask my friend what he looked like. Was he cute? “Yeah,” she said, “and he was wearing makeup! He looked cool.”
Uh, makeup?
“Yeah, he was wearing eyeliner!”
I was relieved that I hadn’t gone home with a Kiss fan or a Juggalo—just a dude who wears eyeliner. And you know what? I like it!
“Guyliner,”… More »
Velvet Undergound Semi-Reunion
Image: Newscom
According to Billboard, members of the seminal Andy Warhol-sponsored band the Velvet Underground are making a rare public appearance at the New York Public Library. Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker, and Doug Yule (who replaced John Cale in 1968) will be at the library on December 8 in support of a new book: The Velvet Underground: New York Art, “a new compendium of previously unseen photographs, poster and cover designs by Andy Warhol, Lou Reed’s handwritten music and lyrics, underground… More »
WNYC’s Greene Space
New York’s favorite public radio station WNYC is opening an amazing new street level performance space, The Greene Space, in Hudson Square. To celebrate, they’re having a 10-day festival that kicks off on April 28. Special guests include Lou Reed, Santigold, ETHEL, Ira Glass, and more.
THE GREENE SPACE invites audiences to experience a range of presentations and productions – from live radio shows with WNYC hosts to exclusive commissioned works by emerging and established visual artists, writers and composers; from… More »
Deerhunter Played LPR
There was a lot going on at (le) Poisson Rouge, including the likes of Laurie Anderson. The evening began with Icelandic artists Olof Arnalds and Skuli Sverrisson perform their albums Vid og Vid and Seria start to finish, with surprise appearnces by Laurie Anderson, Amedeo Pace, Eyvind Kang, Nico Muhly, Anthony Burr, and Peter Scherer. The music was lovely and a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire” was simply beautiful.
After that whole thing, Deerhunter performed a late show at 11 p.m…. More »
Lou Reed and John Zorn
Legends Lou Reed (of Velvet Underground) and John Zorn will be playing at the very small (le) Poisson Rouge on September 2. $75 tickets are on sale now…. More »
Lou Reed Playing at Highline
Lou Reed inaugurated the Highline Ballroom a year ago and now he is returning to play their one year anniversary on May. Tickets are $85 and are on presale now and regular sale now. (I don’t really get the difference…?)… More »
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation today announces the artists who will induct this year’s honorees at a ceremony on March 10, 2008, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City:
Leonard Cohen will be inducted by Lou Reed
The Dave Clark Five (Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley, Denis Payton and Mike Smith) will be inducted by Tom Hanks
Madonna will be inducted by Justin Timberlake
John Mellencamp will be inducted by Billy Joel
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff will be inducted… More »
SXSW Keynote Speaker: Lou Reed
Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at South by Southwest in Austin, TX (March 12-16, 2008). According to SXSW:
The South By Southwest Music Conference and Film Festival are pleased to announce that Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker for 2008. Reed’s keynote will be held in conjunction with a screening of Julian Schnabel’s film “Lou Reed’s ‘Berlin,’” which documents a recent performance of the landmark 1973 album…Reed will speak at the Austin Convention Center on… More »