ON DECK
Velvet Underground overloaded. Todd Haynes’ new documentary The Velvet Underground is well worth watching, even if it falls off after John Cale leaves the band, giving only scant attention to the band’s remarkable, self-titled third album and then trickling away with the last one. But watching it got me to go back and dig out a couple of VU/Lou Reed tribute albums that came out earlier this year, relistening and thinking about the greatest short-lived band in rock history. An often repeated quote from Brian Eno suggests that not many people bought the debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico but that everyone who did started a band. What the quip doesn’t cover is that none of those bands were better. That kind of sun and junk and beauty and depravity and noise and poetry don’t shine every day. Their four studio albums continue to fascinate and inspire more than 50 years later and heartfelt tributes show you can’t beat the Velvets at their own game. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground (released in September on Verve, who put out the first two Velvets records) reconstructs that first album in covers varying from bold to reverent. Standout tracks include St. Vincent’s robot lounge take on “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” Andrew Bird’s dark folk “Venus in Furs” and Iggy Pop screeching through “European Son” with a suitably noisy backing track provided by Chavez, Skunk, Zwan guitarist Matt Sweeney. Way back in March, the British label Ace Records issued What Goes On: The Songs of Lou Reed, collecting past covers of Velvets and early Reed songs. Among the album’s 20 tracks are Cowboy Junkies’ much loved 1988 take on “Sweet Jane” and Detroit’s 1971 more-cowbell mix of “Rock’n’Roll” with Mitch Ryder singing, but the uncovered gems are the best of the bunch: June Tabor and the Oysterband’s dramatic 1990 recording of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and a 2011 soulful rendition of Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” by the French reggae group the Dynamics. Iggy appears again, this time reading a poem by Reed in a track taken from his 2019 album Free, and, for good measure, Nico’s wonderful “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” from her album Chelsea Girl, with Reed and Velvet Sterling Morrison on guitars. Nico’s solo debut includes four other tracks written by Velvets members and features Cale playing on three of them and is a better Velvet Underground sideshow than any tribute album, but in any event, the love seeps through.
A little Dap’ll do ya. Brooklyn’s Daptone Records brings its old-school operations all the way home with The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE! at the Apollo. The organization that brought us the powerhouse and much missed singer Sharon Jones works like an old school hit machine with an in-house band, production team and studio, resulting in an immediately identifiable Dap-sound. In December, 2014, they staged a classic revue with 10 acts over three nights on the sanctified stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater. To mark the organization’s 20th anniversary, Daptone has put out the best of those sets on a triple LP, double CD or download, and it’s a start-to-finish joy. Jones, who lost a prolonged battle with cancer in 2016 at the age of 60, occupies about a quarter of the playtime, with nine impassioned tracks (including veritable hits “Get Up and Get Out” and “Making Up and Breaking Up”) and joins in on an all-star cover of Sly Stone’s “Family Affair.” There’s also a half dozen songs by another lost voice, the heart-wrenching balladeer Charles Bradley (who departed in 2017 at 68), a killer set of soul spirituals by Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens and a long jam in two parts by New York’s premier Afropop outfit Antibalas. The whole thing is streaming on Bandcamp and Daptone has uploaded close to an hour of live footage from the concerts on YouTube so there’s no reason not to indulge.
ON STAGE
The sad news of drummer Dee Pop’s death on October 9 seemed all the more bitter as his Bush Tetras were set for celebration. A retrospective set (3 LP’s, 2 CD’s and download) had just been announced from Wharf Cat Records (you need the download to get their blistering cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Run, Run, Run,” which should have been on both of the Velvets tribute albums above) and a record release party was booked for Nov. 13 at le Poisson Rouge. The show will go on with the painter and semi-retired drummer Don Christensen (Contortions, Raybeats) behind the kit. The night will no doubt be a spirited memorial for their founding drummer and their four decades of post-punk grooves.
After almost a dozen years of quiet (save for a 7” last year), the announcement that the Fiery Furnaces would be playing the Pitchfork Festival was no small surprise. They posted three instrumental tracks to Bandcamp in advance of the show only to take them down again for whatever reason within a few days. There’s no second guessing those furnaces. They were always an unpredictable live act, even when they played regularly, so what they might do for their NYC return is anyone’s guess. They’ll be at Brooklyn Steel in East Williamsburg on Nov. 13.
London’s Dry Cleaning is finally making it to the States to support the icy funk of their debut New Long Leg, which came out in the spring but seems like years ago already. They’ll be at Market Hotel in Bushwick on Nov. 19 and 20, but both shows are sold out already so keep a hopeful eye out for added dates.
