Podcasts about sister ray

The Alberta folk singer-songwriter Sister Ray is known for writing songs about heartbreak and sadness. But they decided to try something different with their new album “Believer”— their latest record is all about love and connection. Ella Coyes of Sister Ray tells Tom Power about how “freeing” it is to write about joy, how growing up around Métis art influenced their love of music, and why they think the embarrassing parts of being human is what connects us most. 

Ever slagged off a band only to later realise you were the idiot? Andrew and Dr Sam rip into their own bad takes this week as they revisit artists they once dismissed with sneering pride—only to sheepishly backpedal years later.Expect a gloriously messy mix of:Why Pharrell isn't just the Blurred Lines guy (but also maybe he is)Prolapse's majestic return and the punk power of peppercorn rentThe jaw-smashing genius of BackxwashYodelling and Hank Williams yanking open the doors of country for cynicsVelvet Underground's “Sister Ray” inspiring both confusion and adorationNoFX's The Decline being too good for the band that made itHar Mar Superstar getting misjudged by shirtless novelty vibesAnd the glory of metal mosh pits run like Strictly Come DancingOh, and there's some toilet trouble, musical misfires, and a shout-out to Hello Kitty Funland—one of the most exciting young metal bands we've seen in years (yes, really).It's punk, it's passionate, and it's a little bit unhinged. Just how we like it.### Riffs of the week#### Dr Sam's Riff- Backxwash - Wake Up (1min)#### Andrew's Riff- Prolapse - On the quarter days (2:55)### Dr Sam's track choices1. Pharrell Williams - Just A Cloud Away (opening)2. Hank Williams - I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive (opening)3. Hella - City Folk Sitting, Sitting (2.50)4. Dillinger Escape Plan - Jim Fear (opening)### Andrew's track choices1. Har Mar Superstar - How did I get through the days (2:26)2. Pink Floyd - Echos (18:22)3. NoFx- The Decline (0:05)4. The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray (15:58)Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.comHello Kitty Funland https://www.instagram.com/hkfl.band/

Introducing....The Lost Food of Soho, a new audio piece commissioned and published by Vittles and written, narrated and produced by me (Lucy Dearlove). This is just a very small taster, you can listen to the whole thing for free on Vittles itself, or on all good podcast platforms. https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/ With big thanks to Jonathan Nunn and Adam Coghlan who I worked closely with through the production of this piece, and to the other Vittles editors who provided crucial feedback. Cast Hilary Armstrong – writer, worked in Andrew Edmunds Marcus Harris – DJ/promoter Russell Davies – creator of eggbaconchipsandbeans Jeremy Lee – chef proprietor of Quo Vadis Christine Yau – former owner of Y Ming Darren Coffield – artist and author of Tales From The Colony Room: Soho's Lost Bohemia Iain Sinclair – author Polly – sex work and organiser with SWARM Megan Macedo – writer and former Sister Ray employee

Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot look back on the occasion of Sound Opinions reaching the 1000 episodes milestone. Both hosts share highlights and a couple lowlights, plus listeners share their favorite memories.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967Radiohead, "I Want None Of It (Live on Sound Opinions)," Unreleased, NA, 2008Carole King, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," Tapestry, Ode, 1971D'Angelo, "Send It On," Voodoo, Virgin, 2000Trupa Trupa, "Sister Ray," (Single), Glitterbeat, 2024Wire, "Used To ," Chairs Missing, Harvest, 1978Goat Girl, "Creep," Goat Girl, Rough Trade, 2018Allen Toussaint, "A New Orleans Thing (Live on Sound Opinions)," Songbook, Concord, 2013Boygenius, "20," The Record, Interscope, 2023Max Roach, "Driva Man," We Insist!, Candid, 1960The Allman Brothers Band, "Ramblin' Man," Brothers and Sisters, Capricorn, 1973See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Every year, host Greg Kot makes a mixtape of new songs to express his feelings about the past year. Greg shares a selection of that mix and the rest of the show staff look at other top singles of 2024. Plus, the hosts remember a few other musicians we lost in 2024.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:Chappell Roan, "Good Luck, Babe!," Good Luck, Babe! (Single), Island, 2024The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967King Crimson, "21st Century Schizoid Man," In the Court of the Crimson King, Island, 1969The Allman Brothers Band, "Ramblin' Man," Brothers and Sisters, Capricorn, 1973Slim Dunlap, "The Ballad of the Opening Band," The Old New Me, Medium Cool/Twin/Tone, 1993Marlena Shaw, "Woman of the Ghetto," The Spice of Life, Cadet, 1969Beyoncé, "16 CARRIAGES," Cowboy Carter, Parkwood and Columbia, 2024Sabrina Carpenter, "Espresso (Mark Ronson x FNZ Working Late Remix)," Espresso (Mark Ronson x FNZ Working Late Remix) (Single), Island, 2024Kabin Crew, "The Spark (feat. Lisdoonvarna Crew)," The Spark (feat. Lisdoonvarna Crew) (Single), Rubyworks, 2024Charli XCX, "Girl, so confusing featuring lorde," Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat (Single), Atlantic, 2024Geordie Greep, "Holy, Holy," The New Sound, Rough Trade, 2024Shaboozey, "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going, American Dogwood and Empire, 2024Wussy Duo, "Cellar Door," Cellar Door EP, Shake It!, 2024La Luz, "Strange World," News of the Universe, Sub Pop, 2024Trupa Trupa, "Sister Ray," Sister Ray (Single), Self-Released, 2024The Bug Club, "Lonsdale Slipons," On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System, Sub Pop, 2024Lambrini Girls, "God's Country," God's Country (Single), City Slang, 2024Tunde Adebimpe, "Magnetic," Magnetic (Single), Sub Pop, 2024The Unfit, "Who's in Charge," Disconnected EP, Share It Music, 2024The Jesus Lizard, "Hide & Seek," Rack, Ipecac, 2024Shellac, "Chick New Wave," To All Trains, Touch And Go, 2024Horsegirl, "2468," 2468 (Single), Matador, 2024X, "The Hungry Wolf," Under the Big Black Sun, Elektra, 1982See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Let’s turn now to a band that you might not be aware of. Trupa Trupa is a post-punk band from Gdańsk, Poland, known for their unique blend of brooding alternative rock and psychedelic influences. Dark, dense, and full of mystery — “Sister Ray” recalls the beat of the 1980s in the best way possible.   

For this week's episode of the Plural Pod, Gareth and Joel are considering the growth in counterfeit records and the world of dubious bootlegs. There are reviews of fresh pressings from Paul McCartney & Wings, John Cale and Mike Lindsay. We dig into the world of second-hand sales and find out some of the highest value titles snapped up this week, including some all-female garage rock and a 7” containing a superstar's childhood warbling. Phil from Sister Ray explains issues around vinyl pricing and, following that, Tom from Cheap Indie Vinyl provides some top tips for bargain records this week. All that and we hear your memories of dealing with faulty discs.Get in touch with us via pluralofvinylpod@gmail.com or @PluralVinylPod on Twitter. You can also Whatsapp via 07455680866The Plural Of Playlist, featuring tracks discussed: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5M566WI1NstJoQcZU0KRMR?si=8h8NUeaXR_acMIrYYQ-rDQ&pi=MBWJA5SvSUewV&nd=1&dlsi=2a5d31635f704542Join the Cheap Indie Vinyl WhatsApp channel:https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaWT9tnElagoIHB2ed1GRed House sale: https://redhouserecords.co.uk/collections/sale-prices-on-brand-new-vinyl Bear Tree Sale: https://beartreerecords.com/collections/june-sale Lost In Vinyl sale: https://www.lostinvinyl.org/saletitles £15 records at Vinyl Whistle: https://vinylwhistle.co.uk/collections/15-albums Sister Ray Records: https://sisterray.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SISTER RAY, the project of Edmonton-born songwriter Ella Coyes, was conceived out of necessity; a self-designed vehicle built to examine trauma with unflinching honesty. Armed with a voice that soars and scrapes in equal measure, Coyes converts first-person recollections of big, complicated love into universally potent allegories. Raised on the expansive prairies of Sturgeon County, Sister Ray's music is steeped in a wide range of cultural influences. With gospel bluegrass and 90's country playing in the background of their youth, it was the traditional Métis music played at home that not only brought them closer to their heritage, but taught them a form of storytelling rooted in collective value, resilience, and safety. Communion, the 2022 debut album by Sister Ray, is a raw, meticulously-crafted portrait of momentous, ordinary moments; experiences that define your past, and instruct how you move through the world. Quickly met with critical acclaim, the album was longlisted for the 2022 Polaris Prize, and Pitchfork deemed it “a complex study of webs of interpersonal hurt, and a celebration of emotional survival.” They have been featured on Audiotree, Paste, NPR, and more, along with appearances at Pitchfork Festival in Paris & London, Primavera Weekender, and headline and support dates across North America and Europe.Teeth, their new EP on Royal Mountain Records, came from a need for space and the repercussions conditional to this desire. “I was thinking often about intimacy and avoidance—crawling around to find where my place would be,” Coyes says. The songs were written quickly and vigorously, mimicked through the recording process, crafted by Coyes over five days, recruiting Ginla ( the Brooklyn based duo behind Communion and early Adrienne Lenker) as collaborators and producers. With three originals and a spectral cover of “I Never Will Marry,” inspired by Linda Ronstadt's interpretation, Coyes discerns big and small epiphanies in Teeth. Their yearning tone and staggering honesty trickles throughout and the erosion leads to an opening—vacant, unfamiliar, and with room to breathe.  Thanks for listening!!! Please Follow us on Instagram @hiddentracks99Pre and Post roll music brought to you by @sleepcyclespa

Join us as we sit down with Louis Michot (best known as the fiddle player and lead-singer for the Grammy award winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, but blowing minds on the sonic masterpiece that is his solo record “Rêve du Troubadour”) and discuss all things Cajun, Zydeco, Old Timey Music, Race Music, the birds of the air and the beauty of precise Louisiana French. “Rêve du Troubadour” was objectively without a doubt one of the finest album releases of the last 10 years and so it was a delight to talk with this humble genius.    Michot's passion for Louisiana French and local folklore, and sustainability in the fastest disappearing landmass in the world are what fuels his career as a musician. With over 20 LPs under his belt, his music career continues to push the boundaries of the Louisiana French music traditions. Rêve du Troubadour, the first solo album from Louis Michot, is out now and will be the best thing your ears have heard in moons. Special guests on these recordings include Nigerian Tuareg guitar wizard Bombino, and critically acclaimed singer / cellist Leyla McCalla among others. Known as a fiddle player, Michot primarily performed on guitar, bass, T'fer (triangle), samplers, percussions, and accordion. Some of finished tracks feature him playing every part, while others find him backed with bassist where Bryan Webre and drummer Kirkland Middleton of the Ramblers and Louis' other regular band, Michot's Melody Makers as well as guests like Bombino, McCalla, Quintron, guitarist Langhorn Slim, Shardé Thomas with and without her Rising Stars Drum and Fife group, Grammy-nominated accordion player Corey Ledet, and Dickie Landry on sax. Kirkland Middleton of the Ramblers engineered and mixed the album at Nina Highway Studios in Arnaudville, Louisiana with various musicians building on basic tracks Louis had recorded at his home, houseboat studio. The album's title, “Rêve du Troubadour” -- “The Troubadour's Dream” in English -- refers to the manner in which Michot pulls his music from dreams into daylight, then fills it with storytelling. Though Michot has published over 100 songs, he feels that Rêve du Troubadour is his first collection of “writing” as these songs tell their stories in much greater depth than he's achieved before and utilize words peculiar to Louisiana French which seldom appear in musical compositions. 2023 marked the start of Louis Michot touring under his name, as a trio featuring Kirkland and Bryan on drums, bass, synths, and samples. The year started with a four show residency at New Orleans' iconic music venue The Maple Leaf, and continues with a debut at Festival International de Louisiane, and tours of the Midwest, East coast, and West coast later in the year. Louis' solo trajectory started while tracking his original songs in 2022, starting the recordings in his dry-docked house boat named “Sister Ray”, and completing the tracking at Mark Bingham's Piety Studio, the album being engineered and mixed by Kirkland Middleton. 2021 brought special challenges for Michot, from restarting his live music during the pandemic, to doing hurricane relief work as noted in Rolling Stone (Can This Cajun-Punk Musician Protect His Culture From Climate Change?, September 16, 2021) while raising funds to get solar generators and panels to residents of Terrebonne Parish affected by Hurricane Ida, as written about in New Yorker magazine (The Lost Bayou Ramblers Get Lit, January 3, 2022). Louis was named Louisianian of the Year in 2020 along with his brother Andre, and their band Lost Bayou Ramblers was named Entertainers of the Year by New Orleans' Big Easy Awards in 2019. 2017 brought the Lost Bayou Ramblers' first Grammy award for their 8th LP release, Kalenda, and 2019 marked the bands 20th anniversary along with a live album release “Asteur” and a documentary aired internationally on TV5 Monde, “On Va Continuer”. In 2012 Louis' violin and vocal work was the main feature for score of the Oscar nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild, and that same year the band's 6th release, “Mammoth Waltz” was named 2nd most important Louisiana album of the 21st century by nola.com and won New Orleans' Best of the Beat Award.

En este episodio conversamos sobre “White Light/White Heat”, el segundo álbum de The Velvet Underground, lanzado el año 1968.

Interview with Louis Michot, fiddler, songwriter, and lead vocalist for Grammy winners Lost Bayou Ramblers on his debut solo album Rêve du Troubadour. Rêve du Troubadour came from long months during the first years of the pandemic of Michot documenting musical ideas in his backyard a dry-docked houseboat named “Sister Ray, given to Louis by Korey Richey of LCD Soundsystem. Sometimes, waking up at 4AM, he'd have his parts nailed down before daylight. While recording, MIchot kept a pair of stereo mics live outside Sister Ray to capture the sounds of birds and insects; as the bird and bug population would change throughout the days and seasons, each song wound up with a unique environmental seasoning. More tracks were then added at Nina Highway Studios, a short walk from Michot's house, by Louis, his rhythm section and various guest musicians. The final track sequence is highly diverse. There are songs that incorporate poetic rapping to hand-laid beats, updates of vintage Acadiana, environment soundscapes, acoustic guitar driven ballads, and even Michot's interpretation of a seminal work by 19th-century Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. But they're all tied together beautifully by Louisiana French language and Louis' vivid storytelling throughout. Louis's Info

In this episode, Rick Campbell, Jim Shedden, Alan Zweig and special guest, Stephanie Burdzy, discuss songs they love including:  ▶️ Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground  ▶️ The Acid Queen by Tina Turner  ▶️ Morning Morning by The Fugs  ▶️ I'm Not Saying by Nico  Other songs discussed include:  Sister Ray by Joy Division  Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix Nutbush City Limits by Ike & Tina Turner  Kill for Peace by The Fugs  Saran Wrap by The Fugs  Tune in to the 1000 Songs Podcast, Episode 6, where Stephanie Burdzy, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada, shares her chosen song, The Acid Queen by Tina Turner. Written by Pete Townshend for the rock opera “Tommy”, and performed by Tina Turner in the film, the song was also released by Tina Turner in 1976, the same year she left the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.  Our closing song for this episode is “I'm Not Saying”, written by Gordon Lightfoot and released as a single in 1965 and on his 1966 debut album, Lightfoot.  That same year the song was recorded by Nico and released by the British record label, Immediate Records. Notably, the song features Jimmy Page on 12-string guitar.  Follow 1000 Songs podcast on Facebook and Instagram, and stay tuned for our next episode, available wherever you get your podcasts!  Technical production and editing by Lisa Santonato. Visit our website at:  http://www.jimshedden.com/#/1000-songs-podcast/  Follow us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/1000songspodcast/  Follow us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/1000songspodcast  #1000SongsPodcast #1000Songs #music #musicpodcasts #podcast #TinaTurner #AcidQueen #SisterRay #VelvetUnderground #JoyDivision #TheFugs #MorningMorning #Tommy #PeteTownshend #musical #rock #punk  tags:  @rickcampbell8218 @jimshedden @alanzweig @elsantonato

Johnny Marr is an acclaimed British guitarist who's played with a ton of bands including, most famously, The Smiths. Marr started playing guitar as a young teenager growing up in Manchester. When he turned 15 he dropped out of school and moved to London to join the band Sister Ray. A couple years later he would help form The Smiths with Morrissey, Mike Joyce, and Marr's friend and bassist, Andy Rourke. After The Smiths broke up in 1987, Marr went on to collaborate with an array of different musicians and play in bands like The Pretenders, The The, and Modest Mouse. In the early aughts, Marr started releasing solo material, and he's on the brink of releasing a new album of his greatest hits. On today's episode Justin Richmond talks to Johnny Marr about his exciting work scoring movies with Pharrell and Hans Zimmer. Marr also recalls the terror he felt performing live in front of stadiums full of fans with The Pretenders on U2's Joshua Tree tour. And he talks about the time he bought a Fender Stratocaster while hanging out with Oasis' Noel Gallager. That Strat has nine pickups and it eventually led to him writing one the best songs of his solo career. You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Johnny Marr songs HERE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get ready for an extraordinary episode of GRRRL Music's Bops & Bangers! Join us as we embark on Ashley and Kelsey's thrilling adventure to the vibrant city of New York. They experienced the magic of Broadway, attending two unforgettable shows—Sweeney Todd with the incredible Josh Groban and Parade with the extraordinary Ben Platt. But that's not all! They also had a heartwarming meet-up with ten amazing grrrls from our community during the best cocktail hour ever. The love and time shared were truly life-affirming, and we're immensely grateful for their support. In addition to the New York escapade, we dive into some fantastic new music releases. BOYS LIKE GIRLS make a captivating comeback with their latest tracks, captivating us with their signature pop-rock sound. Eloise takes us on an emotive journey with her soul-stirring melodies, while Sister Ray brings their unique blend of indie and alternative sounds to the forefront. Get ready to discover more exciting artists and their incredible music in this episode! PODCAST SINGLE FEATURE: "HELMET" - Jzzy Follow along with our Spotify playlist: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/y2nuuvww⁠ You can watch the video version on our YouTube: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/487kk86c⁠ Tune in to this episode filled with Broadway magic, community love, and a showcase of remarkable new music releases. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more inspiring content!

Episode 164 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "White Light/White Heat" and the career of the Velvet Underground. This is a long one, lasting three hours and twenty minutes. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-three minute bonus episode available, on "Why Don't You Smile Now?" by the Downliners Sect. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I say the Velvet Underground didn't play New York for the rest of the sixties after 1966. They played at least one gig there in 1967, but did generally avoid the city. Also, I refer to Cale and Conrad as the other surviving members of the Theater of Eternal Music. Sadly Conrad died in 2016. Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by the Velvet Underground, and some of the avant-garde pieces excerpted run to six hours or more. I used a lot of resources for this one. Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga is the best book on the group as a group. I also used Joe Harvard's 33 1/3 book on The Velvet Underground and Nico. Bockris also wrote one of the two biographies of Reed I referred to, Transformer. The other was Lou Reed by Anthony DeCurtis. Information on Cale mostly came from Sedition and Alchemy by Tim Mitchell. Information on Nico came from Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon by Richard Witts. I used Draw a Straight Line and Follow it by Jeremy Grimshaw as my main source for La Monte Young, The Roaring Silence by David Revill for John Cage, and Warhol: A Life as Art by Blake Gopnik for Warhol. I also referred to the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  The definitive collection of the Velvet Underground's music is the sadly out-of-print box set Peel Slowly and See, which contains the four albums the group made with Reed in full, plus demos, outtakes, and live recordings. Note that the digital version of the album as sold by Amazon for some reason doesn't include the last disc -- if you want the full box set you have to buy a physical copy. All four studio albums have also been released and rereleased many times over in different configurations with different numbers of CDs at different price points -- I have used the "45th Anniversary Super-Deluxe" versions for this episode, but for most people the standard CD versions will be fine. Sadly there are no good shorter compilation overviews of the group -- they tend to emphasise either the group's "pop" mode or its "avant-garde" mode to the exclusion of the other. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I begin this episode, there are a few things to say. This introductory section is going to be longer than normal because, as you will hear, this episode is also going to be longer than normal. Firstly, I try to warn people about potentially upsetting material in these episodes. But this is the first episode for 1968, and as you will see there is a *profound* increase in the amount of upsetting and disturbing material covered as we go through 1968 and 1969. The story is going to be in a much darker place for the next twenty or thirty episodes. And this episode is no exception. As always, I try to deal with everything as sensitively as possible, but you should be aware that the list of warnings for this one is so long I am very likely to have missed some. Among the topics touched on in this episode are mental illness, drug addiction, gun violence, racism, societal and medical homophobia, medical mistreatment of mental illness, domestic abuse, rape, and more. If you find discussion of any of those subjects upsetting, you might want to read the transcript. Also, I use the term "queer" freely in this episode. In the past I have received some pushback for this, because of a belief among some that "queer" is a slur. The following explanation will seem redundant to many of my listeners, but as with many of the things I discuss in the podcast I am dealing with multiple different audiences with different levels of awareness and understanding of issues, so I'd like to beg those people's indulgence a moment. The term "queer" has certainly been used as a slur in the past, but so have terms like "lesbian", "gay", "homosexual" and others. In all those cases, the term has gone from a term used as a self-identifier, to a slur, to a reclaimed slur, and back again many times. The reason for using that word, specifically, here is because the vast majority of people in this story have sexualities or genders that don't match the societal norms of their times, but used labels for themselves that have shifted in meaning over the years. There are at least two men in the story, for example, who are now dead and referred to themselves as "homosexual", but were in multiple long-term sexually-active relationships with women. Would those men now refer to themselves as "bisexual" or "pansexual" -- terms not in widespread use at the time -- or would they, in the relatively more tolerant society we live in now, only have been in same-gender relationships? We can't know. But in our current context using the word "homosexual" for those men would lead to incorrect assumptions about their behaviour. The labels people use change over time, and the definitions of them blur and shift. I have discussed this issue with many, many, friends who fall under the queer umbrella, and while not all of them are comfortable with "queer" as a personal label because of how it's been used against them in the past, there is near-unanimity from them that it's the correct word to use in this situation. Anyway, now that that rather lengthy set of disclaimers is over, let's get into the story proper, as we look at "White Light, White Heat" by the Velvet Underground: [Excerpt: The Velvet Underground, "White Light, White Heat"] And that look will start with... a disclaimer about length. This episode is going to be a long one. Not as long as episode one hundred and fifty, but almost certainly the longest episode I'll do this year, by some way. And there's a reason for that. One of the questions I've been asked repeatedly over the years about the podcast is why almost all the acts I've covered have been extremely commercially successful ones. "Where are the underground bands? The alternative bands? The little niche acts?" The answer to that is simple. Until the mid-sixties, the idea of an underground or alternative band made no sense at all in rock, pop, rock and roll, R&B, or soul. The idea would have been completely counterintuitive to the vast majority of the people we've discussed in the podcast. Those musics were commercial musics, made by people who wanted to make money and to  get the largest audiences possible. That doesn't mean that they had no artistic merit, or that there was no artistic intent behind them, but the artists making that music were *commercial* artists. They knew if they wanted to make another record, they had to sell enough copies of the last record for the record company to make another, and that if they wanted to keep eating, they had to draw enough of an audience to their gigs for promoters to keep booking them. There was no space in this worldview for what we might think of as cult success. If your record only sold a thousand copies, then you had failed in your goal, even if the thousand people who bought your record really loved it. Even less commercially successful artists we've covered to this point, like the Mothers of Invention or Love, were *trying* for commercial success, even if they made the decision not to compromise as much as others do. This started to change a tiny bit in the mid-sixties as the influence of jazz and folk in the US, and the British blues scene, started to be felt in rock music. But this influence, at first, was a one-way thing -- people who had been in the folk and jazz worlds deciding to modify their music to be more commercial. And that was followed by already massively commercial musicians, like the Beatles, taking on some of those influences and bringing their audience with them. But that started to change around the time that "rock" started to differentiate itself from "rock and roll" and "pop", in mid 1967. So in this episode and the next, we're going to look at two bands who in different ways provided a model for how to be an alternative band. Both of them still *wanted* commercial success, but neither achieved it, at least not at first and not in the conventional way. And both, when they started out, went by the name The Warlocks. But we have to take a rather circuitous route to get to this week's band, because we're now properly introducing a strand of music that has been there in the background for a while -- avant-garde art music. So before we go any further, let's have a listen to a thirty-second clip of the most famous piece of avant-garde music ever, and I'll be performing it myself: [Excerpt, Andrew Hickey "4'33 (Cage)"] Obviously that won't give the full effect, you have to listen to the whole piece to get that. That is of course a section of "4'33" by John Cage, a piece of music that is often incorrectly described as being four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence. As I've mentioned before, though, in the episode on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", it isn't that at all. The whole point of the piece is that there is no such thing as silence, and it's intended to make the listener appreciate all the normal ambient sounds as music, every bit as much as any piece by Bach or Beethoven. John Cage, the composer of "4'33", is possibly the single most influential avant-garde artist of the mid twentieth century, so as we're properly introducing the ideas of avant-garde music into the story here, we need to talk about him a little. Cage was, from an early age, torn between three great vocations, all of which in some fashion would shape his work for decades to come. One of these was architecture, and for a time he intended to become an architect. Another was the religious ministry, and he very seriously considered becoming a minister as a young man, and religion -- though not the religious faith of his youth -- was to be a massive factor in his work as he grew older. He started studying music from an early age, though he never had any facility as a performer -- though he did, when he discovered the work of Grieg, think that might change. He later said “For a while I played nothing else. I even imagined devoting my life to the performance of his works alone, for they did not seem to me to be too difficult, and I loved them.” [Excerpt: Grieg piano concerto in A minor] But he soon realised that he didn't have some of the basic skills that would be required to be a performer -- he never actually thought of himself as very musical -- and so he decided to move into composition, and he later talked about putting his musical limits to good use in being more inventive. From his very first pieces, Cage was trying to expand the definition of what a performance of a piece of music actually was. One of his friends, Harry Hay, who took part in the first documented performance of a piece by Cage, described how Cage's father, an inventor, had "devised a fluorescent light source over which Sample" -- Don Sample, Cage's boyfriend at the time -- "laid a piece of vellum painted with designs in oils. The blankets I was wearing were white, and a sort of lampshade shone coloured patterns onto me. It looked very good. The thing got so hot the designs began to run, but that only made it better.” Apparently the audience for this light show -- one that predated the light shows used by rock bands by a good thirty years -- were not impressed, though that may be more because the Santa Monica Women's Club in the early 1930s was not the vanguard of the avant-garde. Or maybe it was. Certainly the housewives of Santa Monica seemed more willing than one might expect to sign up for another of Cage's ideas. In 1933 he went door to door asking women if they would be interested in signing up to a lecture course from him on modern art and music. He told them that if they signed up for $2.50, he would give them ten lectures, and somewhere between twenty and forty of them signed up, even though, as he said later, “I explained to the housewives that I didn't know anything about either subject but that I was enthusiastic about both of them. I promised to learn faithfully enough about each subject so as to be able to give a talk an hour long each week.” And he did just that, going to the library every day and spending all week preparing an hour-long talk for them. History does not relate whether he ended these lectures by telling the housewives to tell just one friend about them. He said later “I came out of these lectures, with a devotion to the painting of Mondrian, on the one hand, and the music of Schoenberg on the other.” [Excerpt: Schoenberg, "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte"] Schoenberg was one of the two most widely-respected composers in the world at that point, the other being Stravinsky, but the two had very different attitudes to composition. Schoenberg's great innovation was the creation and popularisation of the twelve-tone technique, and I should probably explain that a little before I go any further. Most Western music is based on an eight-note scale -- do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do -- with the eighth note being an octave up from the first. So in the key of C major that would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C: [demonstrates] And when you hear notes from that scale, if your ears are accustomed to basically any Western music written before about 1920, or any Western popular music written since then, you expect the melody to lead back to C, and you know to expect that because it only uses those notes -- there are differing intervals between them, some having a tone between them and some having a semitone, and you recognise the pattern. But of course there are other notes between the notes of that scale. There are actually an infinite number of these, but in conventional Western music we only look at a few more -- C# (or D flat), D# (or E flat), F# (or G flat), G# (or A flat) and A# (or B flat). If you add in all those notes you get this: [demonstrates] There's no clear beginning or end, no do for it to come back to. And Schoenberg's great innovation, which he was only starting to promote widely around this time, was to insist that all twelve notes should be equal -- his melodies would use all twelve of the notes the exact same number of times, and so if he used say a B flat, he would have to use all eleven other notes before he used B flat again in the piece. This was a radical new idea, but Schoenberg had only started advancing it after first winning great acclaim for earlier pieces, like his "Three Pieces for Piano", a work which wasn't properly twelve-tone, but did try to do without the idea of having any one note be more important than any other: [Excerpt: Schoenberg, "Three Pieces for Piano"] At this point, that work had only been performed in the US by one performer, Richard Buhlig, and hadn't been released as a recording yet. Cage was so eager to hear it that he'd found Buhlig's phone number and called him, asking him to play the piece, but Buhlig put the phone down on him. Now he was doing these lectures, though, he had to do one on Schoenberg, and he wasn't a competent enough pianist to play Schoenberg's pieces himself, and there were still no recordings of them. Cage hitch-hiked from Santa Monica to LA, where Buhlig lived, to try to get him to come and visit his class and play some of Schoenberg's pieces for them. Buhlig wasn't in, and Cage hung around in his garden hoping for him to come back -- he pulled the leaves off a bough from one of Buhlig's trees, going "He'll come back, he won't come back, he'll come back..." and the leaves said he'd be back. Buhlig arrived back at midnight, and quite understandably told the strange twenty-one-year-old who'd spent twelve hours in his garden pulling the leaves off his trees that no, he would not come to Santa Monica and give a free performance. But he did agree that if Cage brought some of his own compositions he'd give them a look over. Buhlig started giving Cage some proper lessons in composition, although he stressed that he was a performer, not a composer. Around this time Cage wrote his Sonata for Clarinet: [Excerpt: John Cage, "Sonata For Clarinet"] Buhlig suggested that Cage send that to Henry Cowell, the composer we heard about in the episode on "Good Vibrations" who was friends with Lev Termen and who created music by playing the strings inside a piano: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] Cowell offered to take Cage on as an assistant, in return for which Cowell would teach him for a semester, as would Adolph Weiss, a pupil of Schoenberg's. But the goal, which Cowell suggested, was always to have Cage study with Schoenberg himself. Schoenberg at first refused, saying that Cage couldn't afford his price, but eventually took Cage on as a student having been assured that he would devote his entire life to music -- a promise Cage kept. Cage started writing pieces for percussion, something that had been very rare up to that point -- only a handful of composers, most notably Edgard Varese, had written pieces for percussion alone, but Cage was: [Excerpt: John Cage, "Trio"] This is often portrayed as a break from the ideals of his teacher Schoenberg, but in fact there's a clear continuity there, once you see what Cage was taking from Schoenberg. Schoenberg's work is, in some senses, about equality, about all notes being equal. Or to put it another way, it's about fairness. About erasing arbitrary distinctions. What Cage was doing was erasing the arbitrary distinction between the more and less prominent instruments. Why should there be pieces for solo violin or string quartet, but not for multiple percussion players? That said, Schoenberg was not exactly the most encouraging of teachers. When Cage invited Schoenberg to go to a concert of Cage's percussion work, Schoenberg told him he was busy that night. When Cage offered to arrange another concert for a date Schoenberg wasn't busy, the reply came "No, I will not be free at any time". Despite this, Cage later said “Schoenberg was a magnificent teacher, who always gave the impression that he was putting us in touch with musical principles,” and said "I literally worshipped him" -- a strong statement from someone who took religious matters as seriously as Cage. Cage was so devoted to Schoenberg's music that when a concert of music by Stravinsky was promoted as "music of the world's greatest living composer", Cage stormed into the promoter's office angrily, confronting the promoter and making it very clear that such things should not be said in the city where Schoenberg lived. Schoenberg clearly didn't think much of Cage's attempts at composition, thinking -- correctly -- that Cage had no ear for harmony. And his reportedly aggressive and confrontational teaching style didn't sit well with Cage -- though it seems very similar to a lot of the teaching techniques of the Zen masters he would later go on to respect. The two eventually parted ways, although Cage always spoke highly of Schoenberg. Schoenberg later gave Cage a compliment of sorts, when asked if any of his students had gone on to do anything interesting. At first he replied that none had, but then he mentioned Cage and said “Of course he's not a composer, but an inventor—of genius.” Cage was at this point very worried if there was any point to being a composer at all. He said later “I'd read Cowell's New Musical Resources and . . . The Theory of Rhythm. I had also read Chavez's Towards a New Music. Both works gave me the feeling that everything that was possible in music had already happened. So I thought I could never compose socially important music. Only if I could invent something new, then would I be useful to society. But that seemed unlikely then.” [Excerpt: John Cage, "Totem Ancestor"] Part of the solution came when he was asked to compose music for an abstract animation by the filmmaker Oskar Fischinger, and also to work as Fischinger's assistant when making the film. He was fascinated by the stop-motion process, and by the results of the film, which he described as "a beautiful film in which these squares, triangles and circles and other things moved and changed colour.” But more than that he was overwhelmed by a comment by Fischinger, who told him “Everything in the world has its own spirit, and this spirit becomes audible by setting it into vibration.” Cage later said “That set me on fire. He started me on a path of exploration of the world around me which has never stopped—of hitting and stretching and scraping and rubbing everything.” Cage now took his ideas further. His compositions for percussion had been about, if you like, giving the underdog a chance -- percussion was always in the background, why should it not be in the spotlight? Now he realised that there were other things getting excluded in conventional music -- the sounds that we characterise as noise. Why should composers work to exclude those sounds, but work to *include* other sounds? Surely that was... well, a little unfair? Eventually this would lead to pieces like his 1952 piece "Water Music", later expanded and retitled "Water Walk", which can be heard here in his 1959 appearance on the TV show "I've Got a Secret".  It's a piece for, amongst other things, a flowerpot full of flowers, a bathtub, a watering can, a pipe, a duck call, a blender full of ice cubes, and five unplugged radios: [Excerpt: John Cage "Water Walk"] As he was now avoiding pitch and harmony as organising principles for his music, he turned to time. But note -- not to rhythm. He said “There's none of this boom, boom, boom, business in my music . . . a measure is taken as a strict measure of time—not a one two three four—which I fill with various sounds.” He came up with a system he referred to as “micro-macrocosmic rhythmic structure,” what we would now call fractals, though that word hadn't yet been invented, where the structure of the whole piece was reflected in the smallest part of it. For a time he started moving away from the term music, preferring to refer to the "art of noise" or to "organised sound" -- though he later received a telegram from Edgard Varese, one of his musical heroes and one of the few other people writing works purely for percussion, asking him not to use that phrase, which Varese used for his own work. After meeting with Varese and his wife, he later became convinced that it was Varese's wife who had initiated the telegram, as she explained to Cage's wife "we didn't want your husband's work confused with my husband's work, any more than you'd want some . . . any artist's work confused with that of a cartoonist.” While there is a humour to Cage's work, I don't really hear much qualitative difference between a Cage piece like the one we just heard and a Varese piece like Ionisation: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] But it was in 1952, the year of "Water Music" that John Cage made his two biggest impacts on the cultural world, though the full force of those impacts wasn't felt for some years. To understand Cage's 1952 work, you first have to understand that he had become heavily influenced by Zen, which at that time was very little known in the Western world. Indeed he had studied with Daisetsu Suzuki, who is credited with introducing Zen to the West, and said later “I didn't study music with just anybody; I studied with Schoenberg, I didn't study Zen with just anybody; I studied with Suzuki. I've always gone, insofar as I could, to the president of the company.” Cage's whole worldview was profoundly affected by Zen, but he was also naturally sympathetic to it, and his work after learning about Zen is mostly a continuation of trends we can already see. In particular, he became convinced that the point of music isn't to communicate anything between two people, rather its point is merely to be experienced. I'm far from an expert on Buddhism, but one way of thinking about its central lessons is that one should experience things as they are, experiencing the thing itself rather than one's thoughts or preconceptions about it. And so at Black Mountain college came Theatre Piece Number 1: [Excerpt: Edith Piaf, "La Vie En Rose" ] In this piece, Cage had set the audience on all sides, so they'd be facing each other. He stood on a stepladder, as colleagues danced in and around the audience, another colleague played the piano, two more took turns to stand on another stepladder to recite poetry, different films and slides were projected, seemingly at random, onto the walls, and the painter Robert Rauschenberg played scratchy Edith Piaf records on a wind-up gramophone. The audience were included in the performance, and it was meant to be experienced as a gestalt, as a whole, to be what we would now call an immersive experience. One of Cage's students around this time was the artist Allan Kaprow, and he would be inspired by Theatre Piece Number 1 to put on several similar events in the late fifties. Those events he called "happenings", because the point of them was that you were meant to experience an event as it was happening rather than bring preconceptions of form and structure to them. Those happenings were the inspiration for events like The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, and the term "happening" became such an integral part of the counterculture that by 1967 there were comedy films being released about them, including one just called The Happening with a title track by the Supremes that made number one: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "The Happening"] Theatre Piece Number 1 was retrospectively considered the first happening, and as such its influence is incalculable. But one part I didn't mention about Theatre Piece Number 1 is that as well as Rauschenberg playing Edith Piaf's records, he also displayed some of his paintings. These paintings were totally white -- at a glance, they looked like blank canvases, but as one inspected them more clearly, it became apparent that Rauschenberg had painted them with white paint, with visible brushstrokes. These paintings, along with a visit to an anechoic chamber in which Cage discovered that even in total silence one can still hear one's own blood and nervous system, so will never experience total silence, were the final key to something Cage had been working towards -- if music had minimised percussion, and excluded noise, how much more had it excluded silence? As Cage said in 1958 “Curiously enough, the twelve-tone system has no zero in it.” And so came 4'33, the piece that we heard an excerpt of near the start of this episode. That piece was the something new he'd been looking for that could be useful to society. It took the sounds the audience could already hear, and without changing them even slightly gave them a new context and made the audience hear them as they were. Simply by saying "this is music", it caused the ambient noise to be perceived as music. This idea, of recontextualising existing material, was one that had already been done in the art world -- Marcel Duchamp, in 1917, had exhibited a urinal as a sculpture titled "Fountain" -- but even Duchamp had talked about his work as "everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist's act of choice". The artist was *raising* the object to art. What Cage was saying was "the object is already art". This was all massively influential to a young painter who had seen Cage give lectures many times, and while at art school had with friends prepared a piano in the same way Cage did for his own experimental compositions, dampening the strings with different objects. [Excerpt: Dana Gillespie, "Andy Warhol (live)"] Duchamp and Rauschenberg were both big influences on Andy Warhol, but he would say in the early sixties "John Cage is really so responsible for so much that's going on," and would for the rest of his life cite Cage as one of the two or three prime influences of his career. Warhol is a difficult figure to discuss, because his work is very intellectual but he was not very articulate -- which is one reason I've led up to him by discussing Cage in such detail, because Cage was always eager to talk at great length about the theoretical basis of his work, while Warhol would say very few words about anything at all. Probably the person who knew him best was his business partner and collaborator Paul Morrissey, and Morrissey's descriptions of Warhol have shaped my own view of his life, but it's very worth noting that Morrissey is an extremely right-wing moralist who wishes to see a Catholic theocracy imposed to do away with the scourges of sexual immorality, drug use, hedonism, and liberalism, so his view of Warhol, a queer drug using progressive whose worldview seems to have been totally opposed to Morrissey's in every way, might be a little distorted. Warhol came from an impoverished background, and so, as many people who grew up poor do, he was, throughout his life, very eager to make money. He studied art at university, and got decent but not exceptional grades -- he was a competent draughtsman, but not a great one, and most importantly as far as success in the art world goes he didn't have what is known as his own "line" -- with most successful artists, you can look at a handful of lines they've drawn and see something of their own personality in it. You couldn't with Warhol. His drawings looked like mediocre imitations of other people's work. Perfectly competent, but nothing that stood out. So Warhol came up with a technique to make his drawings stand out -- blotting. He would do a normal drawing, then go over it with a lot of wet ink. He'd lower a piece of paper on to the wet drawing, and the new paper would soak up the ink, and that second piece of paper would become the finished work. The lines would be fractured and smeared, broken in places where the ink didn't get picked up, and thick in others where it had pooled. With this mechanical process, Warhol had managed to create an individual style, and he became an extremely successful commercial artist. In the early 1950s photography was still seen as a somewhat low-class way of advertising things. If you wanted to sell to a rich audience, you needed to use drawings or paintings. By 1955 Warhol was making about twelve thousand dollars a year -- somewhere close to a hundred and thirty thousand a year in today's money -- drawing shoes for advertisements. He also had a sideline in doing record covers for people like Count Basie: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Seventh Avenue Express"] For most of the 1950s he also tried to put on shows of his more serious artistic work -- often with homoerotic themes -- but to little success. The dominant art style of the time was the abstract expressionism of people like Jackson Pollock, whose art was visceral, emotional, and macho. The term "action paintings" which was coined for the work of people like Pollock, sums it up. This was manly art for manly men having manly emotions and expressing them loudly. It was very male and very straight, and even the gay artists who were prominent at the time tended to be very conformist and look down on anything they considered flamboyant or effeminate. Warhol was a rather effeminate, very reserved man, who strongly disliked showing his emotions, and whose tastes ran firmly to the camp. Camp as an aesthetic of finding joy in the flamboyant or trashy, as opposed to merely a descriptive term for men who behaved in a way considered effeminate, was only just starting to be codified at this time -- it wouldn't really become a fully-formed recognisable thing until Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on Camp" in 1964 -- but of course just because something hasn't been recognised doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and Warhol's aesthetic was always very camp, and in the 1950s in the US that was frowned upon even in gay culture, where the mainstream opinion was that the best way to acceptance was through assimilation. Abstract expressionism was all about expressing the self, and that was something Warhol never wanted to do -- in fact he made some pronouncements at times which suggested he didn't think of himself as *having* a self in the conventional sense. The combination of not wanting to express himself and of wanting to work more efficiently as a commercial artist led to some interesting results. For example, he was commissioned in 1957 to do a cover for an album by Moondog, the blind street musician whose name Alan Freed had once stolen: [Excerpt: Moondog, "Gloving It"] For that cover, Warhol got his mother, Julia Warhola, to just write out the liner notes for the album in her rather ornamental cursive script, and that became the front cover, leading to an award for graphic design going that year to "Andy Warhol's mother". (Incidentally, my copy of the current CD issue of that album, complete with Julia Warhola's cover, is put out by Pickwick Records...) But towards the end of the fifties, the work for commercial artists started to dry up. If you wanted to advertise shoes, now, you just took a photo of the shoes rather than get Andy Warhol to draw a picture of them. The money started to disappear, and Warhol started to panic. If there was no room for him in graphic design any more, he had to make his living in the fine arts, which he'd been totally unsuccessful in. But luckily for Warhol, there was a new movement that was starting to form -- Pop Art. Pop Art started in England, and had originally been intended, at least in part, as a critique of American consumerist capitalism. Pieces like "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" by Richard Hamilton (who went on to design the Beatles' White Album cover) are collages of found images, almost all from American sources, recontextualised and juxtaposed in interesting ways, so a bodybuilder poses in a room that's taken from an advert in Ladies' Home Journal, while on the wall, instead of a painting, hangs a blown-up cover of a Jack Kirby romance comic. Pop Art changed slightly when it got taken up in America, and there it became something rather different, something closer to Duchamp, taking those found images and displaying them as art with no juxtaposition. Where Richard Hamilton created collage art which *showed* a comic cover by Jack Kirby as a painting in the background, Roy Lichtenstein would take a panel of comic art by Kirby, or Russ Heath or Irv Novick or a dozen other comic artists, and redraw it at the size of a normal painting. So Warhol took Cage's idea that the object is already art, and brought that into painting, starting by doing paintings of Campbell's soup cans, in which he tried as far as possible to make the cans look exactly like actual soup cans. The paintings were controversial, inciting fury in some and laughter in others and causing almost everyone to question whether they were art. Warhol would embrace an aesthetic in which things considered unimportant or trash or pop culture detritus were the greatest art of all. For example pretty much every profile of him written in the mid sixties talks about him obsessively playing "Sally Go Round the Roses", a girl-group single by the one-hit wonders the Jaynettes: [Excerpt: The Jaynettes, "Sally Go Round the Roses"] After his paintings of Campbell's soup cans, and some rather controversial but less commercially successful paintings of photographs of horrors and catastrophes taken from newspapers, Warhol abandoned painting in the conventional sense altogether, instead creating brightly coloured screen prints -- a form of stencilling -- based on photographs of celebrities like Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and, most famously, Marilyn Monroe. That way he could produce images which could be mass-produced, without his active involvement, and which supposedly had none of his personality in them, though of course his personality pervades the work anyway. He put on exhibitions of wooden boxes, silk-screen printed to look exactly like shipping cartons of Brillo pads. Images we see everywhere -- in newspapers, in supermarkets -- were art. And Warhol even briefly formed a band. The Druds were a garage band formed to play at a show at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, the opening night of an exhibition that featured a silkscreen by Warhol of 210 identical bottles of Coca-Cola, as well as paintings by Rauschenberg and others. That opening night featured a happening by Claes Oldenburg, and a performance by Cage -- Cage gave a live lecture while three recordings of his own voice also played. The Druds were also meant to perform, but they fell apart after only a few rehearsals. Some recordings apparently exist, but they don't seem to circulate, but they'd be fascinating to hear as almost the entire band were non-musician artists like Warhol, Jasper Johns, and the sculptor Walter de Maria. Warhol said of the group “It didn't go too well, but if we had just stayed on it it would have been great.” On the other hand, the one actual musician in the group said “It was kind of ridiculous, so I quit after the second rehearsal". That musician was La Monte Young: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Well-Tuned Piano"] That's an excerpt from what is generally considered Young's masterwork, "The Well-Tuned Piano". It's six and a half hours long. If Warhol is a difficult figure to write about, Young is almost impossible. He's a musician with a career stretching sixty years, who is arguably the most influential musician from the classical tradition in that time period. He's generally considered the father of minimalism, and he's also been called by Brian Eno "the daddy of us all" -- without Young you simply *do not* get art rock at all. Without Young there is no Velvet Underground, no David Bowie, no Eno, no New York punk scene, no Yoko Ono. Anywhere that the fine arts or conceptual art have intersected with popular music in the last fifty or more years has been influenced in one way or another by Young's work. BUT... he only rarely publishes his scores. He very, very rarely allows recordings of his work to be released -- there are four recordings on his bandcamp, plus a handful of recordings of his older, published, pieces, and very little else. He doesn't allow his music to be performed live without his supervision. There *are* bootleg recordings of his music, but even those are not easily obtainable -- Young is vigorous in enforcing his copyrights and issues takedown notices against anywhere that hosts them. So other than that handful of legitimately available recordings -- plus a recording by Young's Theater of Eternal Music, the legality of which is still disputed, and an off-air recording of a 1971 radio programme I've managed to track down, the only way to experience Young's music unless you're willing to travel to one of his rare live performances or installations is second-hand, by reading about it. Except that the one book that deals solely with Young and his music is not only a dense and difficult book to read, it's also one that Young vehemently disagreed with and considered extremely inaccurate, to the point he refused to allow permissions to quote his work in the book. Young did apparently prepare a list of corrections for the book, but he wouldn't tell the author what they were without payment. So please assume that anything I say about Young is wrong, but also accept that the short section of this episode about Young has required more work to *try* to get it right than pretty much anything else this year. Young's musical career actually started out in a relatively straightforward manner. He didn't grow up in the most loving of homes -- he's talked about his father beating him as a child because he had been told that young La Monte was clever -- but his father did buy him a saxophone and teach him the rudiments of the instrument, and as a child he was most influenced by the music of the big band saxophone player Jimmy Dorsey: [Excerpt: Jimmy Dorsey, “It's the Dreamer in Me”] The family, who were Mormon farmers, relocated several times in Young's childhood, from Idaho first to California and then to Utah, but everywhere they went La Monte seemed to find musical inspiration, whether from an uncle who had been part of the Kansas City jazz scene, a classmate who was a musical prodigy who had played with Perez Prado in his early teens, or a teacher who took the class to see a performance of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra: [Excerpt: Bartok, "Concerto for Orchestra"] After leaving high school, Young went to Los Angeles City College to study music under Leonard Stein, who had been Schoenberg's assistant when Schoenberg had taught at UCLA, and there he became part of the thriving jazz scene based around Central Avenue, studying and performing with musicians like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Eric Dolphy -- Young once beat Dolphy in an audition for a place in the City College dance band, and the two would apparently substitute for each other on their regular gigs when one couldn't make it. During this time, Young's musical tastes became much more adventurous. He was a particular fan of the work of John Coltrane, and also got inspired by City of Glass, an album by Stan Kenton that attempted to combine jazz and modern classical music: [Excerpt: Stan Kenton's Innovations Orchestra, "City of Glass: The Structures"] His other major musical discovery in the mid-fifties was one we've talked about on several previous occasions -- the album Music of India, Morning and Evening Ragas by Ali Akhbar Khan: [Excerpt: Ali Akhbar Khan, "Rag Sindhi Bhairavi"] Young's music at this point was becoming increasingly modal, and equally influenced by the blues and Indian music. But he was also becoming interested in serialism. Serialism is an extension and generalisation of twelve-tone music, inspired by mathematical set theory. In serialism, you choose a set of musical elements -- in twelve-tone music that's the twelve notes in the twelve-tone scale, but it can also be a set of tonal relations, a chord, or any other set of elements. You then define all the possible ways you can permute those elements, a defined set of operations you can perform on them -- so you could play a scale forwards, play it backwards, play all the notes in the scale simultaneously, and so on. You then go through all the possible permutations, exactly once, and that's your piece of music. Young was particularly influenced by the works of Anton Webern, one of the earliest serialists: [Excerpt: Anton Webern, "Cantata number 1 for Soprano, Mixed Chorus, and Orchestra"] That piece we just heard, Webern's "Cantata number 1", was the subject of some of the earliest theoretical discussion of serialism, and in particular led to some discussion of the next step on from serialism. If serialism was all about going through every single permutation of a set, what if you *didn't* permute every element? There was a lot of discussion in the late fifties in music-theoretical circles about the idea of invariance. Normally in music, the interesting thing is what gets changed. To use a very simple example, you might change a melody from a major key to a minor one to make it sound sadder. What theorists at this point were starting to discuss is what happens if you leave something the same, but change the surrounding context, so the thing you *don't* vary sounds different because of the changed context. And going further, what if you don't change the context at all, and merely *imply* a changed context? These ideas were some of those which inspired Young's first major work, his Trio For Strings from 1958, a complex, palindromic, serial piece which is now credited as the first work of minimalism, because the notes in it change so infrequently: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "Trio for Strings"] Though I should point out that Young never considers his works truly finished, and constantly rewrites them, and what we just heard is an excerpt from the only recording of the trio ever officially released, which is of the 2015 version. So I can't state for certain how close what we just heard is to the piece he wrote in 1958, except that it sounds very like the written descriptions of it I've read. After writing the Trio For Strings, Young moved to Germany to study with the modernist composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. While studying with Stockhausen, he became interested in the work of John Cage, and started up a correspondence with Cage. On his return to New York he studied with Cage and started writing pieces inspired by Cage, of which the most musical is probably Composition 1960 #7: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "Composition 1960 #7"] The score for that piece is a stave on which is drawn a treble clef, the notes B and F#, and the words "To be held for a long Time". Other of his compositions from 1960 -- which are among the few of his compositions which have been published -- include composition 1960 #10 ("To Bob Morris"), the score for which is just the instruction "Draw a straight line and follow it.", and Piano Piece for David  Tudor #1, the score for which reads "Bring a bale of hay and a bucket of water onto the stage for the piano to eat and drink. The performer may then feed the piano or leave it to eat by itself. If the former, the piece is over after the piano has been fed. If the latter, it is over after the piano eats or decides not to". Most of these compositions were performed as part of a loose New York art collective called Fluxus, all of whom were influenced by Cage and the Dadaists. This collective, led by George Maciunas, sometimes involved Cage himself, but also involved people like Henry Flynt, the inventor of conceptual art, who later became a campaigner against art itself, and who also much to Young's bemusement abandoned abstract music in the mid-sixties to form a garage band with Walter de Maria (who had played drums with the Druds): [Excerpt: Henry Flynt and the Insurrections, "I Don't Wanna"] Much of Young's work was performed at Fluxus concerts given in a New York loft belonging to another member of the collective, Yoko Ono, who co-curated the concerts with Young. One of Ono's mid-sixties pieces, her "Four Pieces for Orchestra" is dedicated to Young, and consists of such instructions as "Count all the stars of that night by heart. The piece ends when all the orchestra members finish counting the stars, or when it dawns. This can be done with windows instead of stars." But while these conceptual ideas remained a huge part of Young's thinking, he soon became interested in two other ideas. The first was the idea of just intonation -- tuning instruments and voices to perfect harmonics, rather than using the subtly-off tuning that is used in Western music. I'm sure I've explained that before in a previous episode, but to put it simply when you're tuning an instrument with fixed pitches like a piano, you have a choice -- you can either tune it so that the notes in one key are perfectly in tune with each other, but then when you change key things go very out of tune, or you can choose to make *everything* a tiny bit, almost unnoticeably, out of tune, but equally so. For the last several hundred years, musicians as a community have chosen the latter course, which was among other things promoted by Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of compositions which shows how the different keys work together: [Excerpt: Bach (Glenn Gould), "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 883"] Young, by contrast, has his own esoteric tuning system, which he uses in his own work The Well-Tuned Piano: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Well-Tuned Piano"] The other idea that Young took on was from Indian music, the idea of the drone. One of the four recordings of Young's music that is available from his Bandcamp, a 1982 recording titled The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath, consists of one hour, thirteen minutes, and fifty-eight seconds of this: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath"] Yes, I have listened to the whole piece. No, nothing else happens. The minimalist composer Terry Riley describes the recording as "a singularly rare contribution that far outshines any other attempts to capture this instrument in recorded media". In 1962, Young started writing pieces based on what he called the "dream chord", a chord consisting of a root, fourth, sharpened fourth, and fifth: [dream chord] That chord had already appeared in his Trio for Strings, but now it would become the focus of much of his work, in pieces like his 1962 piece The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, heard here in a 1982 revision: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer"] That was part of a series of works titled The Four Dreams of China, and Young began to plan an installation work titled Dream House, which would eventually be created, and which currently exists in Tribeca, New York, where it's been in continuous "performance" for thirty years -- and which consists of thirty-two different pure sine wave tones all played continuously, plus purple lighting by Young's wife Marian Zazeela. But as an initial step towards creating this, Young formed a collective called Theatre of Eternal Music, which some of the members -- though never Young himself -- always claim also went by the alternative name The Dream Syndicate. According to John Cale, a member of the group, that name came about because the group tuned their instruments to the 60hz hum of the fridge in Young's apartment, which Cale called "the key of Western civilisation". According to Cale, that meant the fundamental of the chords they played was 10hz, the frequency of alpha waves when dreaming -- hence the name. The group initially consisted of Young, Zazeela, the photographer Billy Name, and percussionist Angus MacLise, but by this recording in 1964 the lineup was Young, Zazeela, MacLise, Tony Conrad and John Cale: [Excerpt: "Cale, Conrad, Maclise, Young, Zazeela - The Dream Syndicate 2 IV 64-4"] That recording, like any others that have leaked by the 1960s version of the Theatre of Eternal Music or Dream Syndicate, is of disputed legality, because Young and Zazeela claim to this day that what the group performed were La Monte Young's compositions, while the other two surviving members, Cale and Conrad, claim that their performances were improvisational collaborations and should be equally credited to all the members, and so there have been lawsuits and countersuits any time anyone has released the recordings. John Cale, the youngest member of the group, was also the only one who wasn't American. He'd been born in Wales in 1942, and had had the kind of childhood that, in retrospect, seems guaranteed to lead to eccentricity. He was the product of a mixed-language marriage -- his father, William, was an English speaker while his mother, Margaret, spoke Welsh, but the couple had moved in on their marriage with Margaret's mother, who insisted that only Welsh could be spoken in her house. William didn't speak Welsh, and while he eventually picked up the basics from spending all his life surrounded by Welsh-speakers, he refused on principle to capitulate to his mother-in-law, and so remained silent in the house. John, meanwhile, grew up a monolingual Welsh speaker, and didn't start to learn English until he went to school when he was seven, and so couldn't speak to his father until then even though they lived together. Young John was extremely unwell for most of his childhood, both physically -- he had bronchial problems for which he had to take a cough mixture that was largely opium to help him sleep at night -- and mentally. He was hospitalised when he was sixteen with what was at first thought to be meningitis, but turned out to be a psychosomatic condition, the result of what he has described as a nervous breakdown. That breakdown is probably connected to the fact that during his teenage years he was sexually assaulted by two adults in positions of authority -- a vicar and a music teacher -- and felt unable to talk to anyone about this. He was, though, a child prodigy and was playing viola with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales from the age of thirteen, and listening to music by Schoenberg, Webern, and Stravinsky. He was so talented a multi-instrumentalist that at school he was the only person other than one of the music teachers and the headmaster who was allowed to use the piano -- which led to a prank on his very last day at school. The headmaster would, on the last day, hit a low G on the piano to cue the assembly to stand up, and Cale had placed a comb on the string, muting it and stopping the note from sounding -- in much the same way that his near-namesake John Cage was "preparing" pianos for his own compositions in the USA. Cale went on to Goldsmith's College to study music and composition, under Humphrey Searle, one of Britain's greatest proponents of serialism who had himself studied under Webern. Cale's main instrument was the viola, but he insisted on also playing pieces written for the violin, because they required more technical skill. For his final exam he chose to play Hindemith's notoriously difficult Viola Sonata: [Excerpt: Hindemith Viola Sonata] While at Goldsmith's, Cale became friendly with Cornelius Cardew, a composer and cellist who had studied with Stockhausen and at the time was a great admirer of and advocate for the works of Cage and Young (though by the mid-seventies Cardew rejected their work as counter-revolutionary bourgeois imperialism). Through Cardew, Cale started to correspond with Cage, and with George Maciunas and other members of Fluxus. In July 1963, just after he'd finished his studies at Goldsmith's, Cale presented a festival there consisting of an afternoon and an evening show. These shows included the first British performances of several works including Cardew's Autumn '60 for Orchestra -- a piece in which the musicians were given blank staves on which to write whatever part they wanted to play, but a separate set of instructions in *how* to play the parts they'd written. Another piece Cale presented in its British premiere at that show was Cage's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra": [Excerpt: John Cage, "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra"] In the evening show, they performed Two Pieces For String Quartet by George Brecht (in which the musicians polish their instruments with dusters, making scraping sounds as they clean them),  and two new pieces by Cale, one of which involved a plant being put on the stage, and then the performer, Robin Page, screaming from the balcony at the plant that it would die, then running down, through the audience, and onto the stage, screaming abuse and threats at the plant. The final piece in the show was a performance by Cale (the first one in Britain) of La Monte Young's "X For Henry Flynt". For this piece, Cale put his hands together and then smashed both his arms onto the keyboard as hard as he could, over and over. After five minutes some of the audience stormed the stage and tried to drag the piano away from him. Cale followed the piano on his knees, continuing to bang the keys, and eventually the audience gave up in defeat and Cale the performer won. After this Cale moved to the USA, to further study composition, this time with Iannis Xenakis, the modernist composer who had also taught Mickey Baker orchestration after Baker left Mickey and Sylvia, and who composed such works as "Orient Occident": [Excerpt: Iannis Xenakis, "Orient Occident"] Cale had been recommended to Xenakis as a student by Aaron Copland, who thought the young man was probably a genius. But Cale's musical ambitions were rather too great for Tanglewood, Massachusetts -- he discovered that the institute had eighty-eight pianos, the same number as there are keys on a piano keyboard, and thought it would be great if for a piece he could take all eighty-eight pianos, put them all on different boats, sail the boats out onto a lake, and have eighty-eight different musicians each play one note on each piano, while the boats sank with the pianos on board. For some reason, Cale wasn't allowed to perform this composition, and instead had to make do with one where he pulled an axe out of a single piano and slammed it down on a table. Hardly the same, I'm sure you'll agree. From Tanglewood, Cale moved on to New York, where he soon became part of the artistic circles surrounding John Cage and La Monte Young. It was at this time that he joined Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, and also took part in a performance with Cage that would get Cale his first television exposure: [Excerpt: John Cale playing Erik Satie's "Vexations" on "I've Got a Secret"] That's Cale playing through "Vexations", a piece by Erik Satie that wasn't published until after Satie's death, and that remained in obscurity until Cage popularised -- if that's the word -- the piece. The piece, which Cage had found while studying Satie's notes, seems to be written as an exercise and has the inscription (in French) "In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities." Cage interpreted that, possibly correctly, as an instruction that the piece should be played eight hundred and forty times straight through, and so he put together a performance of the piece, the first one ever, by a group he called the Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team, which included Cage himself, Cale, Joshua Rifkin, and several other notable musical figures, who took it in turns playing the piece. For that performance, which ended up lasting eighteen hours, there was an entry fee of five dollars, and there was a time-clock in the lobby. Audience members punched in and punched out, and got a refund of five cents for every twenty minutes they'd spent listening to the music. Supposedly, at the end, one audience member yelled "Encore!" A week later, Cale appeared on "I've Got a Secret", a popular game-show in which celebrities tried to guess people's secrets (and which is where that performance of Cage's "Water Walk" we heard earlier comes from): [Excerpt: John Cale on I've Got a Secret] For a while, Cale lived with a friend of La Monte Young's, Terry Jennings, before moving in to a flat with Tony Conrad, one of the other members of the Theatre of Eternal Music. Angus MacLise lived in another flat in the same building. As there was not much money to be made in avant-garde music, Cale also worked in a bookshop -- a job Cage had found him -- and had a sideline in dealing drugs. But rents were so cheap at this time that Cale and Conrad only had to work part-time, and could spend much of their time working on the music they were making with Young. Both were string players -- Conrad violin, Cale viola -- and they soon modified their instruments. Conrad merely attached pickups to his so it could be amplified, but Cale went much further. He filed down the viola's bridge so he could play three strings at once, and he replaced the normal viola strings with thicker, heavier, guitar and mandolin strings. This created a sound so loud that it sounded like a distorted electric guitar -- though in late 1963 and early 1964 there were very few people who even knew what a distorted guitar sounded like. Cale and Conrad were also starting to become interested in rock and roll music, to which neither of them had previously paid much attention, because John Cage's music had taught them to listen for music in sounds they previously dismissed. In particular, Cale became fascinated with the harmonies of the Everly Brothers, hearing in them the same just intonation that Young advocated for: [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "All I Have to Do is Dream"] And it was with this newfound interest in rock and roll that Cale and Conrad suddenly found themselves members of a manufactured pop band. The two men had been invited to a party on the Lower East Side, and there they'd been introduced to Terry Phillips of Pickwick Records. Phillips had seen their long hair and asked if they were musicians, so they'd answered "yes". He asked if they were in a band, and they said yes. He asked if that band had a drummer, and again they said yes. By this point they realised that he had assumed they were rock guitarists, rather than experimental avant-garde string players, but they decided to play along and see where this was going. Phillips told them that if they brought along their drummer to Pickwick's studios the next day, he had a job for them. The two of them went along with Walter de Maria, who did play the drums a little in between his conceptual art work, and there they were played a record: [Excerpt: The Primitives, "The Ostrich"] It was explained to them that Pickwick made knock-off records -- soundalikes of big hits, and their own records in the style of those hits, all played by a bunch of session musicians and put out under different band names. This one, by "the Primitives", they thought had a shot at being an actual hit, even though it was a dance-craze song about a dance where one partner lays on the floor and the other stamps on their head. But if it was going to be a hit, they needed an actual band to go out and perform it, backing the singer. How would Cale, Conrad, and de Maria like to be three quarters of the Primitives? It sounded fun, but of course they weren't actually guitarists. But as it turned out, that wasn't going to be a problem. They were told that the guitars on the track had all been tuned to one note -- not even to an open chord, like we talked about Steve Cropper doing last episode, but all the strings to one note. Cale and Conrad were astonished -- that was exactly the kind of thing they'd been doing in their drone experiments with La Monte Young. Who was this person who was independently inventing the most advanced ideas in experimental music but applying them to pop songs? And that was how they met Lou Reed: [Excerpt: The Primitives, "The Ostrich"] Where Cale and Conrad were avant-gardeists who had only just started paying attention to rock and roll music, rock and roll was in Lou Reed's blood, but there were a few striking similarities between him and Cale, even though at a glance their backgrounds could not have seemed more different. Reed had been brought up in a comfortably middle-class home in Long Island, but despised the suburban conformity that surrounded him from a very early age, and by his teens was starting to rebel against it very strongly. According to one classmate “Lou was always more advanced than the rest of us. The drinking age was eighteen back then, so we all started drinking at around sixteen. We were drinking quarts of beer, but Lou was smoking joints. He didn't do that in front of many people, but I knew he was doing it. While we were looking at girls in Playboy, Lou was reading Story of O. He was reading the Marquis de Sade, stuff that I wouldn't even have thought about or known how to find.” But one way in which Reed was a typical teenager of the period was his love for rock and roll, especially doo-wop. He'd got himself a guitar, but only had one lesson -- according to the story he would tell on numerous occasions, he turned up with a copy of "Blue Suede Shoes" and told the teacher he only wanted to know how to play the chords for that, and he'd work out the rest himself. Reed and two schoolfriends, Alan Walters and Phil Harris, put together a doo-wop trio they called The Shades, because they wore sunglasses, and a neighbour introduced them to Bob Shad, who had been an A&R man for Mercury Records and was starting his own new label. He renamed them the Jades and took them into the studio with some of the best New York session players, and at fourteen years old Lou Reed was writing songs and singing them backed by Mickey Baker and King Curtis: [Excerpt: The Jades, "Leave Her For Me"] Sadly the Jades' single was a flop -- the closest it came to success was being played on Murray the K's radio show, but on a day when Murray the K was off ill and someone else was filling in for him, much to Reed's disappointment. Phil Harris, the lead singer of the group, got to record some solo sessions after that, but the Jades split up and it would be several years before Reed made any more records. Partly this was because of Reed's mental health, and here's where things get disputed and rather messy. What we know is that in his late teens, just after he'd gone off to New

Portland-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Sam Coomes (Quasi, Jon Spencer and the HITmakers, Heatmiser, The Donner Party) takes a break from a busy 2023 to get Al up to speed on the Velvet Underground. Specifically, he introduces our host to VU's second album, White Light/White Heat. Sam goes in depth on the album's 17-minute closer, “Sister Ray,” and also talks about the tracks that were his favorites when he first starting listening to the album. He also talks about Quasi's soon-to-be-released (Feb. 10) album, Breaking the Balls of History, and their upcoming tour.On this episode, Al made reference to an appearance Sam made on Joe Wong's podcast, The Trap Set. You can listen to that episode here: http://www.thetrapset.net/290-sam-coomes-quasi/.Sam mentioned that Quasi would be releasing a third single from Breaking the Balls of History shortly after the recording of this episode. In fact, that single — “Nowheresville” — is out now, and there's a great video for it, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODVN6LoNL5g&list=RDODVN6LoNL5g&start_radio=1Be sure to follow Sam on Instagram! @theecoomesQuasi are worth a follow, too! @thee.quasi on Instagram and @TheeQuasi on TwitterFor the time being, Al is on Twitter at @almelchiorBB, and this show has accounts on Twitter and Instagram at @youmealbum. Be sure to follow @youmealbum to find out in advance about upcoming guests and featured albums for this podcast.The show also has an account on Mastodon: @youmealbum@mas.to.You, Me and An Album: The Newsletter is now free to all subscribers! https://youmealbum.substack.com/If you are interested in supporting this podcast, please check out the show's new Patreon site, https://www.patreon.com/youmealbum. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and keep this show going.1:21 Sam joins the show2:09 The Velvet Underground's first album was Sam's introduction to the band4:29 Sam talks about the group that inspired him to play in a band8:03 Sam and Al wax nostalgic about record stores9:10 Sam explains why he chose White Light/White Heat10:17 Is “Sister Ray” prog?13:27 Sam hears “Sister Ray” as a discussion16:29 “Sister Ray” was the last song on the album that Sam got into18:19 The Velvet Underground add unconventional elements to conventional rock songs21:23 Sam identifies the elements of White Light/White Heat that made him love the album initially26:33 Al had trouble with some of the more grisly lyrics27:23 Sam used to focus more on the music than the lyrics in “The Gift”29:16 Sam talks about the paradox of Lou Reed's lyrics31:59 The Velvet Underground got tighter as a band on White Light/White Heat33:47 Al asks Sam if he models his own sounds on those of Velvet Underground35:48 Al asks Sam about his hypothetical prog rock podcast43:08 Sam talks about the soon-to-be-released Quasi album46:33 Sam discusses his near-term touring plansOutro is from "Doomscrollers" by Quasi.

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Playlist: agnes obel - riversideGhostkeeper - ancestralmatmos - silicone gel implantblack country, new road - concorderebecca foon - new worldCola - water tableclara engel - promegranate seedsSessa - dor fodidaMaking Movies - la primera radio (feat. marc ribot)juana molina - un dia punknêhiyawak - secretRandy Roos, Mike Rossi & Tim Gilmore with Steve Hunt and John Carlson - destinationssofa surfers - broken togetherCurlew - funny funson rompe pera - los chucos sauves (feat. macha)tariq robinson - bogotáSister Ray - jackie in the kitchenReuben & The Dark - skin and bonesYoo Doo Right - SMBthe weather station - robberdj shadow - depth chargepugs & crows - not my circus not my monkeys

On this special Purple City edition of “Inside the Artist's Studio”, Sean talks to Edmonton expat Ella Coyes, of Sister Ray. Prepare yourself for a deep dive into Ella's songwriting practice, hot cribbage tips, and F1 racing.Recorded on August 28th, 2022Featured Track: “Good News” from CommunionIntro/Outro Music: Laundry Week - “Nuthin' On My Mind “

"GERMINATING IN THE SOIL"THE WEB OF SOUND by The Seeds (GNP Crescendo, 1966)1966 was probably the high water mark year for Garage Rock: There was Gloria by Shadows of Knight; Psychotic Reaction by Count V; Talk Talk by the Music Machine; We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet by The Blues Magoos, and the Eldorado of the genre: 96 Tears by ? And the Mysterians - just imagine all that Fuzz -Farfisa ripeness! Even yours truly at age 13 had his band The Full House covering all those tunes at the Princeton Hospital Fete that summer.But the undisputed King of Garage Rock was Sky Saxon of The Seeds (one of the house bands at Bido Lito's in Hollywood - also home of Love), and this recording The Web of Sound has all the elements of what one critic called “snotty aggression with some heavier psychedelic flourishes” that made garage rock the indelible statement that it was. The 14 minute “Up in her Room” , with its penetrating bottleneck guitar work by Cooker, has been compared to The Velvet Underground's “Sister Ray”, and the influence of The Seeds, like their east coast counterparts, the Velvets, was enormous. Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and many other credit Sky and his band to be their inspirations.Sky, born Richard Elven Marsh to a Mormon family in 1937, had traveled a long distance spiritually when he joined the Yahowha vegetarian cult following Father Yod, taking the additional name of “Sunlight.” Enroute, he masterminded some of the most infectiously growling proto- punk ever, and on this set he leads us through its many mansions with slimy yet sinuous renditions of Tripmaker, Farmer John, and Rolling Machine.Interesting note: this cartridge is not an 8, but a 4 track - the format that preceded the 8. The carts have no pinch roller, and the tape is engaged by a lever on the player. Ancient technology for the most primitive of wonderments.Side One:1. | "Mr. Farmer" | Sky Saxon | 2:522. | "Pictures and Designs" | Daryl Hooper, Saxon | 2:443. | "Tripmaker" | Hooper, Marcus Tybalt | 2:484. | "I Tell Myself" | Tybalt | 2:315. | "A Faded Picture" | Hooper, Saxon | 5:206. | "Rollin' Machine" | Saxon, Tybalt | 2:32Side Two:1. | "Just Let Go" | Hooper, Jan Savage, Saxon | 4:212. | "Up in Her Room" | Saxon | 14:45

Sister Ray grew up in South Africa to an Iranian Sunni family. Her mother was a Catholic that converted to Islam.  She went to an all girls Catholic school, and was also raised in the traditional Islamic belief.  She did start questioning her Islamic belief when she went to university and started reading Islamic books in English.  She was upset about the way women are treated in Islam, unlike what she has been taught that Islam raised the value of women.  She met a born again Christian in college and he invited her to go to church.  The sermon was about Moses.  She was asked by her Muslim people not to watch the Disney movie "The Prince of Egypt". Ray's journey continues next time.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the most influential guitarists and songwriters of all time, Johnny Marr (The Smiths, Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs) delves into major moments in his creative evolution, from discovering his love of guitar at age five to finding favorite artists like Marc Bolan and Patti Smith and The Only Ones as a teenager to joining his first band (Sister Ray; he was fourteen, playing with a group of adults) to the early days of The Smiths and how he dealt with the pressure of their fame, when it came to making The Queen Is Dead, in particular. He also explains what aspects of his songwriting practice he's retained over the years, and how he approached his excellent latest album, Fever Dreams, Pts. 1-4. Marr starts a tour in North America later this month. Get tickets here.

Don't call it new wave, call it "modern music". The newest Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio has new sounds from MOM'S PLATE, PUPPET WIPES, ZDROJ, HOLT BODISH, LONG ODDS and THE JEANINES - as well as something from the new THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 reissues + all manner of modern music from Mirrors, Ghosts Before Breakfast, Tapeworm, The Spits, Sister Ray, The Sloths and more. Track listing:MOM'S PLATE - AnxietyHOLT BODISH - Happiness is AnotherPUPPET WIPES - A Web For Every GardenSCHOOL DAMAGE - Phone DroneTHE STACHES - Sub ZeroWOODBOOT - Bad NewsTHE SPITS - FlagsTAPEWORM - Break My FaceTHINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 - HurricaneLONG ODDS - Not Enough StarsGHOSTS BEFORE BREAKFAST - All Your MysteriesTHE JEANINES - Dead Not DeadWURLD SERIES - What Would You Do ZDROJ - Otwórzcie Parki ZdrojoweMIRRORS - Out of OrderBENT - Where's The FireLANTERN - Strange WeatherSISTER RAY - PurgatorySLOTHS - Makin' Love THE BRENTWOODS - Buri Buri BashCOUNTRY TEASERS - Anytime, Cowboy #2PUSSY & THE LEARJETS - Nothing Can Bring Me Down

Tim Bernardes anuncia digressão portuguesa em outubro; concertos de Sister Ray em novembro; Beyoncé mostra capa e tracklist do novo disco.

What's the greatest line used to promote an album? You're going to find out in this episode of The Road The Stage with Ella Coyes AKA Sister Ray. Patrick Bateman and Peter Michaels have been spending a ton of time with Sister Ray's new record Communion, which is absolutely beautiful. And it reveals a lot about the sort of things Ella has experienced over the years. We talk about the process, working with Ginla, finally seeing Big Thief, the Legend of Jackie Shane, Chicago eats and maybe even some F1. It's a great talk and you deserve to hear it. You can also watch it over on the Communal Creative Studios YouTube channel. Follow Sister Ray and make sure you check out Communion - it's fantastic. Recorded and produced at Communal Creative Studios in Red Deer, Alberta.

Sister Ray is an Edmonton born singer/songwriter crafting beautiful, brutally personal songs written with a self awareness that is admirably sensitive and sympathetic. Their vocal quality is painfully gorgeous, poignant, and patient; their songwriting, rooted in the heritage and influences of Sturgeon County, but shaped through the resilience and and rawness that is universal to the pangs of becoming an individual. Check out the incredible performance by Sister Ray on Audiotree Live.  Download & stream Sister Ray on Audiotree Live -- https://lnk.to/AT-SisterRay  Support the Artists: http://audiotree.bandcamp.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recorded 30th of May 2022. A selection of lovely vinyl records that I bought on my recent trip to the UK.Shouts to Flashback, Reckless, Rough Trade and Sister Ray.Oh and towards the end I started randomly playing rock tunes and drumming along to them haha. Rinse out. 

En Música de Contrabando , revista diaria de música en Onda Regional de Murcia(hoy vamos de 23,05 a 01,00h). Tras la invasión a Ucrania por parte de las tropas de Putin, son muchos los artistas que han decidido cancelar sus conciertos en Rusia a modo de humilde protesta. Ha sido el caso de Green Day, que tenían programado un concierto para 45.000 personas en Moscú el 29 de mayo, pero también los de Imagine Dragons, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers… La gira conmemorativa del cuarenta aniversario de Simple Minds tiene nueva fecha. Tras dos años aplazándola por la pandemia, los escoceses anuncian concierto en Madrid para celebrar sus cuatro décadas sobre los escenarios (en Murcia el 30 julio). Enrique Bunbury anuncia su retirada de los escenarios por problemas de salud. Soft Cell regresan el 6 de mayo con Happiness is not included (BMG), su primer disco desde Cruelty without beauty, publicado en 2002. Revisitado Another World de Brian May con la reedición remasterizada dentro de su Gold Series. Second desvelan otra de sus flores imposibles: “El contorno de tus miedos”. Influido por el entorno en el que vive y trabaja y por largos períodos de reflexión y experimentación en el estudio, Marc Parrot estrena disco. The Sand anuncia primeras fechas de presentación de "Little Secrets". Low estrenan vídeo para "all night", otro de los emocionantes momentos de HEY WHAT. "Lombardía 22" es el nombre del primer álbum de Yarea y ya tiene fecha de publicación: será el próximo 1 de abril. "La lluvia" es uno de los últimos temas que se anticipan a la salida del disco.El nuevo Single Digital del trio valenciano AMOR BUTANO confirma lo que apuntaban esos hits redondos que eran “Tifón Salinas” y “Esta Era”, sus primeras referencias para Elefant Records. La banda formada por Raquel, Sara y Diego tiene un tino especial para las melodías y los arreglos, para llevar la New Wave a nuevas cotas en el contexto del pop electrónico español. Javier Corcobado regresa con 'French Disko', homenajeando con respeto y admiración a STEREOLAB con la ferocidad sonora y la elegancia que le caracterizan, y acompañado musicalmente por Culto Oculto.Sister Ray sorprende con su particular propuesta de indie folk ensoñador y evanescente, pero de mensaje rotundo y contundente.. Rubén Pozo vuelve con un nuevo disco en solitario que llegará esta primavera. Cinco años han pasado desde la publicación de su aclamado “Habrá que Vivir” en 2017 y dos desde la publicación de su último álbum junto a Lichis, “Mesa para dos”. Ahora, Rubén Pozo comienza un nuevo camino con la publicación de “Mañana es lunes”. Nuevo sencillo de Hidrogenesse: “De repente hay un espejo” es la reelaboración dance electrónica en clave dub tropical del tema “Llorreír”. Paco Morán nos presenta el primer EP de The Rays On, compuesto por experimentados músicos de Karenin, Clara Plath y Neuman. Carmen Alarcón, cantante, compositora y productora, a la que conocemos por AA Mama, es una mujer muy especial que empata en sensibilidad y fuerza, tal y como es su proyecto Hoonine, que nos presenta el último adelanto, “Besé a Aramís”, de su álbum debut ROCA ROJA (Son Buenos 2022), que tiene como fecha de lanzamiento el 25 de marzo. BESÉ A ARAMÍS es un tema liberador y de aceptación, frente a la máxima de la meritocracia

FTHC es el nuevo disco de Frank Turner, catorce artefactos para abordar cuestiones delicadas como el suicidio o el cambio de sexo. Él dice que es como una mini biografía ubicada en tiempo y espacio para cerrar un capítulo de su vida y abrir otro, como un nuevo punto de referencia para él y le sale su lado más country pero también el más grunge y el más salvaje en momentos como 'Haven't Been Doing So Well' o 'The Gathering'. Aparte, escuchamos lo nuevo de la australiana Hatchie y de la irlandesa Wallis Bird. EDDIE VEDDER – Power Of Right FRANK TURNER - Haven't Been Doing So Well FRANK TURNER - The Gathering HATCHIE - Giving The World Away FOXES – Sister Ray BELAKO - Profile Anxiety (Crystal Fighters Remix) MITCH DAVIS - Let It Die GOOD LOOKS - Vision Boards THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – I’m Waiting For The Man WILCO – Impossible Germany PORTUGAL THE MAN – What, Me Worry WALLIS BIRD – What’s Wrong With Changing IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE - Protection From Evil WHITE LIES - Blue Drift DEPECHE MODE – Enjoy The Silence CUPIDO – Santa Escuchar audio

今日ピックアップするのは、88位に初登場！ FOXES、「SISTER RAY」 2012年にデビューし、これまでに2枚のアルバムをリリース。 イギリスのポップ・アイドルとして人気を博したフォクシーズ。 しかしここ数年、さっぱり名前を聞かなくなりました。 じつは2017年から2020年まで、3年間ほぼ活動休止状態。 いったい何があったのか？ フォクシーズが芸能雑誌「Hello!」に語ったところによると、 19歳のころからずっと音楽業界にいて、 それ以外の人生経験を逃してしまったことに気づき、 "soul searching"（自分探し）のためにお休みを取ったとのこと。 ・・・といっても完全に音楽から離れていたわけではなく、 ニカラグアのジャングルで曲作りの合宿をしたこともあったとか。 「売れるものを作らなきゃ」というプレッシャーもなく、 ただ好きなように好きな音楽を作る、そんな生活をしていたそうです。 おかげでメジャーレーベルとの契約はなくなりましたが、 昨年からインディで活動を再開。 来年2月には『The Kick』と題した通算3枚目のアルバムをリリース予定。 この曲「Sister Ray」は、そこからの先行シングルです。

If you like a list, you've come to the right place. This week you'll get several lists, including 5 Broadcast songs and 5 Road Trip movies. But there's more folks! You'll get to hear about some new additions to the record collection, Lester Bangs and 'long read' journalism, the 'three song rule' when it comes to shooting live music photography, the drama surrounding a hole in my beloved Sister Ray t-shirt, and we also play some great tunes for you as well. I'm sure you'll agree, this is can't miss listening :-)

Ange and Amy sit down with Amplify's first ever performer to discuss her recent album "Untitled", her unique musical style and her plans post-quarantine. Find her on Bandcamp and follow her here! Learn more about Amplify here! Recorded June 24, 2020.

Two burgeoning musical geniuses came together in the mid-60s to form the Velvet Underground, a group that expanded the definition of what a rock band could be. Lou Reed’s literary ambitions led him to craft lyrics steeped in the gritty language of the streets, while John Cale called upon his background in the avant garde music scene of downtown Manhattan. Their unique talents coalesced on tracks like “Venus in Furs,” “Sister Ray,” and “Heroin,” groundbreaking songs that laid the groundwork for punk, art-rock, and many other genres to come. The Velvet Underground’s historical influence cannot be overstated, but their lack of commercial success led to heightened tensions in the group. Reed felt his dominance challenged by Cale’s musical virtuosity and forced him out of the band, which would never achieve the same level of musical daring. Their prolific solo careers in the ’70s and beyond bore traces of their ex-partner, as Reed sought to bolster his artistic credentials with noise experiments, while Cale developed his gift for melody and song craft. Ultimately, it was the unexpected death of their estranged one-time benefactor, Andy Warhol, that brought the pair back together to make peace with themselves, their troubled history, and their towering musical legacy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

One day in 1975 Howard Trafford placed a notice on the Bolton Institute of Technology's noticeboard saying he was looking for musicians that shared a liking for The Velvet Underground song "Sister Ray". Peter McNeish, a fellow student at the Institute, responded to the notice.The pair travelled to London to see the Sex Pistols play and were so impressed and excited by what they'd seen they invited the Pistols to play in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, a gig that has gone down in history as the birth of punk, new wave and independent music that remains a large part of Manchester's musical identity to this day.McNeish became Pete Shelley and Trafford became Howard Devoto, the pair formed the Buzzcocks and produced the UK's first independently recorded and distributed records, the Spiral Scratch E.P. Devoto then quit to form Magazine leaving Shelley to continue on his own bringing his idiosyncratic views on love to the punk song, fusing pop and punk in a genre that continues to thrive to this day.The story of Buzzcocks is one of sudden ups and downs, join me on this rollercoaster ride that doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon!Contact:Twitter: @BannedBiogsFacebook: @BannedBiographiesInstagram: @bannedbiographiesE-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com

In this inaugural episode of Important In Your Life, your hosts Jonathan Mann and Carolyn Petit start the show with a showstopper! Yes, we begin our exploration of Jonathan Richman's career with "Roadrunner," arguably his most legendary song, and one which was covered by Joan Jett, the Sex Pistols and many others. Our conversation starts with a quick look at our personal introductions to Jonathan's music, and some thoughts on why some people become such lifelong, devoted fans. We then discuss what makes "Roadrunner" a quintessential Jonathan tune, one that contains, even at that early stage, some of the qualities that would go on to define him as an artist. We also discuss his uneasy relationship with the possibility of mainstream success, how his love of the modern world has evolved, and the numerous versions of "Roadrunner" that Jonathan recorded and released. Listen to "Roadrunner": 1971 demo tape version album version UK chart version 1977 B-side version Listen to "Sister Ray" by The Velvet Underground Read There's Something About Jonathan by Tim Mitchell

- "Life Ain't Enough For You" feat. Asia Argento - “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” feat. Maria De Medeiros - “She's A Hellcat" feat. Peaches - “No Way To Leave On A Sunday Night” feat. Becky Lee - “Lonesome Town” feat. Rita Redshoes - “Radio & TV Blues” feat. Cais Sodré Cabaret - “The Saddest Thing To Say” feat. Lisa Kekaula - “My Stomach Is The Most Violent Of All Of Italy” feat. Asia Argento - “Light Me Up Twice” feat. Cláudia Efe - “& Then Came The Pain” feat. Phoebe Killdeer - “I Just Wanna Know (What We're Gonna Do)” feat. Cibelle - “Old Fashioned Man” feat. Becky Lee & Drunkfoot, - “Hey, Sister Ray” feat. Rita Redshoes - “Thirteen” feat. Mafalda Nascimento - “True Love Will Find You In The End” feat. Cibelle Escuchar audio

Return to Bugenhagen,Magical Music Box!Aerith's Theme :(Aerith knew what she was doing,Let's go stop Seph!Oh no! Weapon!Oh no! The Sister Ray!Bang! Boom! Explosions!RIP RUFUS

There are so many similarities and connections between the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground, so why do they feel like polar opposites? We compare and contrast both bands' most jammed-out masterpieces to get to the bottom of it.

Today 5pm-6pm EST 10pm-11pm BST 2pm-3pm PDTbombshellradio.com Bombshell RadioRepeats 5am EST #Rock ,#Radio, #alternative, #Classics,#NewMusic, #ZadokStrawberry, #ForTheRecord02:41 "Psychotic Reaction","Count Five"05:32 "I Can't Stand It","The Velvet Underground"08:52 "Sister Ray","The Velvet Underground"26:32 "Little Johnny Jewel (Pts. 1 & 2)",Television34:33 "Torn Curtain",Television41:13 Atmosphere,"Joy Division"45:23 "Dead Souls","Joy Division"50:15 SteadyEddieSteady,"Fashion Music"53:33 "Killing Time","Fashion Music"

Today’s episode starts with news about one of the city’s buzziest restaurant openings: Fort Oak. Troy had the First Look and tells us about its seafood-centric menu, the high design, and how a parking garage caused major problems. Elsewhere in Hot Plates, we discuss Sister Ray’s, a new chili dog and burger concept from the teams behind The Balboa Bar & Grill and Luigi’s Pizzeria; an Italian concept moving into Bankers Hill this May with Michelin-star resumes; and a New York Times piece on the omakase-only Kearny Mesa restaurant Hidden Fish. Today’s guest is Moe Girton, a pioneer of Hillcrest’s restaurant scene and a partner at Mo’s Universe, which includes Gossip Grill, Urban’s Mo’s, Hillcrest Brewing Company, and Baja Betty’s. She talks about starting her career as a “door girl” at The Flame, moving up from bartender to management, opening Gossip Grill 10 years ago, and her new venture at InsideOut. We’re talking about how gay rights negatively impacted Hillcrest’s LGBTQ scene, why she calls Gossip Grill a “women’s bar” rather than a “lesbian bar,” and more. Our hot topic is about just how vegan San Diego really is according to a recent survey. And in Two People/$50, we’re recommending Muzita, Facing East (and Troy’s quest for the best xiao long bao in San Diego), Pomegranate, and El Carrito.

Here's the latest dose of sub-underground whatever from the depths of the Dynamite Hemorrhage mp3 roasts collection. You'll hear new stuff from PRIVATE SECTOR, OLDEN YOLK, PREENING, BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO, SPECK.....plus the "Sister Ray" and "Nazi USA" edits you've been waiting for your entire life. And more! Track listing: PRIVATE SECTOR - Disco Pope PREENING - P.O. Box SPECK - Run DELINQUENTS - Motivation Complex TEENGENERATE - Out of Sight NIGHT KINGS - Bum GOLDEN STARLET - Baby VELVET UNDERGROUND - Sister Ray (single edit) HARRY PUSSY - A Real New England Fuck Up HARRY PUSSY - Nazi USA LESLIE Q - Don’t Remind Me HALL OF FAME - Fatter Leaner SHALLOWS - Suzanne Said JONATHAN HALPER - Leaving My Old Life Behind CHARALAMBIDES - Now The Day Is Over OLDEN YOLK - Vital Sign THE PUDDLE - Thursdays WORKDOGS - Funny $ BILL ORCUTT/CHRIS CORSANO - Untitled

Jeff takes over from Marvin to interview Ella Coyes about her unique project Sister Ray. They discuss the aim of the project, her dislike of her debut album and the importance of Craig Martell to the albums very existence. Then Ella goes through the rapid-fire questions and we learn of her hatred towards adults acting like children in medical clinics and her love of Jeff Buckley. Recorded Aug 14th , 2017 Sister Ray track used with full permission  www.sisterray1.bandcamp.com/releases Background Music: Atlantis Jazz Ensemble - Undercurrents Used with permission from Atlantis Jazz Ensemble and Marlow Records http://www.marlowrecords.com

Our dear Sister Ray shares her story that transpired in the belly of a Church that happened to operate - like so many - under the cloak of holiness while infested in deception, dysfunction and denial. This has enabled a particular in-house child sexual predator who depended on the lack of protective action by those in the church - who failed on their watch - to carry out his wicked deeds! Join us in our uncensored adult conversation as we go in hard on the hot topics of the day! Call in live at 888.575.3769. Text Lance at 407.590.0755 if you have any inquiries about the program or desire an interview. As always, please like, comment, share & subscribe! DOWNLOAD MY FREE APP: iPhone - https://goo.gl/iv3qKA | Android - https://goo.gl/AhdIiL GET YOUR SCURV ON: http://bit.ly/ScurvTube LanceScurv is an Insightful Culture Critic, Entertaining Podcast Host, Relentless Blogger, Talented Cartoonist & Omnipotent Social Media Activist who focuses on the issues that the Mainstream Media is deathly afraid to touch and living an interesting productive life to the fullest! Subscribe! --Connect With Us Further-- Join Our Facebook Discussion Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/LanceScurvShow/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/lancescurv/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/lancescurv INSTAGRAM: https://www.Instagram.com/LanceScurv BLOG: https://www.lancescurv.com/ PHONE/TEXT: 407.590.0755 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lancescurv/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lancescurv/support

JUNIOR ASPIRIN RADIO SESSION 22Hang on wait is this 7 hours of Sister Ray!? This is even more Ray than Steve Irwin done got. Collected, devised and selected by Thomas "Honey" Newth esq.SISTER RAY PODCAST HERE 0.00 (mystery extract)Who knows where this is from? It may even be elsewhere on this mix. Who can say? Bootlegs throw up funny things like this. They are also of, ahem, variable audio quality.2.13 The Gymnasium, NYC, April 7 or 8, 1967The song's about a year old now, having been trotted out in the summer of '66 according to a setlist, but they say this is the earliest recording. The Gymnasium, incidentally, was a real gymnasium that Andy thought was cool. The bootleg of this whole(?) show is really great. The Velvets are starting to form their Andy-less identity as a hard rock'n'rolling dance band.21.09 LP, NYC, mid-September, 1967 - alternate mixFamously, they did one take, with everything turned to 11. Masses of leakage. But no bass. 38.31 LP - Swan mixThere was a random compilation in the early 70s I think it was, with an ugly four-headed swan cover (and Lou billed separately)  and the songs remixed (or at least remastered). "Sister Ray" and "Lady Godiva's Operation" are strikingly different.55.54 LP - stereoActually, Moe says they did maybe two takes. And she was pissed that Tom Wilson forgot to turn on some of the mics, so there's no rimshot after Lou says "Who's that knocking at my chamber door?".There's a mono version too, but I think this'll do.1.13.14  Boston Tea Party  August 11 or 12, 1967The Velvets really liked to play the BTP. This is their third weekend there of 1967, and it would be their home away from home during a three-year more-or-less boycott of New York. They built an enthusiastic local following, including one J.Richman, who talked his way into opening for them a couple of times. This is the only time Andy went up there, with Paul Morrissey, and did the whole EPI thing. They shot a film at these shows, whence this audio, so it's rated A for Andy.1.26.45 Sweet Sister Ray, La Cave, Cleveland, April 30, 1968"Sister Ray" now has a part 1, apparently played quite a few times, as a lengthy, blissful workout before launching into the main bit. But there's only this one recording; and there's no recording of the slightly later part 3, "Sweet Rock'n'Roll", which got trotted out on a couple of occasions, by repute, heavier even than part 2. Actually, there was a recording in San Diego, but the tape got stolen right after the gig. The Velvets really did play a lot of shows, it's usually overlooked, and were a cooking band always ready to work up and rework their songs on stage, which is one reason the bootlegs are so important. And they liked to play for a long time.Also, it may be worth mentioning at this point that one of the reasons they sound so awesome is that for quite a stretch of the earlier days, after the Ostrich guitar got nicked, Lou was playing a 12-string Gretsch Country Gentleman with added preamp, speed, stereo and tremolo controls (and Fender pickups, and maybe an echo unit as well - Lou ended by fucking it up adding too much junk, and the guy who originally built for him wouldn' speak to him for a year; also, the band early managed to score endorsement deals on amps from Vox, then later Sunn; and Sterling and John would play with whatever effecgts pedals they could lay thier hands on.) Anyway, they say that at this point Lou could play 16 notes at once, and if that's not awesome I don't know what is.2.04.52 (not) Poor Richard's, Chicago, June-July, 1966 (excerpt)Sad to say, there's also very few recordings of John Cale playing on this song live ("Sweet Sister Ray" is the last one). This is not actually the first, tho it'd be cool if it were. The Poor Richard's stint marks the first time a song called "Searching" appears on an extant setlist. Sterl says it was still an instrumental jam at this point. Ingrid Superstar said it sounded like 12 million guitars and hurt her eardrums. Lou wasn't even there. It might be, in fact, that the song was mostly cooked up without him; apparently it only started to come together at this residency. After a busy first half of the year, Nico goes to Ibiza for the summer, Lou goes to hospital with hepatitis (not for the last time), and John, Sterl, Moe, and the whole EPI crowd set up shop in Chicago (also appearing at the Playboy Club). Actually, Andy didn't want to go either, so Ingrid played him in a strawberry-blonde wig. They seem to have no problem without Lou, and re-recruit percussionist-poet Angus MacLise, the original drummer. Moe plays bass. In fact, they go over so well the stay is extended by a week.This is totally not MacLise drumming. I can't remember where this snippet came from, nor the justification for its attribution. It too is probably nestled elsewhere in this mix.2.06.08 La Cave, Cleveland, October 4-6, 1968John's kicked out in September. Doug Yule is recruited rather randomly and within two days is on the road. The Velvets also play La Cave quite frequently and, as in Boston, could draw a good crowd enthusiastically familiar with the songs. Whatever the impact of the Cale/Yule swap, these two venues as much as anything else contribute to the Velvets' transformation from art noise to the "dance band from Long Island" as Lou would occasionally describe them.. Yule comports himself remarkably well.2.16.45 Music Hall, Cleveland, December 1, 19682.35.15 Boston Tea Party, December 12, 19683.01.03 Boston Tea Party, January 10, 19693.22.26 La Cave, Cleveland, January 31, 1969There's a few other gigs in between these, but none seem to have been bootlegged. Sister Ray is well-established as the set-closing rave-up by now, and Yule has settled right in. Best of all, Lou starts around now throwing in lyrics from "The Murder Mystery", which he'll do again from time to time. They never attempt the whole song live. Sterl said it was too hard.3.50.40 Boston Tea Party, March 13, 1969 A rare rundown of the characters from Lou (which you can't really hear). They are playing this right after "Jesus".4.13.22 Boston Tea Party, March 15, 1969 - Guitar AmpThat was Thursday and this is Saturday, and some enterprising fan puts a tape recorder right inside Lou's amp. This whole boot is one of my favourite recordings ever. Interestingly, it's not even all that helpful in determining which guitar is which on other recordings. That's really one of the many great things about the band, that the guitars weave together so beautifully that one ceases to care quite quickly who is playing what.Tho it's nice to know here. 4.39.20 Washington University, St Louis, May 11, 1969Despite the fact that even for those who wanted it, the recent LP (third) is really hard to get a hold of all over, a couple of thousand people turned up to this gig, to everyone's surprise. Perhaps this got Lou feeling playful, since "Foggy Notion" makes a neat cameo. Robert Quine taped it, as he would several other shows this year, before going on to shred guitar for Richard Hell and for Lou himself.5.08.02 Boston Tea Party, July 11, 19695.30.21 End of Cole, Dallas, October 19, 1969The Velvets played six nights on the trot here, apparently cos the rich kid owner was a fan. Two of the shows were recorded, rumour has it by an actual audio engineer, and this is where much of Live 1969 comes from. Sterl incidentally was a bit sniffy about that album cos he said the club was small - they would take this into account (to an extent) in arrangements and volume - but were at their best when they really felt free to let rip (obvs). Nonetheless, this is a particularly good rendition.5.43.31 The Family Dog, SF, November 7, 19696.07.33 The Matrix, SF, November 26 or 27, 1969Although the Velvets famously didn't get on with California (Bill Graham and Frank Zappa in particular) on their 1966 visit, they seemed happy enough to go back quite often. They had also played the Matrix the weekend between these two shows. It was another small club - capacity 100, but with a four-track hooked up to the soundboard. It was pressed into action for four sets over two nights of this stay (Quine also recorded some of the shows on his portable Sony; the Family Dog one previous is his too). Some of the Matrix soundboard cuts from the 19th got official releases (from hasty two-track mixdowns), but the whole set of tapes finally surfaced not long ago and it's absolutely stellar.6.44.25 Second Fret,Philadelphia, January 3, 1970This is actually a bit of a damp squib on which to end, but it seems to be the last recorded version - less than two weeks later she's vanished from all four setlists at the Quiet Knight in Chicago and (thankfully) doesn't appear on the Max's tapes from the summer. The Velvets are well-liked in Philly too, playing several times in this small club for which 200 was a definite squeeze. Here they're ending a ten-night stand that began on Christmas Day. But they are already showing signs of chilling out from their great '68-'69 run: another period of transition (i.e. The End). Moe's on pregnancy leave by April, and doesn't appear on Loaded at all, nor at the Max's summer residency. "Sister Ray" is well out of the set by the latter, tho for my money, without Moe it's no longer really the Velvet Underground at all. And the less said about the post-Lou band the better. There's a couple of live renditions from that era (now only Moe remains) but I am unlikely ever to listen to them.My obsession with the Velvets has been enabled by many things, first and foremost The Velvet Underground Handbook  by M.C. Kostek (Hyperion, 1992), a bible for years until superceded by the remarkable http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/; and most recently White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground day-by-dayby Richie Unterberger (Jawbone, 2009) which I feel like an idiot for taking so long to getting around to read, for it really is the last word. Amazing, and not really for the casual fan.

Beeblax beats its wings against a superlumic slurry of time and space, and the universe turns to liquid starlight in its periphery; inside rides Aria Astra---Stellar Champion of the Star Supremacy, Wielder of the Sister Ray, Spacetrotting Coolgal, and Humanity's Last Hope---nestled within a blob of translucent pink jellymeat, and it is totally cool and only a little disgusting. | Copyright 2017 by Violet Allen. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki.

This week on Turned out A Punk, it is legit legends week as we welcome, guitarist of the legendary Viletones, Freddie Pompeii the show for a legendary episode. Hear stories of acid fuelled Velvet Underground experiences to laying the foundation of Punk and being in arguably the most important Canadian punk band ever. -The Abridge Version: 60’s Garage “Punk” -Bubble: Dot Records Recording Artists -Going to Mariposa Music Festival -Beating the The Draft -A band with Dan’s brother Peter Ackroyd -Meeting Mickey from the Curse -A Weed Bust -Experiments in Fuzz: learning to play guitar in prison -Peter Panic: one-man-proto-punk -Getting fired from the Gasworks: Meeting Steve Leckie -The Southern Ontario Circuit and eating Moose meat spaghetti, -“Freddie, What are you Into man!?!?!”: Getting Punked -Being a country songwriter. -Seeing the Velvet Underground play a Sister Ray… in a coffee shop… ON ACID! -Snorting coke and smoking weed in the lobby during Genesis -The New York Dolls and KISS (“Just a rock metal band”) at Massy Hall -Seeing an ad in the paper for the a band -Forming the Viletones -Zoom and Chris Hate -The Viletones and the self-mutilation on stage and in the audience. -Touring the US for the -The Reds -Ben Vaughn Combo -Other US shows -Bleecker Bob taking you to the hospital -The Diodes -Teenage Head: Friends from the start -Lydia Lunch puling you off the stage to have her way with you. -The Cramps and Suicide opening for the Canadian Weekend at CBGB’s -“The Nazi Thing” an attempt at parody -The Viletones on the CBC -The Media buzz -The almost UK debut -Enter The Secrets: The end of the Viletones AND MORE!!!!!!

In the immediate aftermath of World Record Store Day, Chris speaks to Johnny Hartford of Sister Ray Records.   

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