Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

hours and hours of a building.

have watched this for about fifteen minutes at the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh...it is almost indescribably beautiful fwiw

crazy times. is lou for or against it, do you think?

think lou has always been pretty pro-javascript but a late career turnaround isn't impossible

im officially obsessed with velvet underground bootlegs. what's the definitive version of the gymnasium show? 'psychedelic sounds from the gymnasium" has booker t after sister ray which is not in the other widely circulated boot

On "The Singles 1966-69" there's a radio spot at the end, at at the end of the radio spot there's a mix of Beginning To See The Light where the drums sound way different. Anyone know where that's from?

Well, bear in mind the current CD has the 'non-closet' mix, so its either

1) From the 'non-closet' mix, originally issued on the first pressings of the UK edition, and all the ones (LP, etc) ever available in Japan
2) The 'closet' mix, issued 'later' in the UK, and that was always issued as the LP version everywhere else.

Back when, I ended up paying plenty for a jap copy, and less than a year later the CD version came out.

Anyway, back to the promo, I'd assume it's from the 'closet' mix.

I thangyew.

closet mix would be correct, imho.

I checked out the two cd version of Live 1969 from my public library and was sort of surprised and stoked over some of the differences between it and my 2lp version of it.
Like "Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Just Too Much." I couldn't believe there was a VU song I hadn't heard, but I was still glad. I'm also certain that there are different takes of some songs.

Definitely not the closet mix, since that's the CD I have, but maybe it's the non-closet mix? The difference is on the closet mix the drums are panned center and are softer, and on the radio promo they're panned more to the left and at the end during "how does it feel to be loved" there's a much more prominent pounding floor tom sound.

Could the Closet mix on the Peel Slowly And See box be different from yours?

I just realized I still have my old CD from before the box set came out. I just checked and it's definitely not a closet vs. non-closet issue.

I have a CD from the mid '90s pre-peel slowly box, and then I have the box.

unreleased mix alert!

Eh, maybe not. On closer listen I guess it is the closet mix, it's just that the radio promo is less bassy and more distorted and that tom sticks out more?

It's probably Tom Wilson talking over a copy of the album playing with a bit more reverb.

Well, I want a mix of the whole album like that. "How do you feel? You don't really know how you feel."

Like a director's commentary

“Angus MacLise was the Velvet Underground's first drummer. He withdrew when he found out that at a paying job he had to start and stop playing when told to. No one told Angus to stop playing. So the job of a working musician was impossible for Angus, and he taught us all a lesson about purity of spirit.

Angus was a dream percussionist. A dream person.” -- Lou Reed

DREAMWEAPON
The Art and Life of Angus MacLise 1938 – 1979

May 10 - May 29, 2011
Art Exhibition
Open EVERYDAY 11AM-6PM
Boo-Hooray Gallery Chelsea
521 W 23rd Street Sound Installation
Open EVERYDAY 11AM-6PM
Boo-Hooray Gallery Chinatown
Location to-be-announced, Chinatown, NYC

Opening party: Tue, May 10, 2011, 6pm at Boo-Hooray Chelsea
Film Screening at Anthology Film Archives: Thurs, May 12, 2011 at 8pm
Walks and Talks at Chelsea Location: Sat 5/14 at 3pm, Sat 5/21 at 3pm

Exhibition series overview
DREAMWEAPON, The Art and Life of Angus MacLise 1938-1979 is the upcoming exhibit at pop-up / parasite gallery Boo-Hooray and presents the work of the American artist, poet, percussionist, and composer active in New York, San Francisco, Paris, London and Kathmandu in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The exhibition series will include an overview of poetry, artwork, and publications in Chelsea, an audio installation in Chinatown, and a night of film screenings at Anthology Film Archives.

Sound installation overview
Boo-Hooray presents a new sound installation of never before heard music by Angus MacLise and collaborators. The sound installation will be open everyday to the public, from 11AM to 6PM, at the new Boo-Hooray Gallery space. Angus MacLise, a composer/improviser and inventive hand drummer, produced multimedia tape works and concerts of his own music that often included dance, poetry, and experimental films. He composed original scores for films by Ira Cohen, Jack Smith, Ron Rice, Sheldon Rochlin, and Don Snyder. A founding member of the Velvet Underground, he also performed with La Monte Young’s The Theatre of Eternal Music and Daniel Moore’s Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company. The audio installation will play the entire Angus MacLise tape archive including film scores, improvised jams, tape collage works, and drumming with various groups of musicians across a variety of genres. Each day the installation will feature a set of curated programs of MacLise’s music.

Film screening night overview
May 12th, 2011 at 8pm, Anthology Film Archives will host an evening of film and video works by Ira Cohen and Piero Heliczer. At the center of this event is the underground classic, The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Dir. Ira Cohen, 1968), showcasing the music of Angus MacLise and the Universal Mutant Repertory Company. The program will also include works by Heliczer starring MacLise, Marty Topp portapak video from the Ira Cohen Jefferson St. loft (1971-72), and the world premiere of a new film, Heavy Canon (Dir. Ira Cohen, 1968/2011), comprised of unseen 16mm footage shot in Cohen’s Mylar Chamber and scored with tapes from the Angus MacLise archive.

DREAMWEAPON is curated by Johan Kugelberg and Will Cameron.

Bump, this starts tonight.

yeah, sadly Ira Cohen just died last week.

detailed descrip of that VU in Boston film from someone at the velvet forum:
The sound quality is like you are outside the venue listening in with alot of background noise, so whatever your expectations you will be disappointed, as this is by far the worst VU audio experience. However if you listen very closely you can focus in on the music through the muddiness and background noise. We are, however, very lucky to have this preserved, as it gives the only live recordings we have of two VU songs: Walk & talk and I heard her call my name.

Waiting for the man is a 40 second section half way through the song, sounding much like it does on the Gymnasium tapes.
Guess I'm falling in love is the end of the song, and lasts for 48 seconds, sounding much like the Gymnasium versions but with enough differences to make it interesting.
Run run run is the end of the song, lasting 2 minutes and 51 seconds. much the same as we are used to, but with particularly good guitar soloing.
There is then 1 minute 47 seconds of tuning.
Heroin is a 2 minute 18 seconds section near the start of the song, no surprises here.
Walk it & talk is from the start of the song and lasts for 2 minutes and 10 seconds. I can make out words that sound like "you better walk it, and talk it" and later "moving too fast.......you want it to last". Needless to say with Cale in the band it is nothing like the later 1970 demo version. If you imagine a hard rock version of that demo, with some heavy organ in parts, and great guitar soloing then cross it with sister ray and foggy notion and you'll be close to what this sounds like. Makes me want to hear the Gymnasium version that Cale has even more. It sounds like one of the best VU songs ever.
I heard her call my name lasts for four and a half minutes, and begins near the very start. It starts off sounding like the sundazed alternative mix version, going into some amazing guitar soloing which goes on for most of the rest of the song.
Venus in furs sounds like most other versions, lasting 1 minute 20 seconds, half way through the song.
Then there is tuning for 30 seconds (Cale preparing his organ)
Sister ray lasts 12 minutes 33 seconds, from the start of the song to the end, and there are some edits by Warhol during the song. The band seems much tighter here than in the Gymnasium version and it sounds more menacing. Great organ, with superb guitar soloing, screeching and feedback. I think without a doubt this is the best version recorded, and its a real shame the sound quality isnt better. Nearer the end it slows right down into a steady beat for about three minutes, then it speeds up very fast to the end of the song.

Thats the audio. Visually of course this is a unique experience and its great to see what they looked like when they were playing live. Despite what has been said about the camera work there are some good shots of the band. Check out the woman dancing at the very end of Sister ray...........If I was gonna dance in public to Sister ray I'd dance exactly like her!

(sounds neat)

Sounds great!

I know this was asked by someone else above, but does anyone know the password for the Nuns On The Sea Wall stuff? I've just found two files that I hadn't unzipped and the blog is currently invite only.

i think it's cookin ? maybe? try that.

speaking of these dudes, here's lou singing who loves the sun last week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf8BcDJa9Iw
has he ever sung this before? who's he playing with? who loves the sun?

Ah! Of course! It was cooking, but you got me there, cheers buddy.

some other exciting VU trainspotting news -- two samples from this tape seem to have shown up? http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f90/velvet-underground-1970-05-00-philadelphia-119687.html quality is pretty good. not that a new max's bootleg is the most thrilling thing, but still cool. setlist looks neat.
The Joseph Freeman tape
“ I recorded an entire set at Max's (around the same time as Polk's). The tape was recorded on a Sony TCS-124 a portable stereo cassette recorder with an external single stereo mic. The quality of the tape is very good and has never been bootlegged. I may be interested in having this tape surface as a legitimate release...
--Joseph Freeman, in a message posted in the Velvet Underground Discussion Forum on March 2, 1999
”
I'm Waiting For The Man
White Light/White Heat
I'm Set Free
Lonesome Cowboy Bill
Who Loves The Sun
Sweet Jane
New Age
unidentified bluesy instrumental
It's Just Too Much
Ocean
I'll Be Your Mirror
What Goes On
Head Held High
Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
Some Kinda Love

that philly show linked above is interesting too -- moe-less trio of lou, doug, sterling. some totally drum-less songs...

you mean the Second Fret stuff yeah? that's a good one, super blissed out "Train Comin Round The Bend".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v204/bobbldr/VU_RISD2.jpg
some talk of a good quality 1967 recording of the VU/Exploding Plasitc Inevitable at Rhode Island School of Design emerging....!

http://akson.sgh.waw.pl/~kg23187/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6790&start=0

oh man that sounds amazing, fingers crossed.

yeah, right? eesh, hope it is true! guy posted this a while back, but it sounds like he's been successful in tracking the tape down:
There is a tape of the Velvets playing at the RI School of Design in 1967. I have heard it, though that was approximately 30 years ago. The owner of the tape, an acquaintance of mine, has also been missing for approximately 30 years. I have been trying to find him in vain. He used to tape concerts that were held in the Providence area and would not let me copy it. It was on a 7" tape reel. He got into some trouble with some druggies and vanished one day. No one ever found out where he and his wife went. I remember the tape well, it was from the WL/WH period and was very clear with a great Sister Ray.

the ultimate in velvet underground trainspotting -- the VU rehearses! http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8045359178/rehearsing-for-the-inevitable-i-know-im-in-the
enjoy!
(i actually think sleeve supplied me with the matrix recordings, so credit where credit is due.)

The last minute or two of that Retinal Circus Heroin...wow.

yeah that weird bending of the guitars/lou's voice -- "all of eeeevilllll n this town!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O6_Q6XXQifg/TjINNlAMD7I/AAAAAAAAAhc/r-no1Ma06XU/s1600/VUWhiskeyHB.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UQ5nz18lkv0/TjIMtv-97BI/AAAAAAAAAgA/cda0_NtGYiI/s1600/VUsetlist.jpg
interesting that the velvets were playing goodnight ladies at some point...would be interested to hear their rendition.

how the fuck have the Matrix tapes not emerged yet

yeah pretty irritating right? i'm sure that the powers that be think there's more than enough late 1969 VU out there officially, but it seems like someone like Rhino Handmade would jump at the chance to put out a deluxe box set of all this stuff. i know that the guy who owns the tapes has licensed similar projects to the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, but I think there's some kind of argument going on between him and the VU camp.

I blame Lou... or, failing that, Mike Love... hold on tho, Mo's gone all Tea Party, I blame her

yeah lou must've put the kibosh on any/all VU reissues. they haven't really done anything since the deluxe VU & nico, right? aside from that sundazed vinyl version of the quine tapes.

That typewritten Whisky newsletter is "especially groovey!"

btw here's unterberger's piece on the matrix tapes, with an interview with the SOB who is holding them back
http://www.richieunterberger.com/vuexc10.html
(jk about the SOB thing. i love you dude, can i come over to your house)

“They’re beautiful tapes. We listened to some playback of a little bit of the tapes about a year ago over at some studio in Berkeley, and they sounded just great. One of their fans who was [there] said, ‘Oh, these are the holy grail of Velvet Underground tapes.’ If there’s a market for them, they should come to me.”

going back through this thread, i see i'm repeating myself. oh well.

Just noticed in that Whiskey newsletter thing, playing with Moby Grape "for the first time anywhere", the Flying Burrito Brothers, "a new group formed by two former Byrds, Chris Hillman and Graham Parsons".

hee hee, bet they sucked that night.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fokpCjkmNpY/TjIMpYf7S7I/AAAAAAAAAfo/OnUzB-2P6SQ/s1600/VUmaxsreceipt.jpg

this is all coming from over here, which is selling some serious VU ephemera from the "sterling morrison collection"

http://velvetundergroundmemorabilia.blogspot.com/

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CymbC_S-P5c/TjIM0aG7nII/AAAAAAAAAgo/KJ7UcUDFqBI/s1600/VUunioncard.jpeg
vu trainspotter heaven

wow. his tugboat pilots license! His 1968 W2!

essential parts of the VU experience