6 Underground

The Velvet Underground are arguably the most important American band of the second half of the '60s, but few seemed to think so at the time. The Velvets flew under the radar of public recognition through most of their career, and no one bothered to professionally record their live shows between 1966 and 1970…

This 2 CD soundtrack was curated by the documentary's director Todd Haynes, and music supervisor Randall Poster. It features well-known and rare tracks from the Velvet Underground, as well as songs and performances that influenced the band including the doo-wop of the Diablos, the groundbreaking rock n' roll of Bo Diddley, and the avant-garde compositions of La Monte Young.

Most reviewers of this well-packaged, 57-track, three-disc set can’t help but comment on the overwrought essay by clinton walker who starts with superlatives, then works up to a screech. He sets up the customary and needless rock-crit comparisons (vu more street-damaged than the beatles. So?) To advance the case that the velvets were the most important band ever in rock – maybe even, like, in the cosmos. It’s hysterical stuff for the most part (although it levels out into an insightful essay after he runs out of hyperbole and huff) and would be hysterically funny if it wasn’t almost true.

Does this five-CD box set feature an abundance of essential material? Certainly. It has all four of the studio albums released by the Lou Reed-led lineup, and a wealth of previously unreleased goodies. Is it an essential purchase? That depends on your level of fanaticism. Most serious Velvet fans have all four of the core studio albums already (although the third, self-titled LP is presented in its muffled, so-called "closet" mix), and will be most interested in the previously unavailable recordings, which do hold considerable fascination…

TransGlobal Underground is a U.K.-based collective fusing as many different kinds of world music as its members can get their hands on. The group's core is composed of vocalist Natacha Atlas (who has recorded with Jah Wobble, Apache Indian, and her own band, Atlas Project), keyboardist Alex Kasiek, drum programmer Man Tu, and founder, bassist, and sampler Count Dubulah. The project grew out of a mutual love for dance, avant-garde, Arabic, and world music and draws on each member's listening tastes and cultural backgrounds. Their debut album, Dream of 100 Nations, was released in 1994, quickly followed by International Times.

At this point in music history, it's become a given that the Velvet Underground were one of the most important and innovative rock bands of their era, and that the four albums they released during their lifespan rank with the most challenging and satisfying work in the rock canon…

The world of pop music was hardly ready for the Velvet Underground's first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge to conventional notions of what rock music could sound like (or what it could discuss), 1968's White Light/White Heat was a no-holds-barred frontal assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety…

On January 10th, 1969, the band took to the stage and looked out across a crowd of misfits and mischief-makers. One notable attendee of the event was none other than soon-to-be Modern Lover, Jonathan Richman.

After the Velvet Underground cut three albums for Verve Records that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970; label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead make an album "loaded with hits." …