Blue Velvet

The Complete Matrix Tapes is a live album by the New York City-based experimental rock band the Velvet Underground, released on November 20, 2015. It features unexpurgated recordings of the band's two-night stint on November 26 and 27, 1969, at San Francisco club The Matrix, owned and operated by Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin.

The Velvet Underground was one of music's most influential rock groups. Often referred to as the dark side of the psychedelic era, The Velvet Underground was rock's first great underground band. Its members consist of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist/bassist Sterling Morrison and percussionist Maureen Tucker. Their daring and politically-charged lyrics help shade music forever.

In the 1970s lower Manhattan's Max's Kansas City was the place to be, a perpetual meeting place for scene-makers and their satellites. In the summer of '70, The Velvet Underground was the house band, and their nightly gigs, propelled by Lou Reed's mesmerizing vocals, are the stuff of legend. Documented on a cassette player by one of the Velvet's entourage, this recording has since become the most famous "bootleg" ever, capturing one of Reed's last-some say final-performances with the band before going solo. It both immortalizes a precise moment in pop culture history, and also spotlights one of rock's most influential bands at the peak of their extraordinary powers.