Velvet Underground

Limited numbered edition of 1000. 20-page booklet with photographs and liner notes. "The ultimate rare collection includes soundtracks, demos, acetates, rehearsals, unreleased and more…".

When the Velvets recorded this debut, they were best known as the protégés of Andy Warhol (who designed the sleeve), and as a grating, combustive live band. Fueled by drummer Moe Tucker's no-nonsense wham and John Cale's howling viola, some of the straight-up rock & roll and arty noise extravaganzas here bear that out. But before Lou Reed was singing about sadomasochism and drug deals and writing lyrics inspired by his favorite poets, he was a pop songwriter, and this album has some of his prettiest tunes, mostly sung by Nico, the German dark angel who left the band after this disc.

This sleeper-fan-favorite from Lou Reed and Velvet Underground is getting its first reissue on vinyl in over 40 years. This 2LP is comprised of two late-in-the-year dates at End of Cole Ave in Dallas and at the Matrix in San Francisco, all sourced from fan tape recordings, the two-track mixdown straight from the live console, or from acetate copies.
The fact that few recordings of Velvet Underground exist from before 1970 has made this compilation a treasured gem amongst fans. The tracks on this 2LP showcase a stripped-down and vulnerable Lou Reed accompanied by a band at arguably their creative zenith, and each song offers a fresh perspective on their respective studio versions.

This sleeper-fan-favorite from Lou Reed and Velvet Underground is getting its first reissue on vinyl in over 40 years. This 2LP is comprised of two late-in-the-year dates at End of Cole Ave in Dallas and at the Matrix in San Francisco, all sourced from fan tape recordings, the two-track mixdown straight from the live console, or from acetate copies.
The fact that few recordings of Velvet Underground exist from before 1970 has made this compilation a treasured gem amongst fans. The tracks on this 2LP showcase a stripped-down and vulnerable Lou Reed accompanied by a band at arguably their creative zenith, and each song offers a fresh perspective on their respective studio versions.

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.

The Velvet Underground's classic self-titled third album, released in March 1969, by MGM, was a departure from the band's first two albums in more ways than one. Gone was co-founding member John Cale, and in his place was a 21-year-old with Long Island roots named Doug Yule, who stepped right in. The record was also a stylistic leap, as Lou Reed describes it in Rolling Stone editor David Fricke's liner notes, 'I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us.