u/Agreeable_Duck8997

​

​Eu fico com os extraordinários The Velvet Underground & Nico, In the Court of the Crimson King e The Stooges.

​

​On the Beatles sub, people say the Beatles are the greatest at everything and nobody shows up to hate on the band.

​But here on the VU sub, it's common to read things like:

​"The Beatles were and still are widely influential. VU had its admirers, but nobody really talks about them"

​"It's obviously more about the fact that anybody can write/sing 'Waiting for the Man' and 'Penny Lane' requires an orchestra"

​"Already liking the Velvet Undershittyground is just an effort to be different."

Los Angeles Times: "What about the Velvet Underground drew you and R.E.M. to cover their songs?"

MICHAEL STIPE: "For all of us in R.E.M., the Velvets were one of the most significant musical moments in American history. The first album is one of the top five, top three maybe, albums ever released, in terms of how complete it is and how great it is and what a lightning-in-a-bottle moment they captured. How audacious they were in their art, the music — and how much that was out of step with the world that they were in. And R.E.M. always felt a little out of step with what was going on. We forged our own path, and they were an aspirational influence for sure."

[...]

Los Angeles Times: "How well did you know Lou Reed?"

MICHAEL STIPE: "When he died [in 2013], I realized that I had known Lou for half of my life. He was kind of curmudgeonly and not altogether pleasant when we first met — I was 25, I think — but by the end of his life, we were friends.

We were neighbors on Canal Street, and of course I had deep admiration for him and for the work that he had done and the same for Laurie [Anderson], so we would hang out from time to time. He would give me these giant hugs and hold on to me for minutes at a time. He was a wildly intelligent and very emotionally accessible — and then inaccessible — person, but a total sweetheart in the end."

.

I tried to share the link to the full interview yesterday, but Reddit automatically deleted it. So, I'll just leave the title of the article here for anyone who wants to find it on Google: "Michael Stipe, superfan, on the ‘beautiful queerness’ of the Velvet Underground" - Los Angeles Times, 2021.

"Acho incrível quando as pessoas me dizem que a música eletrônica não tem alma e culpam os computadores. Elas apontam o dedo para os computadores como se dissessem: 'Não há alma aqui'. Você não pode culpar o computador. Se não há alma na música, é porque ninguém a colocou lá. A culpa não é da ferramenta."

"Se eu tivesse que dizer quem mais me influenciou, eu diria pessoas como Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno e Mark Bell".

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/five-artists-who-wouldnt-exist-without-kraftwerk-bjork-joy-division/

Sinopse: "Neste conto de H.P. Lovecraft, Herbert West é um cientista suíço que descobriu um fluido que traz tecidos mortos de volta à vida. Após a morte suspeita de seu professor na Suíça, West se muda para a Universidade Miskatonic para continuar suas pesquisas. Ele envolve o colega Dan Cain e sua noiva Megan Halsey em sua pesquisa, fazendo experiências com seu gato morto. Dan, fascinado pela pesquisa de West, concorda em levá-lo clandestinamente para o necrotério do hospital com resultados previsíveis."

É incomparável a forma genial que esse filme mistura terror gore, ficção científica, suspense, comédia e um pouco de romance.

O personagem protagonista é um anti-herói gênio louco de uma forma sensacional, sendo um dos personagens mais marcantes da história do terror.

O filme tem menos de uma hora e 30 min.

Enfim, fica aqui minha forte recomendação!

​

Mais de 400 diretores de diversos países, incluindo cineastas como Martin Scorsese, Béla Tarr, Almodóvar, Bong Joon Ho e Walter Salles, enviaram suas próprias listas dos 10 filmes que consideram os maiores de todos os tempos.

Os 10 filmes que mais apareceram foram esses:

1. 2001: Uma Odisseia no Espaço (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

2. Cidadão Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

3. O Poderoso Chefão (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

4. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

5. Era Uma Vez em Tóquio (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

6. Um Corpo que Cai (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

7. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

8. O Espelho (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

9. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)

10. Amor à Flor da Pele (Wong Kar-wai, 2000), empatado com Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

A lista completa com os 100 filmes mais votados: https://www.imdb.com/pt/list/ls566121112/?reasonForLanguagePrompt=browser\_header\_mismatch

I don't have the shirt in the third pic, but to my mind, it's a good variation of mine.

"What I loved about that record [Lesson No. 1 by Glenn Branca] was that it basically wanted to take aspects of rock & roll and punk rock and give them equal value to what he loved about music from 20th century composition, like works by Steve Reich and La Monte Young. He was also responding to the darkness he was hearing in Joy Division. This was right when they released 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.'"

https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/thurston-moore-sonic-youth-influences-patti-smith-glenn-branca-880204/

"To celebrate the new generation of shredders profiled in our May/June 'Loud Issue,' the SPIN staff decided to find some wheedle in a haystack, taking on the impossible task of ranking our favorite guitar players of all time. Traditionally, the 'greatest guitarist' timeline begins with Robert Johnson magically conjuring the blues, nears perfection with Eric Clapton mutating it beatifically, and then ultimately reaches a boomer-baiting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame apotheosis with the free-spirited Jimi Hendrix shooting it into space like feedback-laden fireworks. For this list, we veer toward the alternative canon that kicks in with the Velvet Underground trying to erase that form entirely, making guitar solos gauche and using instruments as sadomasochistic tools for hammering out sheets of white heat.

As you will see, our list embraces outsiders, trailblazers, outliers, and Eugene Chadbourne playing a rake. We don’t worship 'guitar gods,' but prefer our axe-wielders to be resourceful, egalitarian, flawed, and human. We’re not drawn to Olympic feats of fleet-fingered athletics, unless they’re used for unique and exploratory ends. We see the mewling histrionics of Jeff Beck as tyranny instead of catharsis. The name Derek Trucks is practically alien to us.

But maybe we’re overthinking all this. Shut up ‘n play yer guitar!"

"1. Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth)

2. Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine)

3. John Fahey

4. Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)

5. J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.)

6. Prince

7. Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd (Television)

8. Johnny Ramone (Ramones)

9. Eddie Hazel (Funkadelic)

10. Jam Master Jay (Run-DMC)

11. Ron Asheton (The Stooges)

12. Andy Gill (Gang of Four)

13. The Edge (U2)

14. Kerry King & Jeff Hanneman (Slayer)

15. Greg Ginn (Black Flag)

16. Frank Zappa

17. Lou Reed & Sterling Morrison (The Velvet Underground)

18. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)

19. D. Boon (Minutemen)

20. Neil Young

21. Sonny Sharrock

22. Jimmy Nolen (James Brown Band)

23. Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins)

24. Steve Albini (Big Black / Shellac)

25. Robert Fripp (King Crimson)

26. Johnny Marr (The Smiths)

27. PJ Harvey

28. Glenn Branca

29. Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)

30. King Buzzo (Melvins)..."

The full list:

https://www.spinmagazine.com/2012/05/greatest-guitarists-all-time/

"My point of view, I wanted to have as many different dynamics as we could. Just getting all the different influences and blending them together. I mean Velvet Underground is very apt, they're still one of the greatest bands ever. Yeah, I think we were just trying to make a fairly diverse record [Superfuzz Bigmuff, 1988] because again, I wasn't sure how many records we were going to make so we were trying to get it all out there as fast as we could." - Steve Turner, 2023.

https://lifeoftherecord.com/mudhoney-notes

The Guardian (UK, 2013 and 2015):

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/27/kraftwerk-most-influential-electronic-band-tate

 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jan/31/kraftwerk-pop-art-review-influential-beatles-bbc4

The Telegraph (UK, 2013):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/9837423/Kraftwerk-the-most-influential-group-in-pop-history.html

BBC (UK, 2013):

https://youtu.be/YaQQCW0wH0k?si=EY7Da-zp3bNahsms

LA Weekly (USA, 2017):

https://www.laweekly.com/kraftwerk-are-more-influential-than-the-beatles-let-us-explain/

Music Non Stop (BR, 2023):

https://musicnonstop.uol.com.br/13-provas-da-gigantesca-importancia-do-kraftwerk-para-a-musica/

Deutsche Welle (GER, 2024):

https://youtu.be/1651r\_oqy48?si=p\_rZz806NnSzJhO\_

The excellent BBC documentary "Kraftwerk: Pop Art" (2013), which I linked above, is very well worth watching. It features not only critics but also highly renowned musicians and producers, such as one of the founders of the German band CAN - which was also revolutionary; for those who aren't familiar with them, they are worth looking into.

Kraftwerk’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame featured excellent testimonials from David Bowie, Afrika Bambaataa, Pharrell Williams, and members of Depeche Mode, Run-D.M.C., among many others. All these testimonials are also very enlightening.

I agree with all the links I cited: yes, Kraftwerk is the most influential group to ever exist.

David Bowie, the Library of Congress, and many other notable names have also argued that The Velvet Underground influenced music more than The Beatles, a point with which I also agree. However, the focus here is on Kraftwerk.

Furthermore, David Bowie was so deeply influenced by Kraftwerk that he composed the sensational instrumental track "V-2 Schneider" as a tribute to genius Florian Schneider, the co-founder of Kraftwerk.

It is well worth checking out all the materials I have cited.

Original post in the r/electronicmusic sub:

https://www.reddit.com/r/electronicmusic/s/4Z3ni2QN7o

"Bernard sent me a fax - that's what you did in the Nineties. He said he liked my album [Esperanto] and wanted to know if I'd record some electronic percussion. I always thought Joy Division sounded like the Velvet Underground with synthesizers, and I liked 'Blue Monday' because it was cleverly unconventional and rough. So Bernard asked if I'd contribute and I went over to Cheshire. On Sundays, Bernard would invite me to his house to have dinner with his family and in-laws. All very British indeed. What a great time." - Karl Bartos.

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/bernard-sumner-joy-division-new-order-interview

In the photo, Bernard Sumner and Martin Hannett.

"They launched into a version of their NYC forebears’ classic 1967 track, with frontman Cameron Winter notably updating the lyric to, 'I’m waiting for my man / Got $347 in my hand'"

https://youtu.be/0vmIABNz42Q?is=Lm3aTRTstTabHKKh

Really good version! The song is from '67, but the cover is in the style of the '69 VU album.

​

"To be honest, I just think they’re the perfect band. I wouldn’t even say that Lou Reed’s lyricism is the most influential thing. As one band, they influenced so much of the music that was to come afterwards. You think of all the indie music like The Libertines and The Strokes – Julian Casablancas was completely influenced by The Velvet Underground, it gave him that style of writing.

That defined a whole era of music. I feel in the ’90s in America, they kind of rebelled against that, and tried to make everything super-big and whatever. But I hear a bit of The Velvet Underground in The Stone Roses’ guitars, you know? They influenced so, so much, because they did so many different genres on all the albums. They went from the super-alternative and weird stuff, to proper rock and roll, to pop. It was almost like the start of lo-fi as well.

The Velvet Underground are probably the most important band in modern music. In Fontaines DC, we all shared that love and admiration for them – we knew if we were going to learn from anyone, we had to learn from them.”

- Carlos O'Connell, guitarist/keyboardist of the great Fontaines D.C.

The entire interview is definitely worth reading:

https://www.hotpress.com/music/interview-fontaines-d-c-s-carlos-oconnell-and-matt-sweeney-on-covering-the-velvet-underground-on-new-tribute-album-22872693

"I remember a weird conversation with a guy a long time ago. He said to me, 'I want to be Michael Jackson, but you want to be the Velvet Underground.' I agreed. I loved the fact that the Velvet Underground could do whatever they wanted. I wanted a band that had that freedom."

  In the last minute of this interview for Fender: https://youtu.be/gxkzYCT2NGM?is=y6V\_w9nDRWFM9l-a

“I first heard this song ["Heroes"] when I was 13, and it transformed everything for me. It made my thoughts feel different. Soon after, I got a job as a caddy, but only so I could save money to buy Bowie records. Decades later, he and I became friends and he told me a secret: the song started out as a cover of The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For My Man, before Bowie turned it into this simple but futuristic masterpiece.” - Moby.

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/theredbulletin/moby-interview-david-bowie-influences

Here Moby tells the same story: https://youtu.be/BeO9MMTUhH0?is=O82xigB-TqvMQjHU

In addition, the vast majority of Velvet Underground fans have already seen Bowie talking about the fundamental importance of 'I'm Waiting for the Man' in his life; he loved to remind people of that. This quote from Mojo magazine in 1995, where Bowie addresses the overall importance of the song, is also a classic:

"[...] was the weird, marginal bands that nobody bought, like the Velvet Underground, that actually created modern music. [...] Tomorrow's culture is always dictated by artists. So, as much as many critics were saying how important the Beatles were, there were artists who would tip you off: 'Yes, they’re great, but have you heard the Velvet Underground?' [...]Well, there are indeed some British bands [post-1976] that claim to be influenced by the Beatles. But in reality, what they’re actually doing sounds more like 'Waiting for the Man."

​

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/julian-casablancas-on-the-influence-of-velvet-underground/

And speaking about Lou Reed, Julian said: “It was so fucking sad when Lou died. I was fucking genuinely upset. He’s everything – the reason I started the label, music… I just felt the injustice, of how amazing he was[...] But he wasn’t really mainstream. I think he may have done too many drugs, to be honest. But also the live thing – I was thinking that what I liked about him is that he didn’t try to make it all sound the same. There was a disconnect. I also think that’s why he didn’t get a sense of how loved he was. I mean, he must have had some idea, he must have heard people talking about Bob Dylan and him, but he wasn’t mainstream really. But for me he’s on the Mount Rushmore of rad dudes.”

https://www.nme.com/news/music/julian-casablancas-33-1240852