![]() ![]() “Andy would show his movies on us,” remembers Reed, “We wore black so you could see the movie. ![]() The new, Warhol-managed band first launched at filmmaker Jonas Mekas’ Cinémathèque theater. Then Warhol met the Velvet Underground at the Café Bizarre, forced the broody Nico on them, and it suddenly came together. ![]() “It doesn’t go together,” wrote Larry McCombs in a 1966 review, “But sometimes it does.” Warhol had attempted to stage similar events since 1963, with a short-lived band called the Druids, which included New York avant-garde composer La Monte Young (“the best drug connection in New York,” remembered Billy Name). … the Exploding Plastic Inevitable included three to five film projectors, often showing different reels of the same film simultaneously: a similar number of slide projectors, movable by hand so that their images swept the auditorium four variable-speed strobe lights three moving spots with an assortment of coloured gels several pistol lights a mirror ball hung from the ceiling and another on the floor as many as three loudspeakers blaring different pop records at once one or two sets by the Velvet Underground and Nico… Writer Branden Joseph describes it in detail: And the performances of those songs were sheer art-rock spectacle, thanks to Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, or EPI.Ĭritic Wayne McGuire described these Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances, organized in 19, as “electronic: intermedia: total scale.” The Exploding Plastic Inevitable enveloped the Velvets in a dark, hazy, strobe-lit circus. ![]() Lou had these songs where there was an element of character assassination going on.” Now these days, everyone from the mayor of London to Shakespeare has been associated with punk, but maybe Lou Reed first defined its raunchiness and devastation back in the mid-sixties. The words and music were so raunchy and devastating…. Some evidence: a dog-eared copy of Please Kill Me, the “uncensored oral history of punk,” which begins with the Velvets and, specifically John Cale remembering 1965: “I couldn’t give a shit about folk music… The first time Lou Played ‘Heroin’ for me it totally knocked me out. Pepper’s and the death of Jimi Hendrix-there came the Velvet Underground, protégés of Andy Warhol and dark psychedelic pioneers whose early songs were as punk rock as it gets. And before rock critic Dave Marsh first used the word “Punk” (to describe Question Mark and the Mysterians)-before even Sgt. Or do we forget that its forebears were avant-garde fringe artists: whether Iggy Pop onstage fighting a vacuum cleaner and blender and smearing peanut butter on himself, or Patti Smith reading her Rimbaud-inspired poetry at CBGB’s. Right? Sure… and also pure performance art. Tickets: Annual members may reserve two free tickets per Bronze member, four per Silver member, and six per Gold member.Punk rock, an artless proletarian sneer, a working-class revolt against bourgeois tastes, good manners, and corrupt systems of consumption. The film features in-depth interviews with the key players of that time combined with a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films, and other experimental art that creates an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band's creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.”īook your tickets early, seating is limited! View our full list of health & safety protocols here. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes, The Velvet Underground shows just how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: the band is both of their time, yet timeless literary yet realistic rooted in high art and street culture. The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock ’n’ roll’s most revered bands. Hot Docs Members get free exclusive access to the only Canadian theatrical screening of this Apple TV+ original documentary! Featuring a special recorded introduction by acclaimed director Todd Haynes. ![]()
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