The Velvet Underground

Latest Articles

By | January 01, 0001

Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn revives a classic

Medicinal properties
At the end of 1983, I was writing for Boston Rock magazine, and in one issue, we predicted the defining releases of the year to come.
By BRETT MILANO | October 12, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Tilda Swinton's mixed metamorphoses

Indie-cinema luminary gets retrospective in P-Town
Most people know Tilda Swinton either from her role as the White Witch in the Narnia movies or as the striking-looking woman who in her speech accepting the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Michael Clayton said she was going to give the trophy to her agent. Or perhaps as the actress whom Conan O'Brian said he would like to portray him if there's ever an HBO movie made about his life.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 21, 2010

When traders equal traitors

Turncoats on Wall Street. Plus, ecori, celebrating Susan, and Rock ’n’ Roll
It is about time someone pointed out that the vile crooks of Wall Street aren’t just greedy, thieving bastards. They are, in fact, traitors to this country and its citizens.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | April 28, 2010

Interview and photos: Gerard Malanga

A gathering of souls
In Walt Whitman’s notebook for the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , he writes, “Every soul has its own individual voice.” That notion rang true for photographer/poet/filmmaker Gerard Malanga as he put together “Souls,” an exhibit of 100 portraits spanning five decades.
By KRISTEN GOODFRIEND | March 31, 2010

Joyride

The Worcester Art Museum shows us ‘Who Shot Rock & Roll’
It is May 1966, in the Prelude Club in Harlem, an Atlantic Records release party.
By GREG COOK | March 24, 2010

Love among the ruins

Eternal Otter documents make-ups, breakups, and shake-ups
To Will Ethridge, who runs the small Portland-based label Eternal Otter Records, any song or album is just one crucial piece of a larger puzzle.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 20, 2010

5 for '10

New locals to love right away
I love baby bands, and I hope the ones I mention here don't mind my calling them that.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 22, 2010

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Kudos to Phish nerds, and other music matters

Sibilance
We stand corrected
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | November 24, 2009

The Big Hurt: Don't look back in anger

The best of times with the worst of bands
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone," Janet Jackson once famously sampled, and how true it is. Only now that Noel Gallagher has left in a firestorm of brotherly acrimony can I truly take stock of my feelings toward Oasis.
By DAVID THORPE | September 08, 2009

Gloom merchants

The Warlocks’ psych is far from psyched
It would’ve been nice if Bobby Hecksher, songsmith and ringleader of the Warlocks, had spoon-fed me some anecdotes from back when he used to trip out with Timothy Leary.
By BARRY THOMPSON | August 05, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Battle of the banned

Authorities kick out the jams
It's one thing to be a musician and get thrown out of Disneyland (Velvet Underground) or banned from a national landmark (Ozzy Osbourne at the Alamo), but you've hit rock paydirt when you become the target of an entire nation.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 02, 2009

Review: Drew Brown | Tiago La Is Losing the Plot

Lex (2009)
You know how Brian Eno is supposed to have said something like, "Only 5000 people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band"?
By GUSTAVO TURNER | January 13, 2009

Doing it live

Crystal Stilts hit the road
Crystal Stilts hit the road
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | December 05, 2008

By | January 01, 0001

Sympathy for the Devil

Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll at the Huntington; McPherson's The Seafarer at SpeakEasy
Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll at the Huntington; McPherson's The Seafarer at SpeakEasy
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 24, 2008

Return of a band’s band

The Feelies at the Roxy, October 11, 2008
Like the Velvet Underground, the Feelies have had a greater impact on other bands than on a general audience.
By STEVEN BEEBER | October 15, 2008

Interview: Courtney Taylor-Taylor

Mission: control freak
In the 2004 documentary DiG! , the Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor reacts to the musical criticism of a Capitol Records executive by scoffing, “I sneeze and hits come out!”
By FRANKLIN SOULTS | September 08, 2008

Fight song

Letters to the Boston editor, July 25, 2008
Your total inability to recognize deserving candidates has me . . . amused?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 23, 2008

The kids are alright

Old hands help Far Off Place take off
Here was a band with three high school-aged kids working with outright music biz legends. Pretty damn cool.
By BOB GULLA | April 30, 2008

Indie gets the blues

The Gossip, the Black Keys, and the Kills
White rockers generally come by the blues one of two ways.
By MATT ASHARE | April 23, 2008

Kevin Ayers

Unfairground | Gigantic
His philosophizing is rarely twee, and his fine-oaked voice gives new authority to his pastis-and-mushroom-fueled musings.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | April 07, 2008

Here and now

R.E.M.’s ‘back-to-basics’ disguise
No band ever made a late-career statement of purpose just by quoting “Louie Louie” — but it never hurts.
By BRETT MILANO | March 24, 2008

O, Canada!

Cowboy Junkies, k.d. lang, and Kathleen Edwards are not hockey pucks
You’d be forgiven for assuming that nothing’s been going on in Canada for the last few years beyond the interconnected shenanigans of that country’s indie-rock elite.
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 19, 2008

Acoustic mainline

Spiritualized at the Museum of Fine Arts, November 19, 2007
Jason Pierce has made a clear connection between the addict’s desire to reach a higher plane and the blues/gospel singer’s quest for the very same.
By MATT ASHARE | December 09, 2007

Nirvana versus Foo Fighters

Has the sideman surpassed his hero?
Are Foo Fighters more important than Nirvana? Such a thought might have been considered heresy even five years ago.
By MATT ASHARE | November 27, 2007

Sound Czech

Tom Stoppard fuses the history and the music in Rock ’n’ Roll
Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll begins in 1968 in an English garden, where a piper perched atop an ivied wall is serenading a stretched-out blonde flower child.
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 13, 2007