Lou Reed: Metallica collaboration “a marriage made in heaven”?

The record, not yet titled, features 10 songs composed by Reed with significant arrangement contributions by the band that suggest a raging union of his 1973 noir classic, Berlin, and Metallica’s ’86 crusher, Master of Puppets.
Rolling Stone writer David Fricke • Describing that bizarre Metallica-Lou Reed album the duo collaborated on. May we just say, could you pick two weirder albums to mash up? But that said, both Metallica and Reed seem uber-excited about the project, which is based around a bunch of songs Reed wrote for a German play. “A marriage made in heaven,” Reed said. “I knew it from the first day we played together: ‘Oh, man, this is perfection, right in front of me.’ ” It might be a bit before the project gets out, as neither Reed nor Metallica (who still are a multi-platinum-selling force) currently have a record deal. But then again, both are legendary enough that they probably have the money to start one. source

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It’s not something that I can see happening on the basis of the past.
Velvet Underground bassist John Cale • On the possibility of the band reuniting. It’s something that won’t happen, among other reasons, because of the death of Sterling Morrison. “If I said that was something I was intrigued by,” he noted, “people would think I was cynical.” He noted that he only keeps in touch with surviving members Lou Reed and Maureen Tucker on a professional basis, because the Velvets are kind of a cash cow these days – something you can’t really say about them back in the day. source

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1. Expect Local Natives to become like catnip like blogs like ours for the next twelve months or so. They have all the elements of every big indie act here – the multi-voice harmonies of Fleet Foxes, the scale and trauma of The Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend’s ability to ride a groove, and the garage swagger of just about everybody else. And that’s all in one song, “Camera Talk.”
2. Adam Green has a lot to atone for, what with the calling card of the Moldy Peaches (and all the good and bad that entails) on his resume. But “What Makes Him Act So Bad?,” along with the Velvet Underground sparkle of new album “Minor Love,” goes a long way.
3. Speaking of Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons may be the first band to be directly inspired by them, if “Sigh No More” is any indication. That’s a lot of vocal harmony.
4. Phantogram has more than a little trip-hop influence in their sound, as the big fat beat at the beginning of “Running From the Cops” emphasizes. The calm female “Ooh…” in the mix has the effect of making the blunt effect of the rough beat seem a lot less blunt.
5. A pretty awesome compilation that came out this week, “The Minimal Wave Tapes: Vol. 1,” focuses on very minimal electronic from post-punk movement, as curated by Minimal Wave label-runner Veronica Vasicka and released on Stone’s Throw records. From the comp, Crash Course in Science’s “Flying Turns” has a lot of edge, a lot of simplicity and a dark groove.

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1. Lou Reed is a badass because he managed to make a song like “Pale Blue Eyes” – an exercise in emotional nudity which few artists of his stature are willing to try – seem brave, not pansyish. It worked to strong effect in this year’s “Adventureland,” by the way.
2. Marc Bolan is a badass because he lived fast, died young, and still managed to have a career full of badass moves. From his start as an off-kilter folkie (Tyrannosaurus Rex) to his peak as a glam god (T. Rex) who directly inspired the previous badass, his badassness set a pretty high bar.
3. Paul Westerberg is a badass because he never gave into the mainstream when he was creating his greatest work. “Bastards of Young” is perhaps The Replacements’ catchiest tune, but instead of actively trying to push it on MTV, they made this video to go with it. That’s badass.
4. Josh Homme is a badass because he released this song as a single. And then his band, Queens of the Stone Age, played it at a drug rehab center last year. It really is the feel-good hit of the summer. Or any year, really.
5. James Murphy is a badass because he knows how to get down even though he’s getting old. Really, we could’ve picked any song Murphy did as LCD Soundsystem over the last five years and nailed it as evidence. But “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” works as both a sneering homage to Daft Punk and a homage to being a badass. So it wins. source

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18 Jun 2011 10:53