“I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico”

sfilzen — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:41:49 +0000

“I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico” 2021. A comp of various artists’ renditions of tracks, in order, from The Velvet Underground & Nico which just celebrated its 55th anniversary release date (March 12th, 1967). It was the brainchild and last project of producer and Lou Reed buddy Hal Willner (d. 2020) who also collaborated with Reed on the box set “Lou Reed: The RCA & Arista Album Collection”(2016). I’ll Be Your Mirror came out to coincide with The Velvet Underground documentary film, also from 2021.

There’s some biggish-name musicians on this tribute like Michael Stipe covering “Sunday Morning” (it’s OK), Kurt Vile’s “Run Run Run” (only on the vinyl edition, not CD) which is pretty great, Thurston Moore’s perfectly tortured “Heroin” and Iggy Pop (with Matt Sweeney) on the feedback filled freakout “European Son.” While it could never touch the original, Andrew Bird’s and Lucius’ cover of “Venus in Furs” is still pretty haunting. Also great are the jangly 60’s Dylan-goes-Kinks/garage-goes-girl-group vibe of King Princess’ “There She Goes” and the post-punk interpretation of the pre-punk “The Black Angel’s Death Song” by Fontaines D.C. I do not believe I’ll Be Your Mirror charted in the US nor the UK but it did alright in the EU, going to #6 in The Netherlands, #26 in Germany and to #41 in Switzerland.

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Various Artists “Zapped”

sfilzen — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 16:37:48 +0000

Various Artists “Zapped” 1970. Today, December 21st, is Frank Zappa’s birthday (b. 1940 d. 1993). Not being much of a Zappa fan (and therefore not having much in the way of Zappa vinyl), today I’m spinning this Zappa-level weird compilation record issued by Zappa’s Bizarre and Straight Records and distributed by Warner Bros. via mail order for its Loss Leaders release series. Avant-garde to the nth degree, the record has samplings from artists like Alice Cooper (“Titanic Overture” and “Refrigerator Heaven”), Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (“The Blimp” and “Old Fart at Play”), The GTO’s (“Circular Circulation (Do Me In Once and I’ll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice and I’ll Know Better)”) and two track from Zappa himself, one as The Mothers of Invention (“Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown”) and another sung by Captain Beefheart (“Willie the Pimp”).

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“I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico”

Various Artists “Zapped”