New VU

February 29, 2008 4:03 PM

I'm not into VU bootlegs really, but apparently this is a big deal. It's the ONLY available live stuff from 1967 and has only become available in literally the last two days. Recorded just after the release of The Velvet Underground And Nico and featuring the debut performance of Sister Ray (19 mins long) and the *previously unheard* song I'm Not A Young Man Any More. That's right, A NEW VELVET UNDERGROUND SONG. And it's fucking good too. This version of Sister Ray absolutely shreds and is what the Velvet Underground are all about.
posted by stinkycheese (61 comments total)

your favorite band may suck, but this certainly doesn't.
posted by snofoam at 4:07 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

[this is good]
posted by mai at 4:10 PM on February 29, 2008

Upon listening for thirty more seconds, let me amend that. This is absolutely fucking fantastic.
posted by mai at 4:11 PM on February 29, 2008

Lou's not a young man anymore.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 4:18 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

if I open up that .zip file and it's goddamn Rick Astley heads are gonna goddamn roll
posted by jtron at 4:18 PM on February 29, 2008 [11 favorites]

I stake my stinky name on these goods. The link is solid.
posted by stinkycheese at 4:20 PM on February 29, 2008

[this is good]

Indeed.

I don't have a favourite band, so I don't have a favourite band that sucks.
posted by juiceCake at 4:21 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

Only a thousand people will ever download this zip file, but every single one of them will go out and make a Web page with a zip file on it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:30 PM on February 29, 2008 [32 favorites]

Yeah, that's some great stuff. On Dime, somebody claimed to have a DAT copy of the 2nd (or 1st) night as well to be seeded.

I am into VU bootlegs. There's so few of them in existence that anything new is an event, and for one like this, with such a high pedigree both historically and in terms of recording quality, is a major event.
posted by anazgnos at 4:32 PM on February 29, 2008

Zip file, we're gonna have a real good time together.
posted by Flashman at 4:40 PM on February 29, 2008

It's alright.
posted by aladfar at 4:44 PM on February 29, 2008

OMG
posted by dersins at 4:45 PM on February 29, 2008

Awesome, thank you.
posted by about_time at 4:51 PM on February 29, 2008

Deee-lish. Thanks!
posted by mykescipark at 4:55 PM on February 29, 2008

Astro Zombie: "Only a thousand people will ever download this zip file, but every single one of them will go out and make a Web page with a zip file on it."

That cracks me up.

Thanks for the post!
posted by LarryC at 4:55 PM on February 29, 2008

It's alright.
posted by aladfar at 4:59 PM on February 29, 2008

This is too good for me to leave work, where I am staying late alone with a beer and blasting this thing. Thank ya.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 5:04 PM on February 29, 2008

Oh sweet bleeding Jesus Horatio Christ in a sidecar handbasket on a pogo stick.

Have I mentioned that I worship the very ground that your cheese stinks upon? So, like, thanks.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:08 PM on February 29, 2008

Fantastic link--thanks!
posted by unwordy at 5:16 PM on February 29, 2008

amazing! i've been listening to the Velvet Underground all day today-- probably for the first time in several years-- and now i find this? holy synchronicity, batman!
posted by ianaces at 5:18 PM on February 29, 2008

fuck this shit. show me where the dee-lite bootlegs at.
posted by mds35 at 5:21 PM on February 29, 2008

just kidding. fucking awesome, this.
posted by mds35 at 5:21 PM on February 29, 2008

Shenanigans. That so-called "new Velvet Underground song" was clearly photoshopped.
posted by The Tensor at 5:27 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

So very postworthy. Well done.
posted by uosuaq at 5:28 PM on February 29, 2008

I can't download this at work, so if the file disappears before I get home, somebody will up it to Mediafire or equivalent, amirite? Huh? Pls?
posted by jokeefe at 5:31 PM on February 29, 2008

Awesome. This is like Christmas on Leap-year day.
posted by Kronoss at 5:33 PM on February 29, 2008

Utterly fantastic. Where's it been all this time?! There's a whole bootleg trading circuit and that one is brand new...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 5:33 PM on February 29, 2008

it sounds awfully clean for an acetate but there are tale-tale vinyl crackles. could this have been pressed on vinyl and overlooked? highly doubtful, but it's an odd combination for something this rare and the fidelity being (relativity) high.
posted by ianaces at 5:43 PM on February 29, 2008

Where's it been all this time?! There's a whole bootleg trading circuit and that one is brand new...

Seems like every few months some mindboggling "new" thing appears on Dime that has somehow been squirreled away for decades without ever trickling out onto the various circuits. "Say, would anyone be interested in hearing my recording of Jimi Hendrix playing the USSR national anthem at a private party at Ronald Reagan's house?"
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:47 PM on February 29, 2008

could this have been pressed on vinyl and overlooked?

Weren't vinyl versions eBayed a few days ago? And then someone immediately liberated a rip to FLAC, and the rest is hysteria.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:51 PM on February 29, 2008

Slightly OT, my friend died and left over 5000 bootleg cassettes, many from shows he'd booted himself. This includes Miles in Brooklyn, probably the most complete Hawkwind bootleg collection ever, perhaps similar for the Canterbury scene, psychedelia, Terry Riley, Stockhausen, Heldon, and random weirdnesses from the 60s and 70s.

Other friends of mine purchased the tapes from his estate, and they sit in boxes. I have the financial resources but not the time to arrange for thing to percolate. It will be at least half a year or more before I do...

If anyone is moved by this description to throw themselves into it, do let me know. The idea would be to set up some system to digitize all the cassettes, put them out for free on the internet, and conceivably try to recoup some of the time and money by selling hard drives containing the whole thing uncompressed. The whole thing would be sub rosa, it'd be inconceivable to get all the copyright approval, the prime goal is to preserve and spread this trove of music.

Simple enough, I have several friends who'd cooperate, I know what to do, and lack only the time.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:18 PM on February 29, 2008 [5 favorites]

Many thanks, Mr. Cheese. I always knew your stink was the good kind.

If anyone misses out on this and can't find it, just drop me a line, and I'll... uh... give you a stern lecture about downloading, yes sir, that's what I'll do. Because piracy is WRONG.

But seriously, just drop me a line.
posted by nanojath at 6:20 PM on February 29, 2008

waits with baited breath for d-load to finish

Might just have something new for my swank bar DJ gig next week
posted by edgeways at 6:32 PM on February 29, 2008

Oh man, that version of Sister Ray. Thank you so much. This made my year -- and I say that confidently, knowing that we're only 1/6 of the way through.
posted by treepour at 6:36 PM on February 29, 2008

Downloaded this a week ago and have been listening to it constantly ever since. How could "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore" have never ended up on record?
posted by escabeche at 6:58 PM on February 29, 2008

Jebus, the quality on this is better than some of the stuff that made it on the canonical records.

Second to escabeche, how the hell was "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore" on an album? This song is pure VU gold.


thankyoutthankyouthankyou
posted by lumpenprole at 8:04 PM on February 29, 2008

Some good places to find information on VU bootlegs.
posted by Sailormom at 8:14 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

Holy smokes. This is awesome.
posted by lovecrafty at 8:18 PM on February 29, 2008

This is good.
posted by peeedro at 8:23 PM on February 29, 2008

You know what I like about this, apart for the songs being great and a VU song that hasn't seen the light of day since... whenever, is that it is encoded at a nice high bit rate 250VBR, so none of this bootleg + 64kbit = extra crappy but tantalizing.


nice nice nice
posted by edgeways at 8:50 PM on February 29, 2008

(Incidentally, I understand Lou is giving the Keynote at SXSW this year)
posted by edgeways at 9:07 PM on February 29, 2008

Huzzah, this is beautiful noise. What a creepy, hooky guitar line, too. VU still shocks and thrills, four decades later.
posted by kenlayne at 9:37 PM on February 29, 2008

That guitar riff is absolutely infectious.
posted by cazoo at 12:53 AM on March 1, 2008

I think I just came. This is so awesome. Thanks so much for letting me know about this.

Did anyone ever digitally rip the contents of that alternate acetate version of Velvet Underground & Nico that was on eBay a while back? If you can afford to buy it, you can afford a non-damaging laser turntable to digitally record its contents. It would be a shame if it just sat in some rich collector's storeroom.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:58 AM on March 1, 2008

I am no Velvet Underground fan. But, you guessed it, this is good.

Please. 545 New Yorkers near to lupus_yonderboy, hope him. For the love of Hawkwind.
posted by ersatz at 4:01 AM on March 1, 2008

Silly preview box, the important part should be in big sparkling letters.
posted by ersatz at 4:03 AM on March 1, 2008

Thank you.
posted by picea at 5:21 AM on March 1, 2008

Sidebar-worthy. Thank you for an experience, sc.

This is too good for me to leave work, where I am staying late alone with a beer and blasting this thing. Thank ya.

I suspect hundreds of us did the same.
posted by Phred182 at 5:37 AM on March 1, 2008

Yay!
posted by tiny crocodile at 5:51 AM on March 1, 2008

This made my week. Both ears thank you.
posted by ardgedee at 7:15 AM on March 1, 2008

fuck this shit. show me where the dee-lite bootlegs at.

I wouldn't mind that, they put on a great show, but indeed, the genre isn't great for bootlegs.
posted by juiceCake at 7:46 AM on March 1, 2008

Sweet Jesus. 20 years after I first heard them, and 40 years after their first shows and I just can't comprehend what it is that is so damn cool about The Velvet Underground. Listening to this new recording reminds me of hearing them for the first time. (I just noticed that there has been a smile on my face since the opening riff started playing 15 minutes ago.)
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:48 AM on March 1, 2008

Thank You. [This is excellent.] *pushes back chair, rocks out.*
posted by adamvasco at 10:50 AM on March 1, 2008

Joy Division covered Sister Ray and it always makes me laugh that Ian Curtis refused to enunciate "suckin' on my ding dong."

Thanks for this!!!
posted by basicchannel at 11:09 AM on March 1, 2008

Having listened to it now, I can confirm it's totally awesome. The version of Sister Ray is incredible. 19 straight minutes of ding dong suckin', mainline searchin' goodness.
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:45 AM on March 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

O
M
G


This has made my week. Thank you stinkycheese, thank you, from the bottom of my curdled, blackened heart.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:04 PM on March 1, 2008

SO GOOD.
thank you.
posted by generalist at 2:30 PM on March 1, 2008

Chris Stein of Blondie played at the Gymnasium with his own band and remembers seeing The Velvet Underground there. From Warhol Stars: "...the rest of The Velvets had arrived. After a while they started to play and they were like awesomely powerful. I had never expected to experience anything like that before..."
posted by Sailormom at 7:58 PM on March 1, 2008

I wasn't really a Velvet Underground fan before, because I hadn't really heard any of their stuff. Now I have, so I am. Thanks!
posted by Drexen at 1:18 PM on March 2, 2008

coolest. band. ever. thank you sooo much.
posted by aquanaut at 7:41 PM on March 3, 2008

awesome of awesome. Thank you for sister ray. And thank you for that new song. And thank you for reminding me to listen to the VU. And thank you for reminding me to buy a new guitar amp. And thank you for reminding me what to sing about.
posted by grubby at 11:43 AM on March 6, 2008