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Our journalism is funded by our readers. Become a subscriber today to help champion our writing, plus enjoy bonus essays, podcasts, playlists and music downloads.
50 years ago, John Cale found himself at Heartbreak Hotel, producing sweet and unhinged music from its rooms. Reassessing Fear, Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy, Darran Anderson explores the musician’s remarkable year-long burst of creativity for Island Records, half a century on
Half a century after the release of one of the all-time great live albums, John Doran argues that the Velvet Underground only really hit their true peak after they lost Nico, Warhol and Cale. This feature was first published on 2 April 2020
The diaristic title of the Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno and Nico's live record demands it be put into some kind of historical context. Michael Bellis looks at a highly unusual album released in a time of great cultural and social change
The Velvet Underground co-founder and longstanding experimental outlier reflects fondly on his 18-hour long debut US performance, producing for The Stooges and writing an ode to Brian Wilson, and makes a case for the avant-garde genius of Snoop Dogg
A new documentary from the Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There director explores the singular NYC band, who existed on the fringes of society and boundaries of taste but at the epicentre of the 1960’s avant-garde scene, as Ben Gilbert explains
It seems odd to argue that a member of one of the most celebrated rock bands of all time, the Velvet Underground, is under-appreciated, says Daniel Dylan Wray in this subscriber only essay, until you consider just how absent he is from conversations about popular music
Low Culture is a new series where tQ writers use lockdown time to pull some of their favourite music, films, games and books off the shelves in order to tackle an idea that's been bugging them for a long time. In the first instalment John Doran argues that the Velvet Underground only really hit their true peak after they lost Nico, Warhol and Cale
After escaping an abusive relationship and earning a slew of high-profile supporters for her bare-all songwriting, Sharon Van Etten endured two years of homelessness while making her new album, Tramp. She speaks to Cian Traynor about toughening up and learning to camouflage heartache
As well as being the lynchpin of suited rock howlers Gallon Drunk, James Johnston has played with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and PJ Harvey - but we're not going to hold the fact that he's picked both of them for his Baker's Dozen against him. Portrait by Steve Gullick.
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