The Velvet Underground - "1969" 2 x Vinyl, LP, U.S., 2017 (Republic Records)

In the glory days of the music world, there would be releases from record companies that have nothing to do with time or space.  Just product.  I by chance found this album "1969" by The Velvet Underground, and I have to imagine that it's a combination of the 1980's release of "VU" and "Another View" which is basically putting everything out under the Velvet's recorded catalog of the time.   Now, Universal music has put together these two albums as a double-album set on vinyl.   Three-sides are the Velvets with Doug Yule in the line-up, and side four is when John Cale was in the band.  Probably somewhere between White Light/White Heat and the Third album.  There are no liner notes explaining the reason for this album, so it's very much of a rush-released piece of product. "1969" is also a great compilation of Velvet Underground tracks that never made it to the final works (albums).  

The truth is The Velvet Underground couldn't do anything wrong from the years 1966 to 1970.  Lou Reed was on the top of his songwriting powers, and even throwaway songs like "Foggy Notion" are magnificent.    When I listen to these set of songs decades later, it strikes me how original his approach to pop/rock songwriting was at the time of these recordings.  For one, (both line-ups) the band was fantastic, with Moe Tucker's dynamic primitive drumming, with the combination of Lou and Sterling Morrison's guitars going in and out of their arrangements.  Then you have someone like Yule with his backup vocals, or Cale's viola riding on the rhythm, and you have this tremendous noise that's The Velvet Underground. 

There are no weak cuts on this four-sided package. All of it is essential if you are a Lou or Velvets fan.   The cover/packaging is boring but the sounds inside the package are going to take one to other worlds. 

"Ork Records New York New York" on Tosh Talks

A new "Tosh Talks" episode on the greatness of the "Ork Records: New York New York" (Numero Group) vinyl box set with book.

V.A. - "Ork Records: New York, New York" Box Set, 4 x Vinyl Compilation, Book, 2015 (Numero Group)

"Ork Records: New York, New York" is a crazed pandora's box. Once opened, it's hard to keep that energy contained within its packaging.  One of the best thought-out box sets ever in the vinyl world, "Ork Records" exposes the foundation, and how everything changed from the floor and up.  The record label had to happen due to the dynamic music being made in New York City in the mid and late 1970s.  With respect to Terry Ork and Charles Ball's label, Ork Records, it was ground zero for a literal rebirth of rock n' roll, when rock almost lost its roll.   It's a label that attracted brilliant and troubled characters as well as visionary geniuses who used the sonic abilities to capture inspiration as it was being made and processed through the local NYC presses at the time. 

Terry Ork sounds like he would make a great Patricia Highsmith character.  Gay, with numerous name changes to avoid the law, and an obsessed fascination with the cinema also had a thing about drugs and sleeping with young men.  What brings him to our attention is his cultivated taste for great music and the artists who committed themselves to their music.  The band that opened up the world of possibilities was Television.   It was Television's idea of doing an independent single release of one of their great songs, "Little Johnny Jewel."  Both Television members Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell were into poetry and printed their own book of poems, which was not an unusual practice for poets at that time (and still), but in that fashion, why not put out a record in such a manner as printing up a book of poems.  Terry Ork helped financed the move, and as a tribute to their manager, they named the label Ork Records.   Later with Charles Ball, who had more financial smarts, released a few dozen   45 rpm singles of various bands and artists.   This box set is the result of those releases.  The tremendous and weird thing about all of this is that there isn't a stinker in any of their releases on Ork Records.  Terry and Charles had the touch of genius in choosing their artists.  

With Terry (and Charles) being the center of the perfect storm, Ork Records was the springboard for New York City punk and new wave music at the time.  Television release of their single, brought Richard Hell's first record, and which meant Hell's guitarist Robert Quine making a record with rock writer legend Lester Bangs recording, which drew on Television's Richard Lloyd recordings, which got Chris Stamey, which led to Alex Chilton and so forth.   Ork was the head engine struggling to get over the steep hill, and they were carrying all these great musicians in their train compartments.  

"Ork Records" is a work of perfection.  The box set consists of four vinyl LP's and a hardcover book.  The book alone is worth the price of the whole package, but the music is exceptional.  As a teenager in Los Angeles, I have found New York as this mystical land where great things happen. When I hunted down the original Ork Records singles, such as the Hell and Television recordings, it was like getting a message from another part of the world.  I got the same feeling when I purchased the Chris Stamey recordings as well - his Ork release as well as music from his own label, Car Records.  It was an extraordinary world at the time, and re-listening to these recordings on this box set does not disappoint.  They were indeed excellent recordings of their time, and they still kick ass.  It's great to hear the Alex Chilton records in the context of this box set, because it's part of the narrative and it's essential that it is part of the story or Ork and the others who were involved in this world.  

By however anyone looks at this package, it's essential for those who will study NYC cultural history of the 70s.  For instance, if you are studying the arts such as conceptual art, painting, and especially poetry, you must have the Ork Records box set.  It's part of the puzzle or piece that when you look at it, the story becomes more evident. It shows how a group of individuals can make marginal music (due to the financial and structional cultural world of its time) and how in its weird way is sort of the mirror image of Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. 

Television - "Marquee Moon" CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 1977 (Elektra/Rhino)

The stark image by Robert Mapplethorpe of Fred Smith, Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, and Billy Ficca A.KA. Television sets the tone what is inside the package.  Before the Internet, and yes, there's radio, but it was pretty useless for those who live in Los Angeles and therefore didn't have access to the tidal wave of new bands in New York at the time.  I've read about Television, and even more intrigued by their photographs of the time.  They never smiled, nor do they look like they enjoy each other's company.  The only goofy/fun one was Richard Hell, but he left the band by the time of this album's release.  

I think I first heard of the band in 1975, so through publications like The Village Voice, I kept track of this band and was very curious what their sound was like.   The critical response from their shows seemed chaotic from boredom to spiritual enlightenment.  Alas, I purchased the 45 rpm single of "Johnny Little Jewel" (Part 1 and 2, like a James Brown single from the late 1960s), and was transformed by the words, Verlaine's voice, and of course, those two magical guitars working at and against the slippery bass and drums.  When they reissued this remastered CD, the folks on the label were smart to add this song to the package.  

"Marquee Moon" is without a doubt, a classic recording.  The albums' mixture of intensity, beauty, drama, and you know these guys probably didn't move much on the stage.  Verlaine's lyrics/poetry would read like Raymond Chandler if he were a beat poet.  Romantic, yet tough, but with strong visual poetics that gives a picture while listening to the music.  Their stance of attachment or coolness mixed in with a focus on a classic rock two guitars, bass, drums sound is essentially fantastic. In my mind, since Elektra originally signed the band, I think of them as younger brothers to the other Elektra acts Love and The Stooges.  Of all the labels in the world, Television is an Elektra band.  With respect to the band's devotion to the music, and doing things their way.   The way Verlaine and Lloyd would work their guitars separate from each other, and in a sense giving little stabs, stings, and a sense of play, and then on the chorus, they join sensually and sexually manner.  There are a lot of great guitar bands, and one can argue who is better than the other.  The truth is Television is unique, and I think it's not only due to the talents of Verlaine's writing (although I suspect the others had their two or three cents in) the whole chemistry of the band, working together.  Indeed a gang, a group at work.  Perfection practiced by professionals.