All week long I’ve been planning a tribute to Lou Reed (which will broadcast today from 4-6pm on KPFK), who passed away at the age of 71 exactly one week ago. As I’ve been listening to music from Reed. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to figure out exactly when I heard music from his seminal group the Velvet Underground. I have a very vague memory of hearing “Walk On The Wild Side” sometime in middle school on the radio and even then realizing that there were things going on in that song that were far beyond my 9 or 10-year old understanding of the world. But for the life of me I can’t recall the moment I actually heard the Velvet Underground. By the time I’d gotten to college and began working at Album 88, it seems like I’d already heard of the group. Mo Tucker lived in Atlanta and would always come down to the station asking to be interviewed about some new project and people would complain that, “just cause she was in the Velvet Underground doesn’t mean we ‘should’ interview her now.” It’s a strange feeling with a band so iconic and with such a distinct sound, to not be sure when you heard it first. What I’ve basically figured out is that part of the reason that it seemed like I’d just always heard much of Lou Reed’s music was that it was all over the place, in terms of the massive influence his work had on musicians since the 1960s to the massive amount of covers that had been done of VU and Reed songs. Here are 5 of the ones that I’m sure I heard before I truly became a fan of the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed.

Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It

Now, I know this isn’t technically a cover or Lou Reed song, but it samples “Walk On The Wild Side,” (before Marky Mark’s version, which I wish I can actually unhear from my mind) and was probably one of the first Hip-Hop songs where I absolutely knew the sample and then could recognize that other aspects of the song weren’t from that sample, thus sending me out to find those other elements. So, there you have it, Lou Reed is partially responsible for much of the crate diggin’ I’ve done in my life.

Swervedriver – Jesus

Shortly after hearing the Tribe song above I feel in love with this shoegazey band from the UK. As remains the case when I fall head over heels for a group I try to get my ahnds and ears on every single bit of music I can from them and this cover of what now is one of my favorite VU songs was on a single release that included “Sandblasted,” called “Reel to Real.” I have the vaguest recollections of thinking to myself, “maybe I should check out the original version,” but I still don’t think that was what actually led me to discover the music of the Velvet Underground.

Jane’s Addiction – Rock’n’Roll

Around the same time I heard Swervedriver covering the VU, Jane’s Addiction was all the rage. It took me a little while to work backwards to their live recording, essentially their debut, from 1987. For sometime I just had this on a cassette, so it wasn’t until years later that I realized it was a cover. By that time I’m pretty sure I’d already heard the earlier stuff from the Velvets, but hadn’t really heard anything from Loaded. It was probably a few years later until I realized what a profound effect Lou Reed must have had on this band and so many others.

Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane

This was something that I didn’t hear until I made my way into college radio at Album 88, where the Cowboy Junkies and “Sweet Jane” were already staples of programming by the time I arrived in 1993. In a similar fashion to Jane’s Addiction above, there was a bit of ignorance on my part for quite a while before I realized that this was a cover and actually fully heard the original version, which also came from the album Loaded, which was both the last album from the group that I heard any music from, but strangely also THE album that finally made everything click for me and made a massive fan of the Velvet Underground.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – All Tomorrow’s Parties

Final cover of note comes from an artist who I now realize must have been profoundly influenced by Reed, Nick Cave. Around 1994, I heard “Do You Love Me” from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and was floored. Seeing them live at Lollapalooza later that year completely sealed the deal and I’ve been a major fan ever since. Over the course of a couple of months I got nearly every record Nick Cave and the boys had recorded, and eventually found my way to the collection of covers, Kicking Against The Pricks. “All Tomorrow’s Parties” wasn’t my favorite song on that album, turns out it also isn’t one of my favorite VU tracks, but knowing that this was a record of covers of people who influenced an artist that I was completely smitten with was likely the thing that got me to formally listen to the Velvet Underground’s first two records. That wild sound was what I associated with the group until years later picking up a copy of Loaded at Amoeba in Berkeley and hearing “Pale Blue Eyes” shortly after that and finally fully and completely understanding the power and the glory that was Lou Reed.

Next Wednesday, on the eve of old Hallow’s eve, Australia’s Haitus Kaiyote will be here in Los Angeles, performing at the Skirball Cultural Center along with Moses Sumney and DJ’s Jeremy Sole and Wisacre of the Lift. Haitus Kaiyote has been one of my favorite discoveries of the year after (finally) hearing their debut Tawk Tomahawk, which the band self-released in 2012, garnering attention from all kinds of folks, until it was given a proper release this year on producer Salaam Remi’s Flying Buddah label. Like Little Dragon and Quadron before them, Kaiyote is part of an international wave of soul music over the last few years and with singer/guitarist Nai Palm’s penchant for interesting fashion, I’m sure this Halloween themed show will be memorable indeed. If you want a chance to win tickets, e-mail me at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com by Tuesday 12noon for your chance to win…if we’re lucky we might just have an interview/performance for you all when Melting Pot returns to the KPFK airwaves November 3rd!

As I’ve mentioned before, “Nakamarra” is one of my favorite songs of the year, might even end up being my favorite song of the year, so if you haven’t heard it…just listen:

One of the things that’s a little frustrating about the EP, similar to the music of Flying Lotus, is how many of the songs clock in at only a minute or so, however it seems live that these songs are performed quite differently, here’s an example with “Boom Child”:

Here’s another video of the band, one of a song that’s not on the debut, “Jekyll” that shows even more of a range for the group and much stronger jazz influences than even I had
realized before:

Gregory Porter – Liquid Spirit

Whew! I’m not sure how I slept on Gregory Porter, but I’m thankful I caught up, more or less in time for his debut Blue Note release (third full-length overall since 2011), Liquid Spirit. Dude sounds like the love child of Ray Charles and Les McCann as you’ll hear on the title cut. Don’t make my mistake…don’t sleep on Mr. Porter!

tUnE-yArDs, ?uestlove, Angelique Kidjo, & Akua Naru – Lady

Been meaning to post this for some time (grading kicked my ass all up and down the street the last couple of weeks. This is now the 2nd collection from the Red Hot organization, which does very fine work around the world on AIDS awareness, to feature the music of Nigerian legend Fela Kuti. In my opinion this one is a consistent improvement over the previous version which had more star power, but less quality. Here we find Baloji, M1 from Dead Prez, LA’s very own KING, master drummer Tony Allen, Sahr Ngaujah (who played Fela in the broadway musical), Kronos Quartet and members of My Morning Jacket, TV on The Radio and the Alabama Shakes paying tribute to the originator of Afrobeat. For me, the most interesting track is this version of “Lady,” the original of which had a killer rhythm but VERY troublesome lyrics denigrating African women who take on “western” aspects of femininity. With Angelique Kidjo and Akua Naru primarily on the vocals (along with Merrill from tUnE-yArDs) the lyrics become more playful and a song that could be described as “anti-feminist” becomes a feminist anthem. Highly recommended.

Literally just found out that I have a few more tickets that I can giveaway for Steve Earle’s performance tomorrow night at the Ford Theatre. Steve Earle is a living legend, a true national treasure in my opinion and someone who I sincerely hope I’ll get to bring into studio sometime in the future. If you’d to see him and his band the Dukes, e-mail me by 12noon Thursday at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com!!!

Here’s a fantastic video for the song “Invisible” from his latest release The Low Highway:

Here Mr. Earle performs the song “This City” which was written for New Orleans and featured in the series Treme:

Frootful feat. Mazan Bedwei – The Road

Because of the fact that there is no working library at KPFK, I tend to figure out everything I’m going to play for my show, vinyl, CD, mp3’s, etc., and burn all of the music for the 2 hours onto a couple of CD-Rs. As I’m driving around Los Angeles I’ll often listen to songs from previous shows, and for quite some time my player has been stuck on this track from UK soulsters Frootful. So much of the appeal of the song for me occurs in the opening couple of seconds. By choosing to have Mazen Bedwei’s smoother than smooth vocals begin the song accapella, it gives the song an attention grabbing quality that as soon as the groove hits you’re fully hooked. I really don’t feel nearly as strongly about the rest of the material on the LP, but I will say this, in addition to having one of my favorite songs of the year, Heavyweight will likely be the runaway winner on the cutest record cover of the year.