Lou Reed

Latest Articles

Lou Reed & Metallica | Lulu

Warner Bros. (2011)
"I am the table!" growls James Hetfield during the de facto chorus of "The View."
By BARRY THOMPSON | October 25, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Dave Mustaine's righteous path

Tragic hero
Now sober, the ginger frontman is not only sharing a bill with Metallica, but the stage in an end-of-the-night jam to celebrate the Big Four, along with Slayer and Anthrax, and commemorating 30 years of pioneering thrash by playing select gigs around the world, including New York's Yankee Stadium next month.
By MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | August 24, 2011

Review: Hedwig and her Angry Inch visit SPACE

Beautiful anger
A captivating, flippant, and shockingly wigged chanteuse will be holding court at SPACE Gallery over the weekend.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 18, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Drum circle

Man Forever's John Colpitts finds his rhythm
It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke. When Man Forever take the stage at Great Scott in Allston this weekend, the band will run five or six drummers deep.
By GARRETT MARTIN | August 10, 2010

Tommy Keene | Tommy Keene You Hear Me: A Retrospective 1983 - 2009

Second Motion (2010)
If you've heard one Tommy Keene song, it's probably "Places That Are Gone," a certified power-pop classic released in 1984.
By BRETT MILANO | July 16, 2010

The Big Hurt: Vince Neil acts his age

Plus The Situation singled, Drake unsurpassed, Pete Doherty denied, Lou Reed exonerated
By the time you read this, the Situation will have his first single out on iTunes. Yeah, that the Situation.
By DAVID THORPE | June 22, 2010

The Big Hurt: Reed goes to the dogs

Plus Weezy debudded, Ant derided, Michaels bandanna’d
More evidence of the sickening barbarity of America’s penal institutions: Lil Wayne is being hassled because officers found headphones and the charger for an MP3 player in his cell.
By DAVID THORPE | May 25, 2010

By the Grace of Ralph

A debut that is Lying Down Looking Up
As debut records go, it's rare to find one as textured and fully realized as what Marion Grace have put together in the 10-song Lying Down Looking Up , an arty, smart, folk-rock affair that shows songwriting creativity with some genuinely great ideas.
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 17, 2010

Gorillaz | Plastic Beach

Virgin (2010)
Although this is their first album without an indie-chic producer, the fake band with fake cartoon characters known as Gorillaz stay the course as a very real post-Blur conduit for Damon Albarn's quasi-apocalyptic, '80s-daydreaming, neon-pop habit.
By ZETH LUNDY | March 16, 2010

Excerpt: Patti Smith's Just Kids

Rock icon Patti Smith recalls burroughs and Mapplethorpe, the early days of CBGB, and saddling up for Horses in this memoir excerpt
The stars were lining up to enter the Ziegfeld Theatre for the glittering premiere of the film Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. I was excited to be there.
By PATTI SMITH | March 03, 2010

Review: El Perro Del Mar at the Brattle

El Perro Del Mar and Taken by Trees, live at the Brattle Theatre, February 19, 2010
Sharing a bill, a backing band, and the cramped stage of the Brattle Theatre last Friday, two Swedish singer-songwriters turned it up to the world-music equivalent of 11 for an audience that, for the most part, refused to dance.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | February 24, 2010

Swede heart

El Perro del Mar cheers up — a little
Few contemporary singers achieve as perfect a confluence of sound and image as Sarah Assbring. It's deeply reassuring to hear mournful, stylized '60s pop coming out of a melancholic beanpole who resembles a recently bereaved Edie Sedgwick.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | February 16, 2010

Flanagan’s empire

Native son Bill Flanagan — novelist and MTV executive — discusses big books, musical longevity, Irish Catholicism, and Behind the Music .
Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.
By MICHAEL ATCHISON | February 05, 2010

Love among the ruins

Eternal Otter documents make-ups, breakups, and shake-ups
To Will Ethridge, who runs the small Portland-based label Eternal Otter Records, any song or album is just one crucial piece of a larger puzzle.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 20, 2010

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Treat of Versailles

Phoenix please themselves — and you
It's been a good year: their relentlessly catchy Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2) — whisked into the public ear this year atop Cadillacs via ad-ready singles like "1901" and "Lisztomania" — is about to cause some year-end listomania of its own. Since its release, they've been circling the globe playing to a steadily swelling audience.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 02, 2009

Review: Suzanne Vega at Sanders Theatre

Suzanne Vega, live at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, November 6, 2009
At the request of former Czech President Vaclav Havel, folk/alt-rock legend Suzanne Vega performed in Prague on Saturday with the likes of Lou Reed and Joan Baez to honor the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
By CARRIE BATTAN | November 17, 2009

Devendra Banhart | What Will We Be

Warner/Reprise (2009)
With the title of his latest album, this lovably polyglot erstwhile (and unwitting) “freak” folkie turned gallery darling and global lounge lizard asks a valid question. Indeed, what will we be this time?
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 10, 2009

The digerarti

‘Pixilerations’ plugs in Providence art
Strapped into Erik Conrad’s electronic vest, I stood waiting for the personal digital assistant, attached by a wire to the outfit, to make a GPS connection.
By GREG COOK | October 02, 2009

Interview: Robert Siegel

On the shoulders of Giants fans
As Robert Siegel explores the idea of what happens when reality curb-stomps overblown expectation, it's hard not to feel a visceral twinge of empathy.
By SHAULA CLARK | September 25, 2009

The Big Hurt: Parse and labor

The week in unhelpful headlines
I think music-news headlines are now officially my favorite part of pop music.
By DAVID THORPE | June 15, 2009

Write. Record. Gig. Repeat.

The Propellers stay the course on The Propellers: 2
The Warren-based Propellers are yet another notable band putting in work for the Warren-based label 75OrLess Rec-ords, and their sophomore release, The Propellers: 2 , offers a gradual growth from their self-titled debut.
By CHRIS CONTI | May 13, 2009