"The Blueprint for Artistic Rebellion"

"Between external sources and his own research and phone and email interviews, Rae creates a complex, rich picture of Burroughs' life, focusing on his meetings with musicians and the way his techniques and ideas infiltrated them and changed the way they looked at the world as well as their own work. While doing this, Rae stays true to history and always presents Burroughs' duality; shaman and madman, writer and hermit, traveling man and depressed genius. The mixture came to embody rock and roll:"

Gabino Iglesias at NPR reviews Casey Rae's William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll.

"The Two Most Influential Cult Bands in Rock History"

"The late '60s was a fertile time for rock, period. You could say it's hardly a shock that two pioneering underground rock groups debuted the same month. But there is something strange and special about two bands who inspired decades of underground admiration and imitation debuting within less than a week of each other. They might rule vastly disparate realms of rock, but both have established themselves as the kings of cult for decades to come."

Joe Lynch at Billboard links the Velvet Underground to the Grateful Dead.

"Both Books Offer an Important and Refreshingly Nuanced Depiction of Punk"

"Some of the lineages Kane traces here are so well known, by those who care to know such things, that they hardly bear repeating. It's no secret that Lou Reed held Delmore Schwartz in high esteem as a model and mentor, or that Richard Hell was a published poet long before the Voidoids were formed. But the additions Kane makes to the narrative of the genesis of 1970s underground New York are invaluable. Kane devotes a full chapter to Ed Sanders's band, The Fugs, formed on the Lower East Side in 1964. Confrontational, gleefully amateurish, funny and obscene, The Fugs recorded then-scandalous songs such as 'Coca Cola Douche', 'Group Grope', 'Slum Goddess of the Lower East Side' and 'Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker' (the line was borrowed from the same Amiri Baraka poem that inspired the anarchist group). They satirized Ginsberg's near-sacred poem, 'Howl'. Clearly, The Fugs were precursors not only of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, but later punk groups such as the Dead Kennedys. 'Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing, Wednesday and Thursday nothing' begin the lyrics of a popular Fugs song. Their cheerful nihilism presaged the 'cynical enthusiasm' that, as the zine founder Tony Drayton recalls in Punk is Dead, drove London punk."

Chris Kraus at The Times Literary Supplement reviews Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix's Punk Is Dead and Daniel Kane's "Do You Have a Band?".

"But Everyone Who Bought It Formed a Band"

"Yeah. He told Lou, 'Don't forget to put the swear words in the songs.' We never used swear words. We felt the intellectual strength in what we were trying to do came from not using swear words. And then Lou wrote a few songs that were very different.
"I think what happened was Andy gave Lou 14 titles and he said, 'Now go away and write these songs,' because we were hanging around the Factory. He probably saw him as indolent and trying to figure out what to do next. And Lou was never happier than, 'Hey, here's a task. I got 14 titles. I can do that.'"

Kory Grow at Rolling Stone interviews John Cale about the fiftieth anniversary of The Velvet Underground and Nico.

Plucked Her Eyebrows on the Way

"Not only is this stupid, it’s dangerous. As music fans are attacked in spaces where they should be free to celebrate and feel safe, to be whoever they want–terrorists are trying to scare us into acting a certain way, talking a certain way, thinking a certain way. Focus your anger on them.
"Don't try to censor the art of yesterday because you don't agree with it. Don't tell new artists that they should only paint the world as you see it."

Roisin O'Connor in The Independent reacts to Canadian students offended by Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side."