metal machine music
 

i pulled this out of my collection for the first time in a long time today. it still sounds fucking great. even with the countless amazing noise, drone, and ambient over the years this still sounds like a landmark.

discuss

i like to think the sqeaks on the record are mice dying in the studio from an audio overload

I never got the hate on this record from serious noise fans, most seem to think it's bullshit.

i put the album on for the 8 year old that i tutor. she didn't like it.

i really like it.

i think the hate comes from both the pretentiousness lou wrapped the album with and his (endlessly contradicting) claims that if people like it, they were idiots.

i really want to hear it. Is it just complete noise? is there any rythym, i dunno what to expect

no rhythm, no vocals.

just droning, dissonant electronics.

i bet your picture of metallica with ricky martin scares me more than my picture of tina fey scares you.

It's alright. It's got some interesting moments. Still probably the best work Lou Reed has ever appeared on.

"My week beats your year"

uhler: probably, i'm one upping you.

ive always thought of it as more guitar based ambiebnt drone, than noise. its not really harsh. i thought it was gonna be brutal as fuck till i realized the people who desribed it as such did so in 1975, before punk, before industrial, before no wave, before noise.

everyneurotic, best pic ever.

Lou Reed once said that when this came out he took it to to the RCA offices in Tokyo and they loved it.

no wonder, porky!

br: it represents what 'tallica is now, innit?

are not industry people known for their out and out lying and "praise" of whatever is thrown their way?

Well, Lou Reed's American side of business at the time told him that it was a crazy and absurd piece of work, and they worked for the same record company the Japanese did.

the u.s. label also denied lou's demand that it comes out on their classical subsidiary and largely played against it so that it didn't sell well (wasn't sent to distributors, pressings were wrong and returned, release date pushed back several times, no promos were sent, etc.)

My copy has a promo stamp.

but was it "sent?"

i read that they were set aside but not sent.

the thing was that the company did everything so that it didn't seem like their fault, like, for example, they had their promos set to go but didn't fill the shipping orders or marked them as if they were returned from the radio stations and journos.

if the record company had told lou "fuck off, we're not sending any promos!", they would have breached their contract, lou would have been able to walk away (a no no because they were expecting him to deliver coney island baby, which the label felt would be a huge hit) from his contract and be able to sue the label for said breach. all out sabotage never happens with big labels because of this, things are done more subtle.

of course the album was released eventually.

maybe the A&R guy did not much appreciate Lou Reed's lackluster slobber-knobber? and now he spends his nights thinking about Lou deep throatin' Laurie Anderson's 4 inch clitoris?

This album is tied with Berlin and White Light/White Heat for my favorite Reed work.

I honestly don't see how anyone could be into Sonic Youth and not appreciate it, given how influential it was on the noise part of their guitar sound.

Lou chose to play the post-modern hand perfectly by creating a powerful serious art statement that he knew most of the critics and listening world would take as shit, so he claimed he was fucking around and making shit. Now I'm sure he chuckles everytime somebody claims it was all a joke, because it really wasn't. Talk about the last laugh.

There's a copy of the vinyl double LP in the library at KAOS FM in Olympia that I used to love to play when I djed there, because there appeared to be a literal bite taken out of one of the records. So I'd just start it an inch further in.