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Originally Posted by Severian
I understand what you're sayin Mortte, but JAMC were not a poor man's VU. Honestly, there's no band I can really think of that could claim that title. VU were the poor man's VU. The only bands from anywhere near their era that had the same kind of vibe were bands like the Stooges, and a little later Can.... then Television (who came so much later that they were more followers than peers.)
JAMC definitely used the Velvet's formula, specifically the more simple songs that appeared on 3rd and Loaded, but they added a great deal to the sound to make it exciting for college pseudo punks in the early '80s. But they never pretended that wasn't the case. They mixed NYC art drone with Beach Boys melodies and covered it all in fuzz, and they created something new. Honestly, for a long time they were second only to Sonic Youth in my mind. Now I am a little bit less obsessed with them, but they were definitely influential and powerful in their own right. Without them, I don't think there would be any Dinosaur Jr, or Ride, or MBV. They really kicked open the doors for noise rock, along with Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3 and Husker Du.
Spacemen 3 are probably the most direct and unabashed disciples of the VU, but calling them or JAMC a "poor man's VU" is kind of missing the point. If anything, most of the music world probably considers SY to be more of a poor man's VU than JAMC.
I'm not trying to argue, it's just that I think the Velvets (like the Beatles) inspired SO many bands that it's hard to find good musicians that haven't ripped them off in some way, shape or form. But the same is true of JAMC, Spacemen 3 and Sonic Youth. All of those bands picked up where the Velvets left off to some extent. And they influenced generations of underground bands on their own.
The Velvets are probably the second most influential rock band of all time. They created a diaspora in the underground just as the Beatles did in the mainstream. You couldn't really BE a rock band after those two groups without ripping one or both of them off.
Sorry to wank on and on, but I really do crush hard on the Velvet Underground. For me, great rock music pretty much began in 1967.
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Have you heard 13th Floor Elevators, Red Crayola & Pink Floydīs two first albums? I think those all have really same kind of aggression and darkness in their music as Velvet. Also, this quite rare album from 1967 is really Velvet-mood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM_mp9mWLJI
How Velvet differs those is lyrics, Velvet was the only who sing about S/M & heroin.
No, Sy is not poor manīs VU. They added into Velvet base lot more than JAMC. As I said, I like JAMC but never find them great. There are not very much variations in JAMC career (third album they invent machine drums into their music, thatīs all). BTW I have seen JAMC, they were very drunk but still quite great! Very noisy!
About the importance of influences making to other bands, it has said everybody who bought V.U. & Nico album started a band, I think itīs true, but really donīt believe that happend to everyone who bought SY, JAMC or Spacemen 3 -albums.