Metallica & Lou Reed – Lulu

Today’s New York Times article about the album begins: “The three titans of rock put down their sushi and unleashed a Babel of gush. Lounging in a luxury hotel suite 26 floors above Lower Manhattan…”

There’s so much about those opening sentences that makes me cringe. But am I surprised? Is it strange that the once long-haired, eternally-drunk, speed metal demons are now eating sushi and “lounging in luxury hotel suites?” Not really. Ever since the Napster debacle, when Metallica revealed their true colors as money grubbing rich bros as opposed to down and dirty metal rockers, the band’s sound and success has been a stagnant languid endeavor.

Lou Reed & Metallica – The View

Metallica was my favorite band in middle school. And then I saw Pearl Jam in concert, they put out St. Anger, and I moved on. It was time, and they were really beginning to suck.

However, the news of a collaboration with Lou Reed – which surfaced almost two years ago, after the two groups played together at the 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert, was intriguing, to say the least. The first full track to be released of the forthcoming album Lulu, is called “The View” and it’s, well, really bad.

Lou Reed has done some weird stuff in the past (Metal Machine Music was described by Rolling Stone as “the tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator”) and Metallica has put out some pretty horrible stuff as well (anything after 1999). But both have also created some of the greatest and most innovative rock albums – taking their respective genres to new levels, spawning scores of imitators, and changing the face of music as we knew it. A collaboration that combined aspects of the latter would be mind-boggling. Sadly, this song is a strange combination of the former – spoken word nonsense by Reed over a sludgy Metallica riff, sans all of the speed-metal brilliance that made Metallica great, and without any of Mr. Reed’s talent.

The potential for this collab was so high, and that the result is this abysmal should be saddening to music fans everywhere.

Lou Reed & Metallica – The View

Cry Baby, Cry

For those of you guitar gear nuts out there, apparently there’s a documentary about the Cry Baby Wah Pedal. It’s somehow fascinating and entertaining, despite being about the history and development of one guitar effect. If you have any interest in guitars, guitar pedals, or music in general, you should check this out.

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child

Metallica – Enter Sandman

Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses

Sly & The Family Stone – Don’t Call Me N*****, Whitey

The 10 Plagues In Song

In honor of Passover almost upon us (and the fact that I’m gonna get my butt kicked for doing this instead of helping cook and clean) here are 10 songs, representing the 10 plagues from the Exodus story.

Enjoy!

1. Blood:  Pearl Jam – Blood