Back catalogue: Rock

Review: Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale, Doug Yule, Maureen Tucker and - a little later - Nico broke the mould with their efforts as The Velvet Underground. The Andy Warhol-managed and produced cult rock icons helped lay the foundations for New Wave and punk about a decade before either sound really started to make inroads in any circles, let alone commercial ones. And, listening back to any of their records now, the music itself isn't just a significant bookmark theoretically: it all still sounds incredible today.

Todd Haynes' highly recommendable documentary charts at least some of that story in a commendable way, more so when you consider it arrived around 50 years after the original lineup disbanded. Using interviews with surviving members Cale and Tucker, alongside archive footage, music and other material, it paints a vivid portrait of an equally vivid band. With tracks by them in question, Bo Diddley, The Primitives and The Diablos, this OST helps colour that picture, and era, properly.

Review: Years before anyone had ever heard of CBGB, Max's was *the* place in New York City to see cutting-edge rock acts (and mingle with Manhattan scenesters). Near the top of that list was The Velvet Underground, whose final show with bandleader Lou Reed (until a brief 90s reunion) is documented on the live album Live At Max's Kansas City. The quartet mixed such older favorites as 'I'll Be Your Mirror,' 'Femme Fatale' and 'I'm Waiting For The Man', with new songs like 'Sweet Jane' and 'New Age' from their soon-to-be-released Loaded, with plenty of venue atmosphere heard throughout (there is an audible conversation in which Jim Carroll hits up an audience member for pills). Rhino's Expanded & Remastered Edition of the seminal collection includes both sets performed by band that night in their entirety.