We can’t begin to explain how giddy we were last night as we waited to enter the New York Public Library for an unprecedented Velvet Underground reunion of Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule (ie, the band members who don’t hate each others guts). As we snaked through lines and into the grand room, our excitement built. Two large screens projected a slideshow of images from the newly-released coffee table book The Velvet Underground: New York Artwhile we waited for the show to start. After the jump, read the five things that surprised us most about the sold-out event.
It might make me unpopular but… containing year-end lists to 2008 is idiotic.
By their very nature, year-end lists can only encompass a small pocket of what’s actually on your iPod. Sure, 2008 was a great year (for indie rock especially), but at the end of the day there’s more to audio exploration than breaking new bands. Any crate-digger worth his whiskers will tell you that there’s just as much to be discovered from the past as the present. As such, many of the best records I found in the last 12 months were old, lesser-known works, long ignored, or only recently unearthed.
Thus, in a bid to push the year-end list to its absolute limit, Flavorwire presents The Beard’s Top Eight Records That Weren’t From 2008.
Whisker-twisting reviews and essential MP3s after the jump.
