The late, great Lou Reed's long, twisty solo career was full of peaks and valleys. One of the peaks came in 1982, when Reed got together with the former Richard Hell guitarist Robert Quine and recorded The Blue Mask. The album came out on Reed's 40th birthday, and it's one of his best. The Blue Mask is a tense, anxious freakout of a record, and that form suited Reed especially well. Those feelings come across particularly strongly on the song "Waves Of Fear," and Pissed Jeans have now turned that song into a heavy, forbidding banger.
It makes sense that Pissed Jeans would be Lou Reed fans, right? The Philly-based underground veterans have their own scabrous, fatalistic sense of humor -- not the same as Reed's, but not worlds apart, either. Also, Reed basically invented noise-rock with the Velvet Underground. Even if you can't always pick up a direct Velvets/Pissed Jeans influence, it's in the DNA. Pissed Jeans recorded their version of "Waves Of Fear" during the sessions for last year's great Half-Divorced album, and it originally came out as a flexi included with New Noise magazine. Now, the whole world gets to hear the cover. It's a little harsher and more guttural than the original, but they honestly didn't have to change much. Here's what frontman Matt Korvette says about it:
The seasick bass riff that centers "Waves Of Fear" is one of my all-time favorites, so we had to take a stab at this paranoid, self-loathing classic. I yell "take it Crystal!" at the end because Crystal Waters frequently records in the same studio we had recorded in, and we were hopeful she might ad-lib some soulful vocals at the end, the next time she stopped by. Sadly it did not pan out.
I wish they'd gotten those Crystal Waters ad-libs. That would've been fire. Below, listen to Pissed Jeans' "Waves Of Fear" cover, the Lou Reed original, and Pissed Jeans' short list of upcoming live shows.
TOUR DATES:
4/12 - Allentown, PA @ Archer Music Hall *
5/24 - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus ^
5/25 - Minneapolis, MN @ Caterwaul Festival
8/15 - Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival
* with Orphan Donor
^ with Necron 9 & Sex Scenes
Pissed Jeans' take on "Waves Of Fear" is out now on Sub Pop.
