Moe Tucker - I'm Sticking with You (2018)

The unmistakable beat of the Velvet Underground was malleted out on the unconventional kit of Moe Tucker. Her (at times) childlike, fallen angelic voice also shines on some VU fan favorites. Here Moe reinterprets some Velvet gems, sometimes playing all instruments, other times accompanied by the likes of Jonathan Richman, Jad Fair, Kim Gordon and more. In addition to VU faves, we’re treated to rough and jubilant covers of her favorite early rock & roll hits, and memorial odes to Sterling Morrison and Andy Warhol.

Strength, beauty, truth: those words perfectly describe Tucker’s crucial role in the Velvets’ historic fray, across their first three studio albums: 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico, 1968’s White Light/White Heat and the electrifying restraint of The Velvet Underground.

“After Hours” was Tucker’s only starring role in the Velvets’ original lifetime, but her clockwork drumming and loyalty to those ideals were constants in the noisy and emotionally direct music Tucker made in her second, improbable career as a solo artist: particularly the nine tracks that comprise this unique introduction, selected from a dozen releases across two decades.

There are 1980 home-recorded versions of Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” and the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” with Tucker playing all of the instruments, a charming duet with Jonathan Richman of the Modern Lovers on “I’m Sticking With You,” iconic Velvets songs with instrumental support by Reed and original bassist-viola player John Cale, and the memorial ode “Andy,” a chant-like eulogy with liquid-jangle guitar named after the pop artist who produced, managed and mentored the Velvets from 1966 to 1968. This collection ends with another memorial: “Last Night,” written by Tucker and recorded in 1998 as he farewell to Sterling Morrison who died in 1995. I’m Sticking With You: An Introduction To Moe Tucker presents this vital part of the history and legacy of The Velvet Underground and a portrait of (as Lou Reed described her) “the driving force, the hardcore heart of the Velvets’ mindset.”