Walk on the Web Side:
Lou Reed's online home
by Tim Frommer
Perhaps I'm getting jaded already with the internet, but I was expecting a lot more interaction and general creativity from the official web site for Lou Reed (no Velvets info here, we'll look at that next time). And considering his recent paramour, was I wrong to have such high hopes. There's no Laurie Anderson to be seen on an extensive credits list for the site.
At least Lou and his site design team at Sister Ray Enterprises (I didn't say there were no Velvets references), recognize that not everyone has a dedicated connection. From the site's gateway page there are links for slow and fast connection navigation. However, there is little extra or special in the hi-fi version, just some design trickery courtesy of Flash.
One of the internet's greatest features, in my opinion, is that no matter how much of a geek you are about a particular subject, you will always be able to find someone geekier who has created a web site about it. For us music collectors and aficionados, this means we can find complete gig listings for artists that someone has painstakingly compiled, usually with set lists as well. Tons of articles either linked or rekeyed into the site's architecture. Photos, sounds clips, maybe cheeky screen savers that someone has coded, etc. You'll find none of these features at Lou's home. I'm reminded of that moment from the movie Blue in the Face in his cameo when Lou is wearing eyeglass frames with no lenses that he calls "Lou's views." I think he must have been wearing that prescription when he OK'ed the final version of the site.
The two best areas of the site are the news and discography sections. The former has new updates constantly, three during the last couple of weeks of April, and is rightly distinct from the projects area lest one think there would be news found there. The discography covers the 70s-90s, with brief blurbs on each release, curiously neglecting last year's Ecstasy that ended up on two DAA critics' top tens.
Similarly, the most design-intensive part of the site, the scrolling frame bar for a chronology is not up to date. It ends in 1998. The chronology seems like it was lifted hook, lyric and photo from the PBS documentary Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart that was broadcast the same year. I can never get enough of old photos though, and the studio portrait of Reed at college at Syracuse is priceless. Still, since the news section is updated regularly, the site is not static and more effort should be put into other areas as well. There is a commerce section run by the Artists Direct network. All the discography seems to be available and you can buy the documentary video to see if my claim is right.
As noted above, there are no sound clips or really anything archival that a casual Lou Reed/VU fan probably doesn't already know. I know "www" doesn't stand for "world wild side web," but there is big lost opportunity here.
Artists l Essays l The List l Sites & Sounds
New Issue l Best Of l Fave Links l About Us