Skip to main content

John Cale to perform The Velvet Underground & Nico live in Paris with Animal Collective

john cale to perform the velvet underground nico live in paris
Flickr/Kmeron
Founding Velvet Underground member John Cale has announced he will be performing the band’s 1967 masterpiece The Velvet Underground & Nico in its entirety next month.

A one-night-only event which will take place at the Philharmonie de Paris on April 3rd, the show will include a myriad of special musical guests helping Cale bring the classic to the stage.

Famous associates who will take the stage with Cale include American indie rock supergroup Animal Collective, Pete Doherty and Carl Barât of The Libertines, and others.

A legendary musician in his own right, Cale has produced or performed with John Cage, LCD Soundsystem, Brian Eno, and the Replacements, as well as written and recorded over 30 solo albums.

An inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cale left The Velvet Underground in 1968, shortly after The Velvet Underground & Nico came out, but he remained close with all members of the band.

An album which has a massive cult following, The Velvet Underground & Nico was made in collaboration with famed pop artist Andy Warhol, who designed the iconic banana logo with which the band would become associated. An experimental batch of 11 songs which was fronted by legendary singer and songwriter Lou Reed, the album was initially a commercial failure and was almost completely ignored by rock critics at the time.

Despite it’s initial lack of success, those who came in contact with the album loved it, and sales grew steadily in the years following its debut. These days, The Velvet Underground & Nico is considered by many to be among the best rock albums ever recorded.

Tickets for the upcoming show are already sold out, but that likely won’t stop some hardcore fans buying aftermarket tickets and flying to Paris — especially with such a star-studded cast of world class musicians playing the iconic songs that evening.

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?
Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Read more
How to download music from Spotify for offline listening
How to download music and podcasts from Spotify: The downloads folder.

If you're a Spotify Premium user paying that premium Spotify fee, chances are you've taken at least some time curating playlists, liking songs, and using the platform's easy-to-use (and recently revamped) user interface to discover new and old music.

But sometimes all that music or your favorite podcasts aren't available if you find yourself without an internet connection to stream them from — like on a long plane ride or weekend camping trip in the sticks. That's where Spotify's offline listening feature comes in handy, allowing you to download playlists, albums, and podcasts through its desktop and mobile apps so you can still rock out while you're off the grid.

Read more
How to switch from Spotify to Apple Music
Spotify and Apple Music transfer on a smartphone.

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service for a reason. It has a massive catalog of music and podcasts, is full of cool music discovery and sharing features, and is really easy to use.
However, with its recent price increase and the fact that it still hasn't joined most of its peers in offering a hi-res audio quality option, you may be considering jumping ship for its closest competitor, Apple Music, which counts lossless hi-res tracks, mind-bending spatial audio, Dolby Atmos Music tracks, and a catalog that rivals Spotify's among the many attractive reasons to switch.

But there's one problem: you’ve spent a lot of time creating playlists and marking songs and albums as your favorites in Spotify. Is it worth the switch? Will all that hard work be lost in translation?

Read more