August 23, 1970
Hannah Marcus
edition of 1
boots, wax, salt and pepper shakers, fragrance materials
It’s the last recording of Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground; he quit the band after one of the Max’s shows. Max’s was a steakhouse and performance space on Park Avenue South that became a magnet for New York seventies glam. The recording was made on a tabletop cassette deck by Warhol Factory regular Brigid Berlin, and lots of tidbits of stray conversation can be heard above the music. There’s a tension between the in-crowd casual chatter and the performance of the songs, played with a glimmer of defeat to a small audience that was barely listening.
The scent project started out as an archaeological dig into that summer night, but became more of a tribute to Lou Reed himself, who drew his inspiration from the oozing palimpsest of New York – a city that still peels away from itself relentlessly. You’ve gotta take both boots, the salt and the pepper.
The left boot scent is A New Illusion: Steakhouse accord of fresh pickles and black pepper, overheated vacuum tubes, a trampled mylar balloon, something you can’t quite place - and honeysuckle.
The dark material is Here Come The Waves: Scavenging a deserted beach on the Manhattan coast as night approaches – it’s an area that used to be called Madison Park. A gull perches on an old barnacle-covered porcelain toilet bowl that’s resting on the sand. A couple of wild hogs scamper by. You shoo away the gull and take a seat on the bowl, unscrew your wineskin and pour a bit of homemade hooch into a small empty bottle you found half-buried in the sand by your foot. You can’t quite make out the label but it might say, ‘Paco Rabanne – Eau De Calandre.’ You take a swig and look out on the sea.
Hannah Marcus
edition of 1
boots, wax, salt and pepper shakers, fragrance materials
It’s the last recording of Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground; he quit the band after one of the Max’s shows. Max’s was a steakhouse and performance space on Park Avenue South that became a magnet for New York seventies glam. The recording was made on a tabletop cassette deck by Warhol Factory regular Brigid Berlin, and lots of tidbits of stray conversation can be heard above the music. There’s a tension between the in-crowd casual chatter and the performance of the songs, played with a glimmer of defeat to a small audience that was barely listening.
The scent project started out as an archaeological dig into that summer night, but became more of a tribute to Lou Reed himself, who drew his inspiration from the oozing palimpsest of New York – a city that still peels away from itself relentlessly. You’ve gotta take both boots, the salt and the pepper.
The left boot scent is A New Illusion: Steakhouse accord of fresh pickles and black pepper, overheated vacuum tubes, a trampled mylar balloon, something you can’t quite place - and honeysuckle.
The dark material is Here Come The Waves: Scavenging a deserted beach on the Manhattan coast as night approaches – it’s an area that used to be called Madison Park. A gull perches on an old barnacle-covered porcelain toilet bowl that’s resting on the sand. A couple of wild hogs scamper by. You shoo away the gull and take a seat on the bowl, unscrew your wineskin and pour a bit of homemade hooch into a small empty bottle you found half-buried in the sand by your foot. You can’t quite make out the label but it might say, ‘Paco Rabanne – Eau De Calandre.’ You take a swig and look out on the sea.
Hannah Marcus
edition of 1
boots, wax, salt and pepper shakers, fragrance materials
It’s the last recording of Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground; he quit the band after one of the Max’s shows. Max’s was a steakhouse and performance space on Park Avenue South that became a magnet for New York seventies glam. The recording was made on a tabletop cassette deck by Warhol Factory regular Brigid Berlin, and lots of tidbits of stray conversation can be heard above the music. There’s a tension between the in-crowd casual chatter and the performance of the songs, played with a glimmer of defeat to a small audience that was barely listening.
The scent project started out as an archaeological dig into that summer night, but became more of a tribute to Lou Reed himself, who drew his inspiration from the oozing palimpsest of New York – a city that still peels away from itself relentlessly. You’ve gotta take both boots, the salt and the pepper.
The left boot scent is A New Illusion: Steakhouse accord of fresh pickles and black pepper, overheated vacuum tubes, a trampled mylar balloon, something you can’t quite place - and honeysuckle.
The dark material is Here Come The Waves: Scavenging a deserted beach on the Manhattan coast as night approaches – it’s an area that used to be called Madison Park. A gull perches on an old barnacle-covered porcelain toilet bowl that’s resting on the sand. A couple of wild hogs scamper by. You shoo away the gull and take a seat on the bowl, unscrew your wineskin and pour a bit of homemade hooch into a small empty bottle you found half-buried in the sand by your foot. You can’t quite make out the label but it might say, ‘Paco Rabanne – Eau De Calandre.’ You take a swig and look out on the sea.