The Velvet Forum

Apparently, for a very brief period in 1963, there was an obscure rock and roll band in NYC called The Druds (Walter de Maria on drums, Larry Poons on guitar, La Monte Young on sax, and Patty Mucha on lead vocals), and they apparently invented noise rock. Andy Warhol was a guest vocalist on a few of their songs, and the VU seems to have been an offshoot of them. The band was by all means a failure—none of the members really saw anything in (or even really committed to) the project, and their attempts at merging the avant-garde with pop music were lackluster at best—but they foreshadowed the sixties rock revolution.

So, what do you think of The Druds? I, for one, believe that the Velvets wouldn’t have happened without them (John Cale was CLEARLY influenced). I also think that they completely shoot a hole through the whole “The idea is enough” approach to art. These guys clearly had an idea going for them, but their inability to properly develop (or even really understand) it shows that it takes more than just a clever idea to produce a true work of creativity. It also completely takes down the ideal of the lone inventor in regards to music. Even though the VU was the first to really pull off experimental rock, they may never have gotten there if it weren’t for an earlier band that tried and failed to accomplish the exact same thing.

What do you mean by "they apparently invented noise rock"?

Sheila Klein wrote: ↑12 Jul 2019 14:04 What do you mean by "they apparently invented noise rock"?

They laid down the groundwork for the genre (noisy, Dadaist banging on rock instruments), but couldn’t discover a means of creating particular good music with it.

Are you sure about that? For all you really know about it, The Druds was nothing more than a myth. And if no one heard their music, then no one was influenced by it. Meanwhile, do you know there were no other precedents for "noisy, Dadaist banging on rock instruments", or are you sure The Druds was the first?

Sheila Klein wrote: ↑12 Jul 2019 17:04 Are you sure about that? For all you really know about it, The Druds was nothing more than a myth. And if no one heard their music, then no one was influenced by it. Meanwhile, do you know there were no other precedents for "noisy, Dadaist banging on rock instruments", or are you sure The Druds was the first?

The Holy Modal Rounders were doing it at the same time with folk music, but that was it. There are supposed to be a few tapes, but they’ve never been seen or circulated. The band was said to sound like Henry Flynt, so it’s not really noise rock (or even rock) in the way that we tend to think of it. I say that they influenced the VU because some of their members wound up with Lou and John in The Primitives, where they undoubtedly showed their experience. Either way, The Druds (as I let on in my initial post) were a complete failure, so I don’t know if they can be really credited with inventing anything.