Spaceland and Part Time Punks Present: The Spires as Velvet Underground

The title says it all: Spaceland and Part Time Punks Present: The Spires as the Velvet Underground is a live album recorded at a one-off gig on April Fools Day 2007, where the Los Angeles-based duo of guitarist Jason Bays and drummer Colleen Coffey (with a second guitarist and bassist on hand to complete the picture) played a full set of Velvet Underground covers. It's a cute idea for a night out, but listening to it as an album is kind of like looking at snapshots of a wedding you didn't go to of a couple you don't know: good for them, but it's impossible to get too excited about it. The covers are uninspired sound-alikes that add absolutely nothing new to the songs, ably but unimaginatively performed. Not only is the song choice depressingly pedestrian, they cheat: "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Satellite of Love" do not count as Velvet Underground songs! What, they couldn't take a chance on something even mildly obscure alongside obvious choices like "What Goes On" and "I'm Waiting for the Man"? Only the most die-hard, completist Velvets fans -- or perhaps members of Bays and Coffey's immediate families -- could possibly have any interest in this album.