Trailer for the Lou Reed/Metallica “Lulu” project which drops November 1st in North America and October 31st worldwide.

When reading this press release for the upcoming Lou Reed/Metallica record LULU my mind drifted to some other bizarre collabs:

Jello Biafra and the Melvins? Dead Kennedys and Melvins aren’t the same but adding a vocalist to the Melvins music wasn’t that absurd.

Trent Reznor and El-P’s Flyentology? Both dudes are cypercreeps. Song is good.

So that brings us to the Lou Reed, and Metallica’s upcoming album Lulu that drops November 1st, on Warner Brothers.

Now, because I have shot Heroin and also broken windows I can say that I love both the Velvet Underground and Metallica. But I would’ve never guessed in a million years that this would happen.

And this would have really fucked up the lunchroom seating in High School…

With that said……How did Lulu come about? I could paraphase the press release or you can just read the whole thing. (No word if Pushead will make a cover with a skull eating a banana)

LOU REED & METALLICA LULU
DUE FROM WARNER BROS. RECORDS ON NOVEMBER 1ST, 2011

August 29, 2011- Los Angeles, CA – In what is sure to be one of the most talked-about alliances of the year, New York king of avant-rock Lou Reed has teamed up with best-selling hard rock band Metallica to record a brand-new album, entitled Lulu, which will be released by Warner Bros. Records on November 1st, 2011. The album was co-produced by Reed, Metallica, Hal Willner who has produced albums for Reed, Marianne Faithfull, and Laurie Anderson, among others and Greg Fidelman. Fidelman also mixed the record.

The idea for these two giants of modern music to work together was born after the 25th anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame concerts in New York City in October 2009. Metallica -singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo – played with Reed on Velvet Underground classics “Sweet Jane” and “White Light/White Heat.” “We knew from then that we were made for each other,” Reed says.

After that triumphant performance, Reed suggested they all make a record together. At first they planned to record an album of Reed’s older material, what Ulrich describes as “some of Lou’s lost jewels – songs that he felt he’d like to give a second spin, and we could do whatever it is we do to some of those songs.” That idea “hung in the air for a couple of months.” Then, a week or two before that session was to begin, “Lou called up and said, ‘Listen, I have this other idea.’”

That idea was to record a series of songs Reed had written for American avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson and German theater group the Berliner Ensemble’s production of the Lulu Plays, which premiered in Aprilat theTheatre am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, founded by Bertolt Brecht. The songs are inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind’s early 20th century plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, and were a rewrite of Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Raven, which emerged as a graphic novel on Fantagraphics Press.

“We were very interested in working with Lou,” says Hetfield. “I had these giant question marks: What’s it going to be like? What’s going to happen? So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the Lulu body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp ‘TALLICA on it. And that’s what we did.”

“We had to bring Lulu to life in a sophisticated way, using rock,” Reed says. “And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica. They live on that planet. We played together, and I knew it: dream come true. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality.”

“It’s definitely not a Metallica album, or a Lou Reed album,” adds Hammett. “It’s something else. It’s a new animal, a hybrid.”

For more info visit: www.loureedmetallica.com

Los Angeles, CA – March 23, 2011 – Metallica today announced that all announcements made on their behalf via Writers Group Film Corp. and their subsidiary Front Row Networks, Inc. are false. Writers Group issued a press release on March 22, 2011 announcing “the acquisition of several hours of unique Metallica 3D & 2D concert video footage for distribution.”

“Metallica owns and controls its recorded performances and Creeping Death Music owns the vast majority of any music embodied in Metallica Recordings,” said the band’s attorney Peter Paterno. “Pretty much any legitimate business would have contacted us to see how Metallica felt about it. Maybe these guys just forgot.”

“We are very happy to have bolstered the Writers Group Film Corp. stock price by using the Metallica name,” quipped Marc Reiter from Metallica’s management, Q Prime. “We only wish they would have told us sooner so we could have bought some.”

Okay, lot’s going on. Hard to keep up. Don’t forget Showlist Austin and SCHED* for all your SXSW prep work.

• RSVP for the Fader Fort here. No info of line-up or location yet.

• Rumors continue to fly around that Metallica will be making an appearance. Because there was a wide gap in Friday’s schedule at Stubb’s, it seemed to be the likely candidate. But… that gap has been filled with the Guitar Hero Metallica Madness Competition at 10pm for 2 hours 20 minutes. So will it be members of Metallica in an all star jam with Guitar Heroes? Will the band play themselves? Do I really care? Not personally, but I know a lot of people do.
• Click here to RSVP for some Paste parties.
• AAM day show features Health, Eartless w/ J Mascis, and more.
• Park the Van is part of a day show featuring Deer Tick, The High Strung, more.

Have any other things you want to discuss about SXSW? Post it up in the comments. We’re at the 1 week countdown.