When Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison left The Velvet Underground in 1971, the resulting band (still called The Velvet Underground, for some reason) was ignored at best, and condemned at worst. Their album Squeeze, was primarily written by Doug Yule, who has himself described it as an “embarrassment.” Critics and fans perceived it as a pale sham seeking to capitalize off the work of previous members, and without Lou Reed, it’s really hard to argue that point. To this day Squeeze has never been released in America on CD.

The worst part of Squeeze though, is not just that it’s a pretty mediocre album, but the fact that its embarrassing legacy absolutely buried an awesome artist. Willie “Loco” Alexander, brought in to replace Sterling Morrison, has made music consistently since leaving the ersatz VU, and has produced some absolutely fantastic stuff. (And rock ‘n’ roll nerds rejoice, Youtube makes a lot of it easy to get ahold of.)

His work with the Boom Boom Band is fun, nasty, proto-punk with a glam skeez, but he also got fairly experimental. His 1980s New Wave gem “Gin,” layers thunder and and simple synthy riffs over a New Wave ballad. It’s baffling that we’ve never heard it in the prom scene of an 80s movie.

Alexander has always had an underground following among Boston punks and in France, but it’s an injustice that his name in rock history is only significantly associated with one toss-away album that only esoteric rock ‘n’ roll aficionados would care about. A prolific and diverse artist, and one too interesting to fall through the cracks, Willie “Loco” Alexander should be known as much more than a guy who once rode The Velvet Underground’s coattails.

Below, Willie “Loco” Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, “Mass Ave.”:
 

 
“Gin”: