Is Ex-Velvet Moe Tucker A Tea Partier Or Not?

​The Velvet Underground has certainly had an interesting second act. After Andy Warhol's favorite NYC "party" band soundtracked countless narcotic jags and laid the foundation for everything from punk rock to shoegaze, its members went on to very different lives: Lou Reed to street-life classics like Transformer and New York (and guesting on Gorillaz songs); John Cale to art-rock touchstone Paris 1919 and producing Patti Smith and the Modern Lovers; and the late Sterling Morrison to teaching at UT-Austin, piloting a tugboat in the Houston Ship Channel and occasional pop-ins at Rudyard's. Sometime fifth member Nico - well, she just died.

Velvet Underground, "Femme Fatale"

And what of former VU drummer Maureen "Moe" Tucker? Well, since you asked... about 18 months ago, she was interviewed at a Tea Party rally by a Georgia TV station and had this to say:

I'm furious about the way we're being led toward socialism. I'm furious about the incredible waste of money, when things that we really need and are important get dropped, because there's no money left.

Whoa, Moe.

Tucker's interview recently showed up on YouTube and, shockingly, touched off a whole bunch of angst over how the drummer for the band responsible for "Venus In Furs," "Sweet Jane," "Heroin" and "White Light/White Heat" could possibly be conservative. Mike Applestein of Houston Press sister paper Riverfront Times in St. Louis tracked down the femme fatale in Georgia, where she and her family have lived for years, to find out more...

Riverfront Times: In the now-infamous videotape, you indicated that you're furious about the way we're being led toward socialism and "incredible waste of money" being spent. Could you elaborate a bit on these sentiments?

Moe Tucker: No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn't possible, and it's proven to be a failure everywhere it's been tried. I am not oblivious to the plight of the poor, but I don't see any reason/sense to the idea that everyone has to have everything, especially when the economy is so bad. I see that philosophy as merely a ploy to control.

RFT: What specifically about the current administration do you disagree with?

MT: I disagree with spending/borrowing/printing - damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! I disagree with the "we won" attitude, which is the cowardly way of saying fuck you! I disagree with an administration that for twenty months blames Bush.

If the President and his minions are so damn smart, why didn't they know the severity of the situation? The president has actually said (and I saw it on video) that they didn't know!

Read the entire interview on RFT music blog A to Z here.