Supreme’s collaboration of the week will be with New York City rock band The Velvet Underground.

The band was formed in 1964 when singer/songwriter/guitarist Lou Reed and multi-instrumentalist John Cale came together in hopes of injecting popular music with their experimental tastes. The name came from the title of journalist Michael Leigh’s investigative report on American paraphilia, which suited the band perfectly considering Reed’s lyrics about desire, androgyny and other taboo themes. Along with guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, The Velvet Underground went on to release one of the most influential albums in music history.

After seeing The Velvet Underground play in 1965, artist Andy Warhol quickly took to the band and featured its members in his movies as well as producing and designing the cover art for its 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico. Though it seemed the album was poised for success due to the buzz generated by one of the biggest names in Pop Art, the band’s debut was mostly ignored by critics and sold poorly, moving a mere 30,000 units in the first few years. When speaking on the album’s lack of commercial success, music producer Brian Eno pointed to it’s impact within music, saying, “Everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” The musical genres that would become punk, new wave, grunge, glam, noise and goth all exist with The Velvet Underground in its DNA.

The Supreme x The Velvet Underground collection will include a rayon shirt, ringer tee, two hoodies and three T-shirts, all featuring original album artwork from The Velvet Underground’s catalog.

The Supreme x The Velvet Underground collection will be available this Thursday, September 19, at Supreme’s US, European and online stores. It will be released on September 21 in Japan. Be sure to check Grailed shortly after 11 am as items make their way to the Hype marketplace.

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Tags: lou-reed, andy-warhol, the-velvet-underground, music, supreme