Make remarks.
Thats not very metal.
WHOA!
Which album?
Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 30, 2012, 02:46:33 PM
Thats not very metal.
Sonic Youth are sooo metal they don't have to be metal.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on March 30, 2012, 02:50:21 PM
Which album?
Daydream Nation
I also have Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star and Goo in the hopper.
Quote from: What's-His-Name? on March 30, 2012, 03:16:09 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on March 30, 2012, 02:50:21 PM
Which album?
Daydream Nation
It's pretty amazing how well that's stood up through the years. The only thing that's really dated are the recording techniques.
Indeed. For a band that, at times, sonically goes all over the place, they penned some pretty tight songs on that album.
As a bit of a side note, I just read this very comically awesome review of "Goo", which was held by many as their "sell-out" album.
QuoteThis album has been accussed of being Sonic Youths sellout album, If thats true then this is the vaguest attempt to ever break into the mainstream. Ever! Considering this was out a year before Nevermind there was zero chance of any Guns N Roses fan ever buying this. While Kool Thing is the song that got the band in the charts. It reached Number 8. Number 81 in the UK. The rest is prett much buisness as usual from the Youth. Dirty Boots is the closest they get to normal straight rock song, But the song still has a huge amount of distortion and Alternative tuning. Its nowhere near as good as Teenage Riot but seriously what the fuck is. You would think since this was Sonic Youths attempt to get the hair metal fans on their side they would of dropped the Kim Spoken Word songs. Have they fuck. Tunic is noisey dreamy soundscape about Karen Caprenter in heaven with Elvis. Kool Thing which I have mentioned is a good song. Chuck D makes a cameo. As in he says about two words in the background of the song. Mote is pretty much what you expect if you have listened to Sister or Evol or Daydream Nation. It starts off with Ranaldo doing his thing until the last three minutes are just noise droning on and on. Motley Crue fans would of loved this. My Friend Goo is maybe abit silly but the lyrics are catchy in a kooky kind of way. Thats what I always love about Sonic Youth, The mix of singers personallitys. Like The Beatles every member who gets behind the mic makes the song different from the last. Moore's laidback slacker drawl. Gordons angry narration. Ranados abstract surrealism. And of course the layer of noise. Titanium Exposé closes the album and shows the reason why I fucking love these guys. Riffs in alternative tuning with a mix of Moores and Gordons voices. So how the fuck do you follow one of the best runs in 80s alt rock? Well you continue it. While its more accessible then Daydream Nation, Less raw and noisey then Evol and Sister this is still awesome. If you have listened to any of their albums from the 80s, This is nowhere a challenge. But to anyone who hasn't this might scare them off. Poison fans bought this in droves when it came out.
Yes and right after all the 80s hair metal fans bought SY records, the band followed that up in the UK in 1995 by making everyone ignore Oasis and Blur. Fucking sell outs.
That reminds me that there was this one interview MTV did with Noel Gallagher back in the Oasis heyday where he was going on about how they were insanely popular because they were playing straight-ahead rock and that they weren't an "art band like Sonic Youth".
So I guess he wasn't exactly a big fan.
Is he a fan of anything but himself though?
Cocaine?
This thread made me go order albums I haven't owned in almost 20 years.
Thanks for that.
Make sure that Washing Machine is one of those. It's one of their better and somewhat unsung albums in my opinion. It's worth it for "The Diamond Sea" alone.
I've been a long time fan of "Confusion is Sex" and "Ciccone Youth" -- even if the music isn't that great (music being a subjective term, especially on the former), the ideas/concepts have been awesome.
I actually have a fairly limited catalog of their work but have been slowly adding on albums.
But man, if you add in all of the side project, collaborations, one-offs, they have a pretty massive discography.
Dude, if you take into account when they were essentially practicing in a recording studio with the mics on for years after Dirty, and releasing one-off CDs monthly, their output is insane.
This is one I need to add to my collection. I had it in my hands once in a record store but for some inexplicable reason put it down:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Session_for_Jason_Knuth
QuoteSilver Session for Jason Knuth is a 1998 EP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play) by Sonic Youth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Youth). Its eight tracks consist entirely of guitar feedback (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_feedback) with occasional drum machine. Jason Knuth – of the album's title – was a Sonic Youth fan who committed suicide, and proceeds from the record's sales were donated to San Francisco Suicide Prevention Hotline. An explanation of the record is found in the liner notes:
"Silver Sessions were taken from an evening when SY had to do vocal overdubs for 'A Thousand Leaves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Leaves)' – the band upstairs was hammering out some funky metal overdrive and we couldn't "sing" properly (?!) – we decided to fight fire with molten lava and turned every amp we owned on to 10+ and leaned as many guitars and basses we could plug in against them and they roared/HOWLED like airplanes burning over the pacific – we could only enter the playing room with hands pressed hard against our ears and even then it was physically stunning – we ran a sick outmoded beatbox through the P.A. and it blew out horrendous distorted pulsations. Of course we recorded the whole thing and a few months later we mixed it down into sections, ultra-processing it to a wholly other "piece" – in a way, it's my favorite record of ours – I hope Jason [Knuth, to whom the release is dedicated] digs it --- keep on keep on keep on --- thurston/sonic youth/nyc 1998."
Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. There are some real gems in there.
I've always been a big fan of Dirty and Washing Machine, but last year I got into a pretty big kick with The Eternal. Fantastic band, I'll go along with that.
http://youtu.be/q-E7RT1NoRo (http://youtu.be/q-E7RT1NoRo)
A great performance of one of my favorite SY tunes, "Mote"
http://youtu.be/yRIWwxZN8Fk (http://youtu.be/yRIWwxZN8Fk)
Thanks for indulging me in my SY fanboi moment guys.
I like to think they are definitely a band in line with Discordia.
Their music is quite the embodiment of "creative disorder".
I was turned on to them with Goo. Kind of blows my mind that was only a year before Nevermind. Everytime I listen to Titanium Expose I'm still the hippest fucking 15-year-old in Laporte, Colorado. And Kool Thing remains one of the sexiest things I've ever heard. Dirty Boots made me nostalgic the first time I ever heard it...
Experimental etc, is one of their few albums I've heard and never much cared for. Might give it a re-listen now that I've mellowed. May have more appeal.
I'm really digging on A Place To Bury Strangers...A lot of their raw noise stuff very much reminds me of SY with other noticeable influences mixed in there. A lot of times I hear them and think "so this is what it would sound like if SY included Al Jourgenson and Nivek Ogre...oh and here's Sonic Youth as fronted by Ian Curtis. They're worth checking out if you haven't.
I hope they find a way to soldier on even though Thurston and Kim are splitsville. They are definitely one of those bands where pretty much everyone in the band is irreplacable. I'd even put Steve Shelly in that category even though he isn't the original drummer. His drumming style is definitely an intricate part of the SY sound now, and I think he doesn't get the credit he's due for that.
I love his maraca/drumming technique.
Quote from: What's-His-Name? on March 30, 2012, 02:43:00 PM
Make remarks.
(http://www.fizzygrizzly.com/images/smilies/omg.jpg)
I take it you're not a fan then.
They're not everyone's cup of tea, I'll confess.
Maybe you're more of a Gumball (http://youtu.be/QUsXgF2Fzb8) guy Dok.
I bet you'd love Hum (http://youtu.be/zmej68ut3KA).
Washing Machine was the album that got me into Sonic Youth. It was on a listening station in a record store (remember those?). I listened to a bit. Wasn't sure. Went back on a different day. Still wasn't sure. For some reason, I kept going back so, in the end, I bought Washing Machine on cassette (remember those?).
I think I bought every studio album from that point on and picked up Goo & Dirty in revamped double CD editions.
Quote from: Mangrove on March 31, 2012, 11:57:13 PM
Washing Machine was the album that got me into Sonic Youth. It was on a listening station in a record store (remember those?). I listened to a bit. Wasn't sure. Went back on a different day. Still wasn't sure. For some reason, I kept going back so, in the end, I bought Washing Machine on cassette (remember those?).
I think I bought every studio album from that point on and picked up Goo & Dirty in revamped double CD editions.
Man, I've got boxes of cassettes, but no working cassette player. I've contemplated adding a cassette deck to my car. There's tons of stuff I'd love to listen to but I don't really want to shell out a lot of money to buy CDs.
Washing Machine was the first Sonic Youth CD I bought, though my first real exposure was their tour video. Which, yes, I bought because of all of the Nirvana performances. I'd heard a Sonic Youth song before, I'm sure Kool Thing was one of them....but seeing them in that raw state really sold me. That and I was already immersing myself into improv music as a performer, it was just natural.