Not enough love for Evol in this thread, I mean how good an album must be to get praise.― Van Horn Street, Saturday, May 13, 2017 12:35 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkExpressway to your skull, Shadow of a doubt, Tom Violence, Green Light, Secret Girls, that's peak SY for me.― Van Horn Street, Saturday, May 13, 2017 12:38 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, May 13, 2017 12:35 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Expressway to your skull, Shadow of a doubt, Tom Violence, Green Light, Secret Girls, that's peak SY for me.
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, May 13, 2017 12:38 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is where the thread peaked
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:01 (seven years ago) link
yah, Evol is good. EJSTNS is top 3 for me, still. the quiet/muted production is fresh, coming off of Dirty, and there's dank, deep atmosphere to it. love the variety of songs and raw feel of it. Androgynous Mind, Starfield Road*, Screaming Skull, Bone, Tokyo Eye, and Sweet Shine are great tracks. the only bum song is Self-Obsessed and Sexxee (Disconnection Notice), shit. the drumming on Waist is great, and the unusual, canal boat guitar sounds during the outro of Doctor's orders. also, an interesting album to listen to individual stereo channels, guitar tracks are hard-panned. no Lee vocals, though
*kills
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:15 (seven years ago) link
What is the general opinion on Experimental Jet Set?
Bought it week of release, liked it a lot at the time (mentioned it above as a brief return to form after the suckiness of Dirty) but haven't listened to it in years. Might revisit it this weekend, though.
― Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Violent J (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:15 (seven years ago) link
xp EJSTNS = secret origin point for long jammy 00s Sonic Youth
Someone on ILX said something to the effect that "Disconnection Notice" sounded like a super stretched-out version of "Self-Obsessed and Sexxee" and I think that might be true of other MS songs sounding like extended jammy versions of Jet Set songs like "Sympathy for the Strawberry" (Bone) and even "Rain on Tin" (Tokyo Eye)
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:25 (seven years ago) link
i posted that a few years ago, about Disconnection Notice resembling Self-Obsessed.. also, compare the instrumental breaks of Becuz and Dude Ranch Nurse -- they're bizarrely similar
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:32 (seven years ago) link
NERD is the best of the commercial trilogy.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:38 (seven years ago) link
fuckin autocorrect
Experimental obv
For me, the band peaked for the entire duration of 'Death Valley '69' the very first time that I heard it.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Saturday, 13 May 2017 20:41 (seven years ago) link
In high school, I listened to all the albums without distinguishing that much between them. Later, I grew to think that EJSTNS was their worst album and never listened to it. (Evol was my favourite for years.) I pulled EJSTNS out again when I read KG's book, though, and was surprised by how well it clicked, although I still wouldn't rank it among their better albums. "Self-Obsessed and Sexxee" is one of my favourite songs on it, actually, despite the "party party party/party all the time" bit.
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Saturday, 13 May 2017 21:00 (seven years ago) link
I sometimes wonder if obsessive SY listening as a teenager set my ear for pitch and tuning back severely and made ear training as an adult that much harder.
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Saturday, 13 May 2017 21:04 (seven years ago) link
w pipeline/kill time
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 13 May 2017 21:05 (seven years ago) link
# of album listeners is interesting anecdotally:https://www.last.fm/music/Sonic+Youth/+albums
― campreverb, Saturday, 13 May 2017 22:32 (seven years ago) link
now you mention it
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 13 May 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link
xp I get what Flappy Bird was saying about the production on DN sounding flat - took me time initially get it, I had always imagined it sounding more like Television/what Murray Street ended up sounding like (DN being the first SY CD I had bought and thus heard). Now I think it adds to its atmosphere, a claustrophobic element – there's no air on that record at all.
Always thought Sister was overrated - has really high peaks itself but a bunch of duds on the record.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Sunday, 14 May 2017 06:01 (seven years ago) link
When did SY peak? Answer: during this song (great sound btw AND two basses)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy1pNeuGIlw
― EvR, Sunday, 14 May 2017 08:41 (seven years ago) link
Evol, Sister and Daydream are the most consistent. Goo has some really mediocre songs mixed with a few good ones. I do like the breezy-jammy-summery mood and perfected sound of some of their later melodic albums, like Murray Street, which is up there.
― Nabozo, Sunday, 14 May 2017 15:36 (seven years ago) link
xp I get what Flappy Bird was saying about the production on DN sounding flat - took me time initially get it, I had always imagined it sounding more like Television/what Murray Street ended up sounding like (DN being the first SY CD I had bought and thus heard). Now I think it adds to its atmosphere, a claustrophobic element – there's no air on that record at all.― in twelve parts (lamonti), Sunday, May 14, 2017 2:01 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Sunday, May 14, 2017 2:01 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
it's crazy the way the drums are mixed! they sound like paper! that's an interesting take i hadn't thought of - I'll listen to DN and reevaluate, and I'll listen to it LOUD...
― flappy bird, Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:20 (seven years ago) link
Flappy, which release of DN are you listening to?
Does anything from 1988 sound like Murray Street?
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:31 (seven years ago) link
the 2005 reissue/deluxe edition
and yeah, EVOL and Sister sound great.
― flappy bird, Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:34 (seven years ago) link
Oh, dude, the deluxe edition is remastered really hot. The drums got squashed. The 1993 DGC CD sounds pretty different: it has more space and the drums are cleaner.
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:36 (seven years ago) link
oh word, i'll check that out then
― flappy bird, Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:38 (seven years ago) link
thanks for the heads up! i love a lot of the songs on DN but never got obsessed w/ it
You can really hear the difference on e.g. the drum fills after ≈5:05 in "Teenage Riot".
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:44 (seven years ago) link
more space
More dynamic range anyway. I sort of get the 'claustrophobic' point.
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:51 (seven years ago) link
I guess this is an ultra-conventional opinion but "DN" is still my favorite SY album and has been pretty much since I first heard it, which was a bit after I heard "Goo" and "Dirty", and before I heard "Sister" or "EVOL". "EVOL" through "Goo" is my favorite SY run, though I also like "Murray Street" a lot.
― o. nate, Monday, 15 May 2017 01:13 (seven years ago) link
sweet shine is the one on EJTNS that presages the kind of more polite, modal, jammy period of SY from washing machine onwards.
― linee, Monday, 15 May 2017 03:31 (seven years ago) link
really weird to see thurston rocking a les paul in that conan clip flappy bird posted - if ever there was a band who seemed less likely to be jimmy-paging it up with a low-slung gibson...
i guess i'm a corny received-wisdom fuck cuz my favourite periods of sy are sister-evol-daydream nation and murray street-sonic nurse-rather ripped, although i'll stan for bad moon rising anytime too
the guitar breaks in 'unmade bed' are some of my favourite-ever guitar sounds, not just sonic youth ones
― The Patricia Routledge Meatspin Gif Has Made You Gay (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 15 May 2017 10:13 (seven years ago) link
My favorite SY albums are EVOL, Dirty, and Thousand Leaves, and I mean, obv they sound like completely different bands on each of those. I guess I feel like they peaked at least once every decade, which is why I'm not voting!
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 15 May 2017 17:00 (seven years ago) link
Also, "Sweet Shine" is easily my favorite song on Experimental so I guess that's pretty congruent with my opinions xp to linee
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 15 May 2017 17:02 (seven years ago) link
xxp ha i thought it was fitting & funny that for a tv appearance promoting their most out there experimental album ever, Thurston would play a standard issue Les Paul.
― flappy bird, Monday, 15 May 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
EVOL is tremendous
― marcos, Monday, 15 May 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
xp haha I like Lee & Thurston's matching Terrence and Phillip guitar decals
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 15 May 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
i love the way that song ends - you keep expecting everyone to drop out, but they just gradually play quieter and weaker until it ends in a whimper
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 16 May 2017 04:05 (seven years ago) link
sorry, a bit OT.. i feel like they (BEAK) somehow captured the feel of "expressway to yr skull" on this song:https://beak.bandcamp.com/track/kidney - maybe it's just the loping quality of it
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 16 May 2017 19:38 (seven years ago) link
I can see it.
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 02:52 (seven years ago) link
WOOI'M CUMIN HOOOOMMMME
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 03:15 (seven years ago) link
Multiple peaks. Murray Street was their most recent peak but the records since then all had much to recommend them.
Alfred, Sweet Shine would have to be in my Sonic Youth Top 10. Kim's vocals on that track are sublime.
― pickety third (stevie), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 11:29 (seven years ago) link
I love the seven album stretch from '83 to'92.
fav album: Sisterfav song: Starpower
― nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 15:10 (seven years ago) link
listened to this show yesterday and I'm willing to say it's a Sonic Youth Peak https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/152688686497/sonic-youth-cats-cradle-carrboro-north
― tylerw, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
yeah that show is so sweet - i had no idea they did two sets on the 2000 tour. there's some videos from that tour on youtube, but i haven't found any with O'Rourke performing his solo material.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 16:35 (seven years ago) link
lol
http://www.head-records.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/3605-420x423.jpg
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 6 June 2017 00:20 (six years ago) link
"Schizophrenia" was their peak followed closely by "Candle" and most of 'Daydream Nation'. I couldn't really be bothered after that although I vaguely enjoyed the few things I heard on the radio.
― Spencer Chow, Tuesday, 6 June 2017 02:50 (six years ago) link
great interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzY49xlvdY
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 6 June 2017 16:18 (six years ago) link
syr 7........ really? fuhhhhhhhhhh
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 6 June 2017 23:21 (six years ago) link
I think (Murray Street), Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped are three amazing albums for a bunch of people who've made a tonne of music and are 40-something tour dogs, tbh
I love the s/t EP, love Confusion Is Sex, EVOL and Sister, enjoy Experimental Jet Set and Ciccone Youth most in the period after that and then skip ahead to Nurse
― fgti, Thursday, 8 June 2017 03:20 (six years ago) link
Oh and imho the SYR series is utter trash :/
― fgti, Thursday, 8 June 2017 03:21 (six years ago) link
master=dik /whitey album for me
― massaman gai, Thursday, 8 June 2017 04:10 (six years ago) link
oh, not is utter trash - but personal peak
syr 4 + 5 were pretty worthwhile, for me. 1 + 2 are pretty nice, for the most part. i like the hi fi version of the "ineffable me" riff on syr2. syr3 (with o'rourke) was off-putting at first, and densely layered, but it's a grower.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Thursday, 8 June 2017 04:30 (six years ago) link
Goodbye 20th Century is one of the best things they ever did (especially their version of 'Having Never Written a Note for Percussion' by James Tenny).
Their live performance of SY4 at the Royal Festival Hall in London is the only time I've ever seen a headline act get loudly booed by sections of the audience.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 8 June 2017 09:54 (six years ago) link