Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse: The Poll

unmade bed, but this reminds me how little ive listened to the last three youth records.

^^^^true. although ive listened the shit out of 'the eternal'.

i actually lost my copy of this album before my last move (and grabbed a few favorites on iTunes to make the aforementioned mix), it really has been way too long since i listened to Sonic Nurse front to back.

uh - from memory it's Stones or Paper Cup Exit but I'm gonna have to check. Not been with this record for a while. I liked a lot of it pretty loads. It reminds me of easier times. I think this tour was also the first time I saw SY live. Hmm.

"Paper Cup Exit" is aight but to me it's lesser later Ranaldo. but yeah the tour was good for this album, "Stones" was the one song that really opened up for me live.

love the climax of "stones"

such a headphones record

'golden blue' because this record was not so compelling to me after 'murray street' and that one i recall as sticking out.

although for some reason itunes says i have played 'unmade bed' twice as many times (31).

"new hampshire." there's a good live version on youtube... nimble, propulsive track.

dude ranch nurse has a bit that almost replicates the instrumental bridge of 'becuz', kind of a neat rehash

this record felt so much more developed and varied than murray st.

'Pattern Recognition'. That second side has some decent but mid tempo tunes that could do with a few more examples of the former

Steve Shelley has to take some of the blame

i love Murray Street more but SN is definitely a great refinement of its sound and ideas, love how almost every song is a luxuriously long jam and even "Unmade Bed" kind of feels like an epic in miniature.

Actually the whole Ibold/O Rourke/Gordon thing with the bass really pisses me off, they don't need 3 guitarists, the rhythm element of SY has completely gone to pot and has done since about 95

Shelley needs to up his game or tell those other jokers to sort it out, Dirty/Goo etc might have had some clunkers but at least as a band they were interesting to listen to

i think SN sounds like the opposite of a refinement—i don't have any sense of the songs as ideas, they all just seem like lengthy exercises in strumming and note-chiming. where there are climaxes and epic feels and such i feel like they're there because they had the idea that they should be putting them into songs that long, not that they had any need for them.

if any band shouldn't be beaten with the "excess of guitar" stick...

the dead c?

Steve Shelley was one of the great mistakes of modern music.

the dead c are an organism, not a band.

'dripping dream' and that 'kim gordon' song are both amazing.

Actually the whole Ibold/O Rourke/Gordon thing with the bass really pisses me off, they don't need 3 guitarists, the rhythm element of SY has completely gone to pot and has done since about 95

Shelley needs to up his game or tell those other jokers to sort it out, Dirty/Goo etc might have had some clunkers but at least as a band they were interesting to listen to

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, July 30, 2011 10:47 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think SN sounds like the opposite of a refinement—i don't have any sense of the songs as ideas, they all just seem like lengthy exercises in strumming and note-chiming. where there are climaxes and epic feels and such i feel like they're there because they had the idea that they should be putting them into songs that long, not that they had any need for them.

― j., Saturday, July 30, 2011 10:53 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Steve Shelley was one of the great mistakes of modern music.

― dlp9001, Saturday, July 30, 2011 10:57 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark

want to knock these guys' heads together like the 3 stooges

sdotm

^

Unmade Bed has always kind of reminded me of Steely Dan

people kvetching about 21st-century sy being formless/rhythm-less make me 0_o. throw on bad moon rising and any of the albums since murray street might as well be a cars record.

strongotm

my fave of the recent era sy. would go with unmade bed or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I75D2waXKFA

Shelley needs to up his game or tell those other jokers to sort it out

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, July 30, 2011 10:47 PM

this actually happened recently, new album of shelley-led rhythmic workouts drops this fall

My #1 record of 2004.

Tonight I feel like "...Golden Blue." This is what dragging your knuckles against the stone wall of an infatuation feels like.

good pick imo

people kvetching about 21st-century sy being formless/rhythm-less make me 0_o.

i am only talking about this record. i love 'murray street' and quite liked 'rather ripped', i just don't get why this one seems so much more praised.

It doesn't? As a very casual fan, MS, this, and RR seem to get pretty even acclaim. Voted Dripping Dream, but could easily gave gone for Pattern Recognition. The opening three or four are amazing.

Golden Blue by a fair distance. Damn good album tho.

it seems to to me, but maybe i'm sensitive to it because for me it's absolutely the SY record i least want to hear of the ones i listen to (everything from 'evol' on); i don't think any of the ones i do listen to are bad in the way that i hear some people saying some are good, some bad; and a lot of people think it's 'best since DN'. so it's, like, the one aberration for me.

i was surprised to see MS do better on the ilx 00s SY poll though.

some food 4 thought:

NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000)
104th in Pazz & Jop
3 1/2 stars from Rolling Stone
2 1/2 stars from Allmusic
0.0 from Pitchfork

Murray Street (2002)
20th in Pazz & Jop
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
9.0 from Pitchfork

Sonic Nurse (2004)
37th in Pazz & Jop
3 1/2 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
8.5 from Pitchfork

Rather Ripped (2006)
12th in Pazz & Jop
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
7.5 from Pitchfork

The Eternal (2009)
4 stars from Rolling Stone
4 stars from Allmusic
6.8 from Pitchfork

― best of the badman log (some dude), Wednesday, June 17, 2009 10:42 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

this post from that thread kinda sums up the relative acclaim of each of their last few albums (The Eternal placed 20th on Pazz & Jop)

hm, do love this record from start to finish but except for unmade bed and golden blue i can't really tell the tracks apart.

Paper Cup Exit - "It's later than it seems".

Lovely song - that line has always made me think of the band itself, releasing great records well beyond the time great rock bands should be allowed.

I made a comp. of the last four albums for a couple of friends with that very title.

my comp of the later years is called JAMS RUN FREE and is full of mostly 7+ minute joints

Paper Cup Exit - "It's later than it seems".

Lovely song - that line has always made me think of the band itself, releasing great records well beyond the time great rock bands should be allowed.

I made a comp. of the last four albums for a couple of friends with that very title.

― kraudive, Sunday, July 31, 2011 8:01 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)
"Enjoy Yourself" is a popular song published in 1949, with music written by Carl Sigman and lyrics by Herb Magidson.
The most popular version of the song, recorded by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, was made on November 27 (some sources give November 28), 1949. The recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 24825. The record first reached the Billboard charts on January 13, 1950 and lasted 19 weeks on the chart, peaking at #10.[1]
Another recording, by Doris Day, was made on January 13, 1950 and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 38709.
Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra made a recording on February 2, 1949 which was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-3375.

"New Hampshire" is probably a lesser track but I always liked it. Voted for that one.

i listened to this again today after quite a long time, and i did notice some new things. i don't think i had appreciated what was going on in the guitars. it sounds like they made a deliberate effort to place all three guitars in colloquy with each other on the same level, and they kind of circle around each other in space, maybe more than the more-linear back-and-forth that's typical of their two-guitar setup. it makes the songs more interesting. but maybe in the past i didn't hear that as much because the sound is pretty booming on the low end (shelley is really loud on this one!) and the broad-stroke lines of the songs aren't as… riff-shaped as i'm used to, so that the whole thing can take on the aspect of being kind of lifeless if you don't really pick up on the triple-interplay.

i think someone on one of the sonic nurse threads made a comparison to 'washing machine'—maybe that's a helpful comparison for the kind of interplay they're after. off the top of my head i can't really imagine what's going on with kim's playing on 'murray street', i would guess she kind of does texture or fillery stuff. but on 'nurse' she seems to have more of an audibly equivalent role to thurston and lee. (are they still generally L and R on all the tracks?)

(a lot of that seems to change again on 'rather ripped': who is usually playing the texturey / distorted / treated part there?)

No can do - Sonic Nurse is one of those albums where i don't pay much attention to the individual tracks - the whole meal gets et at once. Hell, i've listened to this album at least 50 times and didn't recognize one of their titles. In fact, i started cruising through the tracks on grooveshark to see what might jump out - nothing really did. So i said "screw it" and played the album straight through --- ahh, delightful. So, by default, my vote goes to the lead track.

i think the album has individual standouts but there is something true about how it holds together as more than the sum of its parts -- when i did my best-of mix, i was surprised to find myself using more songs from Rather Ripped than Nurse, which i consider a better album, but RR has shorter songs that stand alone more naturally.

Last great SY album for me, voting 'Unmade Bed' but it could've easily been 'Pattern Recognition', 'Golden Blue' or 'New Hampshire' too. Great record.

i think i listen to this one more because none of the songs are long enough that they are cut off on spotify and my sy cds are under a bed in a guest room in my parents' house

that said 'pattern recognition' puts me in a bad mood from the off: "i'm a cool hunter making you my way / like a brand name you'll replay" ugh

to what extent when listening to sonic youth do people make an effort to let what the songs are 'about' register w/them? kind of curious about this

bad mood rising

I liked this record a lot! and listened to it a lot! and now I seriously couldn't tell you anything about any of the songs on it

This was tough, it was between Unmade Bed, Stones, and Golden Blue. Had to go with Stones...it's epic and reassuring and it rocks! I may like this record more than Murray Street but it's certainly a toss-up.

yr selections echo mine exactly. My favorite SY album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdO3AEV6g1A
this one was a bonus track on some versions of sonic nurse (showed up on destroyed room too). might vote for this if it was an option!

prefer this lp to Eternal and Ripped. would probably go for Pattern Recognition

rating in order

Stones
Golden Blue
Pattern Recognition
Unmade Bed
New Hampshire
Paper Cup Exit
Dude Ranch Nurse
Peace Attack
Dripping Dream
Mariah Carey

...though I'm glad I don't have to rank them. Also I think the sequencing is quite good, which sometimes is a weak spot with them IMO.

to what extent when listening to sonic youth do people make an effort to let what the songs are 'about' register w/them? kind of curious about this

Hardly ever.

Sonic Youth - Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, North Carolina, August 5, 2000
“I don’t know what we’re gonna do tonight. I think maybe what we’ll do is … um, just whatever comes naturally.”
Let’s take a trip back to simpler times – the summer of 2000! It was the beginning of a new century, but it was still kinda the 90s. There were Clintons in the White House. I was about to start my senior year of college. And Sonic Youth was opening for Pearl Jam. Weird, I know.
SY took advantage of a night off from the arena scene to play a standalone show in Carrboro – and thank the lord that they did. This fantastic Cat’s Cradle recording, kindly supplied by Cory, is an awesome and unique document. The first set is a Perspectives Musicales showcase, featuring Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, and Jim O’Rourke performing solo or in various configurations. So you get such curiosities as: Thurston’s acoustic sketches for a few Murray Street numbers; Lee reading Gregory Corso; an amazing “Film Music” noise excursion; a charmingly fumbling O’Rourke mini-set (”I don’t do this very often,” Jim apologizes meekly after several false starts); and maybe best of all, three storming songs from Kim, Jim & Steve (“I think Kim, Jim & Steve win!” Thurston proclaims afterwards, suitably impressed.) It’s all great, though – a kinda Sonic-Youth-Does-The-Rolling-Thunder-Revue thing, with a loose, rambling vibe that shows off the impressive confluence of talent that came together in this one band.
But that’s not all! Sonic Youth in a more familiar form returns for a killer second set that was probably closer to the one they were playing for Pearl Jam fans that summer (Sorry Vedd-Heads, Eddie doesn’t jump onstage for “Kool Thing”). There are plenty of “hits,” but also plenty of tunes from the band’s then-new NYC Ghosts & Flowers LP. Now, that album may be one of SY’s least-loved efforts, but these performances will likely change any naysayers’ minds. The beat poetry stuff is still a little iffy, but the overall sound is astonishing – it was easy to take for granted back in the day, but no other band explored such massive feedback-drenched landscapes. Anyway! Enjoy this – and thanks again to Cory for getting it to us all …

yes! another great one, same taper. (that's my site)

I remember Kim saying Coco said she wished Vedder was her dad

jesus, that's a harsh curve

i've been re-reading/skimming Kim's memoir lately (mostly for O'Rourke drama - the woman that Thurston had the affair with was with Jim first, and it ended "crazy, theatrically badly," and was a big reason he moved to Japan), but fuck, Thurston is so dark, i find it hard to listen to his songs anymore.

Favorite album of 2004.

Favorite album of 2004.

I kind of hate "Peace Attack". I'm not sure exactly why. Musically, it feels like a retread of one of Moore's solo tracks, which haven't ever really been truly essential material in the first place. The vocals seem especially lazy and somehow grating for me in the sing-song nature, I dunno?

― EveningStar (Sund4r)

still can't believe that's a piano at the end of The Dripping Dream. Can anybody confirm?

been listening to too many dead bootlegs lately, was hoping to explore SY/YLT live recordings to scratch that noisy itch, good timing on this! too bad there aren't many YLT recordings on archive.org...

See if you can find their show at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000 (I think?). John Peel introduces it, and they do an amazing, epic Night Falls as the opening track. Lots of technical difficulties throughout but still a charming show.

has Ira ever sang "The Crying of Lot G" properly live, or does he always mumble and talk thru it? the studio version of that song is perfect, every live version i've heard is awful

i'll go on soulseek after work and check that out xp. nothing streamable/downloadable that i can find right now other than a review

https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/live/yo-la-tengo-royal-festival-hall-london

ha and this review isn't even for that show

ha, isn't "crying of lot g" a mumble/talk song to begin with?
i posted that ylt royal festival show a million years ago, but the link is dead. if you can't find it anywhere i can see if i can dig it up.
but yeah, as i've probably said a million times, would be great if bands like SY and YLT would let fans put recordings up on archive.org.

it'd rekindle my interest in them anyway, i haven't really listened to either since college

ha, isn't "crying of lot g" a mumble/talk song to begin with?

yes, but the pacing and delivery on the studio version is perfect- it's very musical while still being a talking song. whenever i hear him sing it live he sounds like Dylan doing Ballad of a Thin Man or whatever today.

I should try to spend more time with Sonic Nurse. For me, it was just kind of...there at the time of release. Maybe too centered, or too grounded, or too comfortable. Perhaps if I'd seen them live at the time it would feel different, but in '04 SN seemed like less interesting versions of stuff they'd done before or would do more satisfyingly on Rather Ripped, a record I much prefer. (This is the period of the band's history when the SYRs did more for me than the studio albums, with occasional exceptions.)

Looking through the tracklist I recall liking: "Stones" or "New Hampshire" (can't remember which) and, to an extent, "Arthur Doyle Handcream".

I didn't warm to "Sonic Nurse" at all right away. Felt like a lesser "Murray St.", which I loved. I came around on it after seeing it live for sure, and just getting some distance from the record. I really enjoy it now (but still not as much as M.S.).

Yeah I didnt warm to it either for a long time. I didnt like "Peace Attack" either. In hindsight, its a really good album although not as great as "Murray Street"

Thanks for the dl, tyler! Any videos I've seen from this tour have been great.

I love Nurse but it definitely feels a lesser album to Murray Street for me

i agree, imo a big part of that is it's too long

about that 2000 recording- i was looking on youtube for sets from around the same time, and none of them have Jim doing his solo songs. there's a two hour video from like 4 days later where they do everything in the first set except Jim's songs. maybe because he was nervous? i was listening to it last night and got so pumped when he went into the main riff from "Not Sport, Marital Art" but then he abandoned it.

haha, yeah, i don't know how much jim really liked doing the solo acoustic troubadour thing.

Such a drag - his Drag City records are my core, heart music. A hero uploaded these pro-shot, multi-camera full band JimO performances from 2000 recently. I've thought about it a lot and "Not Sport, Marital Art" is my favorite song of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xizxQ8L78T8

^^ that's great. And "heart music" otm. I always thought he'd have one last 'troubadour' record in him, but the wait is long and I think by now that ship has sailed.

I thought The Visitor was amazing, but I really wanted to hear him sing again. I was disappointed with Simple Songs - there's just something off about that record.

fucking incredible record

also, i think some people on ILM have complained about steve shelley during this period (maybe being too same-y in his playing?) but man, on this tape the guy is incredible, just powering the whole thing along.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 9:20 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i was just thinking about these bullshit arguments while listening to shelley's awesome tom/hi-hat pattern in the chorus of "unmade bed"

to think he didn't want them to release his raw takes on thousand leaves

i was so fucken pissed that 'pink steam' didn't walk this but. . . o ya, that was a different album.

this one's good too, tho.

sorry if this is weird but "paper cut exit" is my favorite lee song of all time

"Paper Cup Exit" is so good. I love that song sincerely, and don't think you are off-base there. And as fans an idea of "favorite" needs to be different than "best" in some ways. Like, who cares what Lee's "best" song is, it doesn't matter. It is more fun to listen to people talk about what their favorites are and why. I personally think "Paper Cup Exit" is up there for Lee SY songs too.

Their best LP imo, at least, it's the one I've played the most over the years.

I saw them on the tour for this album and the sound from the stage was so good, it sounded like they were plugged into my brain. It's a great great record. I adore "Stones", it just washes me away.

My favorite of their '00s albums.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),

I still prefer Murray Street, but this album is magnificent.