when did Sonic Youth peak

Murray Street was the biggest disappointment for me because they brought in the two saxophonists from Borbetomagus on one song, and then just had them bleat softly in the background for like a minute.

much too long, yes

Sister sounds much more saturated.

Oh, totally. It was done on an all-tube analogue board, which I'm pretty sure they pushed/saturated. Such a pleasantly warm and in-the-red sound.

"Kotton Krown" and "Theresa's Sound-World" are my favorite let's-simmer-in-sound-for-its-own-sake SY moments.

Daydream Nation was the peak, but the biggest dropoff didn't come until after Goo.

i love the diversity of opinions itt :)

which are the LPs not yet repped for?

whichever they are they are are the best

I still love all those 80s records.

which are the LPs not yet repped for?

― mark s, Friday, May 12, 2017 3:16 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Confusion is Sex & SYR series

Washing Machine and A Thousand Leaves are my favorites and the ones I return to most often though being in my teens when they were released is no doubt a contributing factor.

Confusion was included in this:

those five main studio albums still seem another-level to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=506nWs6Wi-U

EVOL is apex for me. it's the one where it sounded like they could be almost anything at all, and most of the tracks on it feel less 'received' or stereotyped in terms of structure than Sister and later records. That would become their biggest weakness to my ears, ditty after ditty...

My favorite albums from Sonic Youth are Daydream Nation and Goo.
I pretty much like to imagine a world where Sonic Youth is a pop band.
So in my little world they peaked from 1988-1990. Not sure how that translates to the poll answers tho.

eh... 80s

80s but hey they were no Live Skull

This is really tough, there's stuff I love and stuff I'm not fussed about in each decade. EVOL through to Dirty is the classic run but I love Sonic Nurse as well. I think I'd have to say '80s. Also for what it's worth I've never had a problem with the production on the '80s records and I first heard them in 2002.

i find the idea of bands (or filmmakers) 'peaking' not at all consistent with a perfect rollercoaster curve in all cases. (esp those who last ~ 30 years)

There are some v sublime songs on WM like Saucer-like, Washing Machine, Unwind, and Skip Tracer. even No Queen Blues features some super-saturated, all-strings-tuned-to-the-same-frequency, trembling/beating freq's -lushness going on.. the album is some kind of turning point for them, with the subsequent SYR series (silver sessions, hey!), their old equipment getting stolen, and then the near demo-like quality (muddled-ass/immediate version of Ineffable Me) of A Thousand Leaves. ATL is lush as hell, summer of '98 (goin' nuts), phaser/flange excess, Wildflower Soul, Hoarfrost, Snare, girl et al. ATL is raw and beautiful, their last great album, imo. maybe they peaked with Sweet Shine.

I Love ATL despite the longeurs. "Hoarfrost" is my favorite Ranaldo song on any album.

xp yeah my favorite Lee song is Saucer-Like despite that wackass beat poetry bridge

Karen Koltrane, too. lot of neat sounds and weird, dank atmosphere going on in that track.. and the pretty part of it, towards the end.

'Daydream Nation' and 'Goo' feel like the peaks with 'Murray Street' firmly establishing their high quality but very Sonic Youth Template form since 2001. Even the latest Thurston Moore album sounds like it's a child of 'Murray Street' to me.

Still a big fan.

it's not so much that I think the initial run is incomparably better as it is that I find Daydream like 2 standard deviations better than *anything* else they did.

i find the idea of bands (or filmmakers) 'peaking' not at all consistent with a perfect rollercoaster curve in all cases. (esp those who last ~ 30 years)

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, May 12, 2017 3:47 PM

much less poets

lmao

1985-1988

I always listened to this band for sheer texture and a kind of weird animal vibe and for me Sister is it

I used to manage a really creepy middle aged guy who was really heavily into Sonic Youth and Swans. He was a teacher and would openly hit on the (adult) students. I would've sacked him but he was quite seriously ill and possibly only surviving due to the company's unusually generous health insurance, so I let him transfer to a different city instead.

Pretty sure I had a point I was making here but it's completely escaped me. 80s.

I long wondered what they would sound like if they used DI guitars and then they went and did it on Rather Ripped.

alfred otm, NYC G&F thru Rather Ripped is easily their best run.

― flappy bird, Friday, May 12, 2017 6:14 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i celebrate the entire catalog, but calling NYC G&F their best album is an impressive #challop

the only sy *album* i can still be bothered with is brave men run,

i kiss you

Ha, I noticed that too. He can't even be bothered with the whole album.

Oh, fun poll.

Went with 90s, which may be because that's the decade when I jumped onboard and really FELT SY

i celebrate the entire catalog, but calling NYC G&F their best album is an impressive #challop

― tylerw, Friday, May 12, 2017 10:49 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't think anyone said that. NYCG+F-Murray Street-Sonic Nurse-Rather Ripped is a helluva run though. Myself I wouldn't mind adding Washing Machine and A Thousand Leaves at the beginning of that run, too.

dlp said it in the third post!

Not being a dick either. I saw them live in the 80s, have followed them forever, and it's a completely amazing album. Just not what people wanted at the time. Not to sidetrack things. I still vote 80s.

Re NYC Ghosts & Flowers - there seemed to be a bit of a Sonic Youth backlash around that time. I think the NME was quite anti-SY around then, at least I remember reading about some Steven Wells hatchet job although I didn't actually ever read that article. That might've been about A Thousand Leaves actually but somewhere around then anyway. It's not one of my favourites, but I do have a soft spot for it I saw them live for the first time on that tour. Friend I went with was negative about their recent stuff before we went but he was converted after seeing them do it live.

Epic dissonant jams, clean-tone prepared guitar improv, and laptop glitch pretty much was what I wanted from them at the time; I was hoping they'd integrate the ideas from SYR3 and SYR4 into one of their major label 'song' albums. I really like the ideas on it but I don't think they really realised all of them on that album. A lot of it worked better live. It's a shame they didn't come back to those ideas.
xp

Brent diCrescenzo famously gave it a 0.0 in Pitchfork, which he later regretted.

Just looked to see if Amy Phillips' "Sonic Youth, please break up" piece in the Voice was about NYC G&F, but it wasn't - it was about Murray Street.

Apols dlp and Sund4r, had not seen that! 'tis a good 'un tho.

Brent DiCrescenzo... Sigh...

It's raining stupid twenty year old hardmanning p4k reviews here lately

Dirty, Goo, and Washing Machine all floor me.

My sister-in-law was the "alien" in Mark Romanek's video
for "Little Trouble Girl". She is 1/4 Japanese

I love this performance of "Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)," O'Rourke looks cool as fuck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSF7s7wc0oQ

I used to fantasize that they'd go full-on with the 'weird sounds', like some of the material in the SYR series, NCG&F etc; songs built on foundations of odd, prepared guitar sounds, atonal bits of percussion, reined-in feedback and other.. but they just kind of settled into this 2nd rate Malkmus-esque (nu-Neil Young) riff rock in the 00s. I don't know, it just got more bland. Rather Ripped sounded invigorated, and it's got a few novel songs/ideas, but it mostly falls into riff-based rock territory. I didn't know anyone else as fanatical about them during the mid 90s, save for a friend who encouraged and reinforced listening to the more 'out there' side projects, like Lee's solo stuff (East Jesus, Broken Circle/Spiral Hill), along with the William Hooker material.. and Thurston's freestyle collabs, like Barefoot in the Head, Piece for Jetsun Dolma, Pillow Wand, Fuck Shit Up etc. much of that material is singular/exceptional. but after a while, even those sorts of projects became repetitive, w/Thurston's incessant and heavy-handed behind-the-bridge raking/wanking, and Lee doing a lot of collage stuff that sampled his older work--interest gradually waned. Piece for Jestun Dolma (with Tom Surgal and William Winant) still stands as one of my favorite recordings, along with Amarillo Ramp (to a lesser extent). SYR5 is underrated. and Lydia's Moth/Not Me (Moore/Surgal) is a sweet little gem.

Piece for Jetsun Dolma and Thurston's work on the Heavy soundtrack was sort of "peak" (Thurston) material for me. Barefoot in the Head is another one - recorded in 1988 and featuring Jim Sauter + Don Dietrich, it's one of the few Borbetomagus recordings I've become familiar with. the liner notes are fuckin' priceless, as well