when did Sonic Youth peak

00s 4 lyfe

favorite SY album is Sister but I feel like the whole concept of "peaking" is kind of ridiculous tbh. they've made a ton of interesting music since then, and I'm more likely to listen to lots of it than I am to haul Sister out of mothballs. album ranking is...fun, I know, but probably the least interesting way of thinking about an artist's work

tl;dr, 80s

never heard of sonic youth

I listened to them first on the bavarian radio around 1987, it was quite noisy avant stuff, interesting but it did not really convince me. I got hooked in summer 1992 when Dirty was released. It was my entrance ticket to them and I will always consider it as their apex. What I really loved about this album was that there were so many songs on it and that they were so short and full of punch. Long guitar dominated pieces à la Grateful Dead never did it for me. Dirty was like a punk revival, fast songs right into the face of the listener. And at the same time these songs had hooks and the lyrics were fun to decipher in theory. Which I never really did of course. Listening to Dirty on full blast with eight speakers in a car going 120 mph on the German motorway is one of the most rejuvenating experiences in life.

What is the general opinion on Experimental Jet Set? I gather it's nobody's favorite but "Bull in the Heather" was my first exposure to SY in middle school and it rocked

love bull in the heather

i bought it the day it came out - clear vinyl iirc - and did not play it too much after that :/

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 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

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

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.

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)

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

NERD is the best of the commercial trilogy.

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.

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.

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.

w pipeline/kill time

# of album listeners is interesting anecdotally:
https://www.last.fm/music/Sonic+Youth/+albums

For me, the band peaked for the entire duration of 'Death Valley '69' the very first time that I heard it.

now you mention it

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.

When did SY peak? Answer: during this song (great sound btw AND two basses)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy1pNeuGIlw

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.

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

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, which release of DN are you listening to?

Does anything from 1988 sound like Murray Street?

the 2005 reissue/deluxe edition

and yeah, EVOL and Sister sound great.

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.

oh word, i'll check that out then

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".

more space

More dynamic range anyway. I sort of get the 'claustrophobic' point.

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.

sweet shine is the one on EJTNS that presages the kind of more polite, modal, jammy period of SY from washing machine onwards.

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

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!

Also, "Sweet Shine" is easily my favorite song on Experimental so I guess that's pretty congruent with my opinions xp to linee

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.

EVOL is tremendous

xp haha I like Lee & Thurston's matching Terrence and Phillip guitar decals

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

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

I can see it.

WOO
I'M CUMIN HOOOOMMMME

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.

I love the seven album stretch from '83 to'92.

fav album: Sister
fav song: Starpower

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

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.

lol

http://www.head-records.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/3605-420x423.jpg

"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.

great interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzY49xlvdY