when did Sonic Youth peak

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

syr 7........ really? fuhhhhhhhhhh

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

Oh and imho the SYR series is utter trash :/

master=dik /whitey album for me

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.

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.

I like almost everything they've done to some degree, often despite myself. Their recording of the Tenney is a good example: I recognize that it is far less impressive, and probably less faithful to the intent behind the score than e.g. this. (It's an open piece but I'm not convinced that it really makes sense to interpret it as an ensemble piece where different members get to hammer away at different pitches.) That said, the result is still enjoyable to listen to for me.

i really love sonic nurse

daydream nation has never clicked with me for some reason, idk why, but i love sister and goo

can i vote for all three

i really love sonic nurse

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Thursday, June 8, 2017 1

my man

Wrt the production discussion upthread, this guy managed to bring out and clean up the drums a little on Sister.

80s but they were never really that good.

^urban dictionary definition of a challop

I hated Sonic Youth, then I was intrigued by them, then I loved them, then I was annoyed by them, now I'm absolutely bored by them.

Can't really see voting comfortably for any of these choices, as every era seems to have just as much brilliance as it does pretentiously posturing wankery.

wankery in music is good, tho

answer is daydream nation, btw

I'm not a head but I like all their records that I've heard

Sometimes it is, sometimes it's just, like I said, pretentious posturing.

I consider the Grateful Dead and electric Miles some of my favorite music ever, for what it's worth.

i was gonna claim that intent is inaudible but i'm not sure it's true. it's easier to parse when discussing a group making a radical sonic departure or making a dumb movie or something. i don't know really know what sonic youth aren't that they're pretentiously posturing to be.. aren't they super innovative in terms of rock music? pretentions of "serious art music"-ness? sorry to pick, just braindumping

I pretty much always have that problem with the criticism "pretentious". It's one thing to criticize someone for e.g. trying and failing to write a meaningful concept album but it seems odd to me to add an additional criticism for pretending to write a meaningful concept.