Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

one can surmise the reasons were totally banal.

nope

What does that mean? Kim has joined an alien worshipping cult and is about to move off-planet?

Kim's gone back to Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo to reform with her on bass?

if we're using Fleetwood Mac as a template, Kim is about to embark on a torrid affair with Steve Shelley.

It'd be kind of cool if all future Sonic Youth records were obliquely about one-another.

Their kid is a high school senior now, I think?

oops, that was mentioned upthread--her going to college as a time they would split.

Not sure how much that had to do with it, given how much she was farmed out to their various Connecticut nannies.

Wow, for some reason those Lee songs were not what I was expecting. I expect they may be growers (and the lack of clarity in the guitars doesn't suggest just how much Licht and Lee might be playing off of each other), but still not exactly the direction I was imagining. Was anyone here at the show?

Will chime in that I am really sad at this news. I had heard some things while living in New York in regards to T., but still imagined, like some dude, that I would be able to comfortably look forward to checking out new records and, especially, seeing this band live, for some time. Glad I tried to catch them whenever they were in the area for the last decade, every live show was at least good, but most were very good to great.

FWIW, every member of this band was nice and very low key on some level when I had the chance to be around them.

I don't know, I always think of Lee as the steady 'sensible' but cerebral element of SY and it's a bit weird he hasn't competed more with T with regards to songs.

I mean for one a shitload of people prefer Lee's vox over Kim and Thurston's leads

eh, i really think that if Lee wrote ten songs a year and WANTED to be a full-time frontman he would've done it. his songs feel more deliberate and considered than the way Thurston just kinds of cranks out riffs and silly lyrics, which means Lee ends up more consistent but a lot less productive overall.

calling dibs on having the first review of Lee's album that compares it to All Things Must Pass.

Oh please don't.

lee is only really a good singer when viewed with low expectations set by the other two sonic youth singers

or indie rock vocalists in general

lee's songwriting contribs to everything after murray st have not been his best work imho - thurston has, maybe, got closer to lee's more 'classical' songform w things like 'unmade bed'

yeah Lee has not been as consistently making standout tracks on the last few albums, but "What We Know" off the last one was a beast imo

total live killer as well

idk if anyone got around to OTMing this, but otm, i found it v moving

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/kim-gordon-thurston-moore-2011-10/

do read if you haven't (v short), but, particularly:

That a heterosexual married couple could not only work together but collaborate as equals and throw equally large shadows. What better fairy tale to reassure young people that they don’t ever have to settle? It’s like getting a notarized letter containing three important promises: that your bohemian dreams won’t conflict with middle-class contentment; that maybe the reason your parents’ generation all divorced was that they never found partners cool enough to be in a band with; and that you, as an adult, could do better.

one can surmise the reasons were totally banal.

nope

― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, October 20, 2011 1:25 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, from the "on every artist-specific message board ever" thread

88. Guy who claims to know band and claims to know something amazing is going to happen soon but that he isn't allowed to give any further details about it.

88. Guy who claims to know band and claims to know something amazing is going to happen soon

Thurston left Kim for Lee?

thurston and kim were one of those russian spy couples who had kids and everything & are gonna be handed back to the kremlin in a trade off, sorry i can't say anymore

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhd131x5iq1qchvwto1_500.jpg

thurston and kim were one of those russian spy couples who had kids and everything & are gonna be handed back to the kremlin in a trade off, sorry i can't say anymore

o-boy o-boy! and who are russia gonna extradite in return? both of taTu, and the whole of Akvarium?

It’s been a rough few months for Sonic Youth. Apart from longtime indie power couple Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore’s marriage breaking up the band is also on indefinite hiatus.
However, one more hit to their self-esteem came yesterday. The band posted on their Facebook page what a 13 year-old wrote to them, venting about the quality of their music.

Our fan’s writing:
“I’m going to be 100% honest with you.
I’m 13. I have a little band. We are so much better than you. Honestly. You are the worst band I have ever seen in your entire life. You are worse than Rebecca Black. The bass player just hacks the bass and plays one chord. The guitar players are playing out of tune guitars and… well not even playing actually chords. I couldn’t sound worse if I tried. It actually sounds like a joke to me. The drummer is okay. But honestly the vocalist is completely out of tune. Oh and The Black keys have two people and are better than you.
From: Me, and pretty much everyone else who has accidentally stumbled upon your terrible music. ”

(Over/under on number of posts before "13 year old kid otm" is 2. Take the under.)

You are the worst band I have ever seen in your entire life

mind = blown

It bugs me that The Black Keys have become the benchmark band for young people.

saw Thurston early this morning having a coffee with a new lady friend(?)

"the band is also on indefinite hiatus"

this is the real news here for me

You are worse than Rebecca Black

friday comes alone again, a perfect day for a quiet friend

You are the worst band I have ever seen in your entire life
haaa that has a nice ring to it.
Black Keys really must be the "i'm a 13-year-old-taking-guitar-lessons" band of the moment right now.

Their influence is palpable in the midwestern college town in which I live.

You have never experienced a film like this in my entire life

Is Ibold gonna start manning the bar at Great Jones Cafe again?

The vocalist is out of tune? Just the one?

That actually got me to check out the Black Keys.

I mean, they did start out 30 years ago. I'm thinking about how I would have felt about 1951's biggest music stars when I was 13...

I don't fault a kid for not liking Sonic Youth in 2012 at all but I also think that's a false equivalency, considering the developments in popular music between 1951-1981 vs rock music from 1981-2012 (and considering that he likes the Black Keys). Like, I'm not sure 'datedness' is his problem.

Oddly, and for no reason now that I think about it, I'd assumed the 13 year old was a girl. Weird.

Ha, I guess it was unfair for me to assume that the kid was a boy!

And I don't know, this doesn't look so bad:

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/bg_hits/bg_hits_51.html

But it would have bored the crap out of me in 1981...

i can't imagine that there are many 13-year-olds to whom any phase of SY's career would make much sense

Maybe the ones who are against fascism.

I just think that a 13-year-old kid in 1983 could have had the same reaction to Sonic Youth. (I was hearing it in 1995.) In fact, that seems even more likely to me.

(OK, I guess I was thinking more of what a 'best-selling hits' list from 1951 would look like, which I can guarantee that list is not. But, yeah, Sonic Youth wasn't exactly topping the charts in the early 80s either.)

I mean, isn't Ke$ha a Sonic Youth fan?

i assumed 13-year-old girl too, whereas i'll generally sexistly tend away from that. odd.

ke$ha's favourite bands list was basically an ilxor's dream iirc (roky erickson and silver apples are what i remember from it), so that maybe doesn't count.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1951_%28U.S.%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_in_music#Top_hits_on_record

(I loved Howlin' Wolf when I was 14 btw!)

xpost

I usually assume that girls are too sensible to write letters to well-known artists just to tell them they suck.

Not sure why I'd assume that though. I didn't realize that I have my own issues with gender roles and it was certainly unfair of me to take them out on a 13-year-old troll.