POLL YR. IDOLS: The official SONIC YOUTH RESULTS thread!

I for one got off the wagon (at least temporarily) upon hearing "100%". (Something of a "Judas!!!!" moment as a schoolkid, LOL.) Listening to it for the first time since the '90s, I'm finding it no less cringeworthy.

I don't get that Nag! - why? can you explain more? I first fell in love with SY with the 100% and Sugar Kane CD singles which I played to death - even more so than Dirty itself.

Is Sugar Kane a surprise number one chance?

xp

never got the love for that song myself, although It does do the brevity thing really well as Alex mentioned. I'd rank it as one of Dirty's weakest tracks - and I like that record way way more than most people seem to.

I really should have voted for Sugar Kane.

"Sugar Kane" was the last song i cut from my ballot, just had a lot of Dirty on there already.

i feel like it should be pretty plainly obvious why "100%" is divisive, just based on its essential differences from most of their songs or even most of their singles or album openers.

Yeah, at the time, the shiny production of much of Dirty came as a shock and the singsongy-ness of "100%" was irritating. Came across as a unabashed, if failed, attempt to make a, er, party anthem, with lyrics that are just screwed-up enough to be bad-ass. These are rather cornyindief*ck/"I hate fun" sort of reasons, admittedly, but I can't shake it off in this instance. :)

Right. Well I was 15 when 100% came out so maybe I was the target audience. I don't really hear lyrics much a lot of the time so despite hearing the song a thousand times I couldn't really say what it is supposed to be about. It sounded cool and squally to me then and still does now.

Confusion is Sex and Bad Moon Rising came much, much later for me and I guess I do love that sound more now. But yeah, y'know, the first time and all that.

Man, Thurston's vocal melody on "Sugar Kane" really brings down an awesome musical track for me. Psych classic otherwise.

maybe that's why it didn't make my cut, never thought about it that way.

No. Oh god, I don't want to be That Guy on this poll.

I actually enjoy "100%" for what it is though, although I'd never rank it as a favourite track by any stretch. Maybe both songs are equally sing-songy? I dunno. Just a good noisy hard rock tune. It's one song where I actually like some of Thurston's lines: "It's hard to believe you took off/I always thought you'd go far", "I've been around the world a million times/And all you men are slime".

xpost to self

i respect "100%" more after learning it's about Joe Cole but by that measure "JC" is still a much better song

Those are pretty memorable lines, 'strue (XP). And yes, "JC" is extraordinary. My only Dirty vote.

Just trying to transport myself back to 1992. I figure "100%" was spoiled by a 18 months of really digging "Disappearer": "early 90's Thurston songs sound like that," my teenage mind must have decided. "Dense and hauntingly beautiful, man. Get with the program."

For some reason, I always think of "Disappearer" as a Lee Ranaldo song. But no.

i've been a fan since bad moon rising, and i can assure you with some confidence that "100%" and "sugar kane" are both GREAT. could easily see either being anyone's favorite sonic youth tune. "100%" is smart, weird, sad and it kicks buckets of ass. "sugar kane" is as groovy and sexy as thurston ever got, plus the hook & central riff are incredible. i think people (some people, not you) reject them cuz they're too catchy, too big & clean, too successfully pop. those qualities aren't what i generally come to SY for, but vig got the balance right on dirty, imo.

not that i voted for either...

For some reason, I always think of "Disappearer" as a Lee Ranaldo song. But no.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, May 13, 2013 5:57 PM (31 minutes ago)

"theresa's sound world" is the one that always strikes me as a lee-but-not-lee song

there are Thurston songs that i think of, in the parlance of TM himself in The Year Punk Broke, as 'indie guitar swing,' and "Sugar Kane" is prob their best indie guitar swing song.

if SY were television, "disappearer" would be their "venus"

Otm, Disappearer is easily my favorite Thurston song

100% is great but I watched the video for the first time in ages last week and HOLY COW it is so 1992 fashion it is insane. Dirty Boots is pretty hysterically grunged out too

That was a big part of the point with "Dirty Boots", wasn't it?

was it entirely tongue-in-cheek? The stage dives are hilarious but I didn't totally get the sense it was knowingly so

Oh, I didn't think it was tongue-in-cheek but I think it was pretty deliberately meant to celebrate alt/grunge culture.

So yeah, no, it probably wasn't meant to be hysterical.

yeah 'dirty boots' vid was conscious valentine to a particular moment in the culture ('sugar kane' vid was also but there's some definite tongue in cheek there, whereas 'dirty boots' is pretty unabashedly romantic albeit not humourless).

I could easily imagine some young kid who got into SY post-ATL being blown away but how GRUNGE the 100% video is, not to mention that the stars are spike jonze and jason lee. People who came in with like Murray Street and then went and bought Daydream might not realize how ur-90s they got

by how

I was the voter who put "Androgynous Mind" at #2, and I do like it a lot but honestly not #2 a lot. I was just trying to ensure it made the countdown.

Disappointed that Goo and Rather Ripped missed out on the top ten album results. I HATE ALL OF YOU.

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80. Sweet Shine
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, 1994
(81 points, 7 votes)

Fuck yes my #4!

Also, Jason Lee got his start in the 100% video, right?

Don't know, but the only thing that video is missing is a Free Tibet poster, lordy

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79. Providence
Daydream Nation, 1988
(82 points, 4 votes)

Fantastic images with this rollout.

<3 "Providence" but forgot to vote for it when doing a last-minute ballot; one of the tracks that inspired Noisy or Ambient 80s US Indie Tracks. Have some friends who'll take any opportunity to yell out "Thurston! Watt! Thurston! I think it's ten thirty, we're calling from Providence, Rhode Island. Did you find your shit?"

"Providence"! too low. my fav Daydream Nation song, & my #4. love that guy's accent, & the dissolution of the sound, like a candle burning out

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78. Rain King
Daydream Nation, 1988
(82 points, 6 votes)

'Rain King', awesome - took me a while to realise how good that one is, it sounds huge

Rain King is killer. I think this was my highest Lee track

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77. Ghost Bitch
Bad Moon Rising, 1985
(84 points, 4 votes)

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76. Death to Our Friends
Evol, 1986
(85 points, 3 votes)

Yeah, I don't have much to say about these songs either. I have a hard time recalling what they sound like by looking at their titles. Unlike the next one, which is one of my favorite pop songs ever. I had it at number 7.

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75. Chapel Hill
Dirty, 1992
(87 points, 6 votes)

Is it me or is it a slow day? :)

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74. (TIE) Into the Groove(y)
The Whitey Album, 1988
(88 points, 5 votes)

Just early, man

Also, you know, Daft Punk + Vampire Weekend keepin heads occupied

You mean there are people listening to other things than Sonic Youth?

It's gratifying to see Dirty getting so much love up I'm here (though I didn't vote for Chapel Hill it's a great song)

Yeah. I'm actually listening to VW RIGHT NOW

Bad Moon Rising and the 2nd half of EVOL are definitely difficult for me to think of in terms of individual songs (apart from the closing tracks on both).

'Chapel Hill' was one of the many Dirty tracks I ended up reluctantly cutting. I think it really benefits from where it's sequenced on the album, it works really nicely there.