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

I'm kicking myself for leaving "Ghost Bitch" off my ballot. Huge mistake, pure and simple.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/070.jpg
70. Free City Rhymes
NYC Ghosts & Flowers, 2000
(94 points, 8 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.

all I have to do is look at those titles and the songs start playing in my head in their entirety but I was 16 when evol came out and it stove my head in but good so

Yay, Free City! My only vote from NYCGF

Fuck, how are we already at 70??? Arch, I assume that you are in Europe? Not a big deal, but that would explain the lack of comments/action here perhaps.

Good run of songs here. Love "Providence" to death, though it is hard to consider it a song sometimes. I was sure I voted for it, but somehow I forgot??? Would have liked to see it place higher.

Was really bummed to cut "Cinderella's Big Score", as there are times when I listen to that song and still get chills after all these years. For some reason I reached my Kim quotient and just decided my ballot didn't need it. My love for Sonic Youth largely revolves around their ability to insert absolutely crushing events into a song (few bands actually thrill me or take me on a journey within a song, for lack of a better term, like SY), and the trajectory of the really tense intro/buildup in "Cinderella's Big Score, leading to the rocking "verse" is pretty righteous, but then it gets to the breakdown: the pretty harmonics and descending melody with Kim speak-singing is great, but when Kim stops singing and they hyper-strum the same descending melody/riff I just grin from ear to ear EVERY DAMN TIME. Just inexplicably great to me.

Yeah that song is such a beautiful rollercoaster ride. Great fusion of Daydream-era epic vibes and the kind of oncoming grunge-era influences.

"Free City Rhymes" is my biggest TOO LOW moment so far

Definitely a fan of "Free City Rhymes", but I went with "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" as my one song from that record. Somewhat a toss-up, but the latter hit me harder this time around. (If I did this poll 10 times there are only about 10 songs that would make every one of them). The guitar interplay on "Free City Rhymes" is particularly cool for SY in my book, love the extended pointillistic approach for a lot of it.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/069.jpg
69. Superstar
If I Were a Carpenter, 1994
(97 points, 5 votes)

voted for both "rain king" and "Macbeth", so fuck yeah. the former was my first DN favorite (like "stereo sanctity" was my first sister fave) and still occupies that slot most days. a hurricane of bricks. whipcream, phonecall, breakdown, rain king fist.

love "macbeth" for the haunted house (almost) funk, not something i really expect of SY, but it grabs my whole mind and presses it into a tiny corner every time i hear it.

"sweet shine" and "into the groovey" just missed my ballot. kind of wish i had voted for the former. alfred otm: "I'M COMIN' HOME, MOMMA!"

Yeah, "Sweet Shine" almost snuck onto my ballot as well. That is a heavy moment for sure and a really good album closer.

"free city rhymes", "jams run free", "cinderella's big score" & "ghost bitch" not among my favorites. but w/e, you got your sonic youth, i got mine.

ack, "superstar" photo SO CUET!

I really like "Superstar" but decided to skip covers for my ballot. There have been days though where all I wanna hear is "Ca Plane Pour Moi" as played by SY though, as in I want it to be the soundtrack to my day. Maybe a hangover from the montage at The Louvre from "European Vacation" or some shit, but really it is a supremely joyous blast. If anyone hasn't heard it give it a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZkKK_GZ8qU

Seems like Thurston just makes up a lot of the lyrics, and I think he actually sings "Don't wanna hear no Sonic Youth", but who knows?

These pictures rival the ones for the results of the Pavement poll for inspired brilliance...

Hah yeah, and not a Jaguar or Jazzmaster in sight.

you could make a really nice playlist/comp of sonic youth cover versions (songs covered by SY, i mean).

"is it my body" is their only real failure, imo. seems as though it would be perfect, esp for kim, but they completely butcher it.

I only realised when researching for this poll that Thurston sings most of Ca Plane Pour Moi in random English phrases!

http://m.soundcloud.com/nofancy/sonic-youth-jams-run-free

Seriously, this is like an orgasm

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/068.jpg
68. Tokyo Eye
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, 1994
(100 points, 5 votes)

I only realised when researching for this poll that Thurston sings most of Ca Plane Pour Moi in random English phrases!

― scintilla (seandalai), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:38 AM (4 minutes ago)

wham bam lost his eyes she's so horny bongos faze i'm a born listen come a whiskey come a deeda dada tada toi, fruit a leevitatee deeda inna jar, ooh say in a flash ooh OOH ooh ooh, i got to laugh

and shit yeah, "tokyo eye" is such a jam. cannot play that shit loud enough.

R.E.M. makes its way in there at some point.

Xpost "Ca Plane Pour Moi"

voted for "Superstar" high; this'll sound corny but in 94 it was ~important~ for me to hear covers of "cheesy" (by "punk" standards) artists (REM was playing "Wichita Lineman" live that year too)...helped open my mind again (nb I was 20 at the time)

TOKYO EYE! That was really high on my ballot, just an amazingly unique use of rhythm and dynamics even within the SY catalog. Has the source of the cymbal crash sample/toy ever been identified?

EJS was one of the last old SY albums I bought, and it consistently surprised me.

Tokyo Eye is fantastic, think I voted for it.

Yeah, "Experimental ..." was so much better than I remembered it, can't believe I had left that record alone for so long. I had really blunt/incomplete memories of the songs for some reason, relistening opened up all kinds of subtleties that I had forgotten about. "Tokyo Eye" is definitely a cool song and a welcome curveball in their catalogue.

Isn't that cymbal just Steve with a lot of filters on it?

It's such a SPARE record, that's why - so stripped back.

My picks from that album were Screaming Skull and Quest...

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/067.jpg
67. Making the Nature Scene
Confusion Is Sex, 1983
(106 points, 7 votes)

Also, the obvious shock of hearing "Winner's Blues" as the first track on the record immediately following the general heaviness of "Dirty" kinda confused me at the time. I immediately did a U-Turn and went and bought all of the old SY records I didn't own yet (that I could find) instead of dig into "EJSTNS". Think I actually liked "Winner's Blues" and "Bull In The Heather" the most at the time, but yeah, decided to hit the back catalogue for a while pretty much immediately.

^ fucking CLASSIC. did not vote for it, but damn glad to see it get the nod here. love the conceit, the city as nature, organic humanity an "unnatural" intrusion on its pattern. much more appealing that contemporary artists who worship an idealized vision of untainted nature from the comfort of urban apartments/suburban homes.

xp re: making the nature scene

"Making The Nature Scene" was a late cut for me. Classic for sure. Really glad that I got to see this song live, it is a powerful live experience.

To say the least.

It took the Ciccone version for me to realize it's one of their most rhythmically driving early songs

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that one person secifically voted for the Ciccone Youth version. I'm too lazy to look it up now - was it you, some dude?

sPecifically obv.

I see now that it was Sleeve.

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66. Drunken Butterfly
Dirty, 1992
(107 points, 7 votes)

YES xp

I love the Ciccone Youth version so much!

ooh I also voted for Drunk Butterfly

It always surprised me to learn "Drunken Butterfly" had a video and was one of their most played live songs. Not really a standout in any context, but it kinda bangs.

I think I ended up putting this at #2 on my ballot. Dirty was my first sonic youth album and this is the song I played the most way back then.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/065.jpg
65. Kissability
Daydream Nation, 1988
(108 points, 7 votes)

You will not believe where I got that image from.

Holy shit, how the hell did that come up?

Also, "Kissability" rules! Fucking love that guitar solo.

"Kissability" definitely deserved better. Being such a concise, controlled song buried in the back half of a woolly epic has kind of kept it hidden in plain view, I think.