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

Six of mine have placed so far - four of them in the last five entries! Nice run there.

Nothing from Sister, Murray Street or The Eternal has placed yet right?

Listening to 'Rain King' right now, that little chuggy riff it goes into at 3:14 is so great.

Hey, you're 'alex in mainhattan' not 'Alex in NYC'. I think I'm well past the age where I can say 'x is everything I hate about popular music' without any irony. :)

that's a strange argument. should i start loving eurovision because i am old? that doesn't makes sense to me. the older i get the more difficult i get concerning music. the percentage of the music around me which is awful rises and rises. and i don't hink it is the declining quality of the music which is surrounding me. the reason is probably that i get more and more picky with each year. the probability that eurovision will ever be my bag is close to zero. without irony. ;-)

Oh, I'm not interested in arguing the merits of Eurovision (at least not here). It's fun, I find it hard to get worked up about 'manufactured music' etc. Anyway, my highest was Unmade Bed at 25.

Six of mine have placed this far

Makes me a little sad that we've probably seen the last of the post-2002 records now

― society is a lol, it makes me j/k to my friends (some dude), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:19 PM (1 hour ago)

would put good money on "turquoise boy" and "i love you golden blue", perhaps in the higher reaches. even odds on "rats" & "reena".

o wait, "reena" already showed. splash one

92. In the Kingdom #19
78. Rain King
72. Macbeth
68. Tokyo Eye

only four of mine so far, but i'm sure the rest are in the pipeline somewhere. i have faith in you people.

Rain on Tin is coming, I can feel it

but not tonight. i am a little biased concernng it. it is not a bad song but it is too much noodling and doesn't come to the point. it is about 4 minutes too long. definitely too repetitive and missing out in the variety department. still one of their top 60 songs i'd say

it is about 4 minutes too long.

That's half the song!

Alex that song is PERFECT length, not an ounce of fat

Finally home from my long weekend in Nashville -- looking forward to catching up on this thread and the Spotify playlist.

Rain on Tin is coming, I can feel it

― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 2:21 PM (36 minutes ago)

oh yeah, no doubt. perhaps "karen revisited" and "disconnection notice" too. but murray street isn't quite "post-2002".

Glad "Making The Nature Scene" placed; always got some sort of "Dhalgren"/Kathy Acker vibe off it.

Thought "Kissability" would have placed waaaaaay higher; for some reason thought it was one of the top Daydream Nation canonical picks due to how well it works as a song as well as, uh, sonically.

I don't really know grunge-era SY that well, but chucked "Drunken Butterfly" on my ballot due to how much of a live centerpiece it was the few times I saw SY perform in the 00s - Kim pulled off some amazing pogoing-meets-Stevie-Nicks-twirling kinda moves when she wasn't singing.

Oh snap

Somehow in my mind MS is 2003

But yeah, the RR and Eternal probably won't figure into further results (nor will anything post 2002)

I believe I voted for 8 tracks so far: "Secret Girl", "In the Kingdom #19", "I'm Insane", "Flower", "Into the Groove(y)", "Cinderella's Big Score", "Making the Nature Scene" & "The World Looks Red".

Most salient lesson so far: I could do with a copy of Rather Ripped round the haus.

^ good list

Voted for all of these:

100. Secret Girl (50 points, 4 votes)
89. She's in a Bad Mood (64 points, 6 votes)
77. Ghost Bitch (84 points, 4 votes)
70. Free City Rhymes (94 points, 8 votes)
63. Protect Me You (110 points, 6 votes)
62. Incinerate (113 points, 10 votes)
61. Unmade Bed (114 points, 10 votes)

I thought of something: "The Diamond Sea" obv wasn't part of AG's 80s rock poll. Could it upset "Schizophrenia"?

That was "Stairway" for fans in the 90s iirc.

Ha, I wonder if the Kim-Thurston LOVE IS DEAD split has caused a slight recoil from "The Diamond Sea". Too scared to listen to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover of it, how is it? Always thought Beat Happening's "Indian Summer" was the indie "Stairway", heh.

Voted for these:

97. Computer Age (57 points, 4 votes)
93. Anagrama (60 points, 8 votes)
87. (TIE) Genetic (72 points, 6 votes)
84. NYC Ghosts & Flowers (79 points, 6 votes)
67. Making the Nature Scene (106 points, 7 votes)
66. Drunken Butterfly (107 points, 7 votes)
65. Kissability (108 points, 7 votes)
64. The World Looks Red (108 points, 8 votes)

i dont think anything i voted for has shown up yet which makes sense cuz everything i voted for is super awesome so obv lots of other ppl voted for it too

im going to be mildy disappointed if teenage riot doesnt win this

Etc, you may be onto something there.

For me the issue is Thurston's vocal. When I was younger I dug it - the yearning, the dreaminess, the starry eyed wonder, etc.

That was when I was 18. At 36 I wish TM would shut up and let the music do the talking.

Re diamond sea

It's like 90% instrumental. (Only made the middle of the ballot btw, and nostalgia was pushing it that high.)

Etc, you may be onto something there.

About "Indian Summer" or the impact of the breakup? Because the former was a joke, right?

That 10% vocal was enough to keep it off of my ballot.

I had 'Unmade Bed' really high on my ballot — number five, I think. I was surprised I wasn't the only one that voted for it, honestly. The rest of my top five are probably pretty standard picks.

Lot of other stuff I voted for has already showed, as well. Seven things so far, if I'm recalling my ballot accurately.

man it's nice to hear "Chapel Hill" again, I always forget how good this song is because it's not in the sweet spot of very favorite Dirty songs.

i always figured "Unmade Bed" would do decent because it was the lead single off a well regarded album, and also just really good. feels like a 'lullabye'-ish "Diamond Sea"-style later Thurston song that's just nice and short and perfectly structured.

I wish "Chapel Hill" had a better chorus.

Al otm

When I reviewed SN I made that same point about "Unmade Bed"

Nothing from Sister, Murray Street or The Eternal has placed yet right?

― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, May 14, 2013 4:11 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nothing from A Thousand Leaves yet either. kind of wondering if it'll have a really minor presence in the tracks poll relative to the #4 rank in the albums poll.

Sister, on the other hand, will probably have every song but "Hotwire My Heart" in the top 50, which is pretty badass.

Hits and Wildflower will place for sure

just you wait, some dude

Ill lay odds on Antenna or Massaging the History

One of the pubs in the village that I live in (there are 2 pubs, right across the road from each other) has some Sonic Youth on their jukebox (I normally drink in the other one, but SY tempts me over now and again). They have Teenage Riot, Into the Groove(y), Sugar Kane and Plastic Sun.

None of those made it onto my ballot, perhaps because I'm always kind of annoyed by the selection for some reason (I usually put on TR). Why Plastic Sun? Of a million better choices...

i hope "Wildflower" does well, i love that song and see it as a major turning point toward their sound in later years, but cut it from my ballot at the last minute. "Hits" and "Massage" were good live but i never really loved either and would be kinda surprised if they placed.

man i just noticed "Jams Run Free" next to "Free City Rhymes" in the countdown, awesome

Fellow SY-heads, I need help with something that's been driving me nuts for a couple of weeks. Who is on the left in this photo from the Goo Demos cover?

http://www.coposlouchame.cz/foto_obaly/748071.jpg

It's some tv personality of the 70s, but I have completely forgotten her name. Part of me thinks she's a talk show host from that era.

Ha, that jukebox selection would annoy me too.

I actually like the vocal part on "Diamond Sea" well enough. Thurston's singing is what it is but I don't think it's especially bad on that track. The melody is quite simple and identical to the lead guitar melody but is pretty memorable imo, compared to "Sugar Kane" or "Hits of Sunshine". So I don't mind the YYYs' version. I still think the instrumental parts of "Diamond Sea" are pretty well-done, even if I wouldn't rank it as their most impressive work anymore. If I were to be really critical, the feedback shredding at the end probably goes on a little longer than it needs to.

Re sloppiness in "NYC Ghosts and Flowers": the intonation feels a bit off too. But clearly they were really precise before (e.g. on DN) and since (on the next two albums). So it was probably intentional: interesting to think about what they were going for. Someone suggested Pavement/GBV above. But also, it was at this time that Branca was telling players not to tune precisely (or to play in precise time) with each other. And this track seems like one of their most overtly Branca-influenced tracks.

man "Tokyo Eye" leading into "Making The Nature" scene is beautiful, they're like distant cousins

the little breakdown in "NYC Ghosts" in the 3rd minute with Steve doing the 4 snare hits, that feels kind of weak/sloppy to me (timing is inconsistent, once or twice he only does 3 hits). the crescendo later in the song feels clumsy too. he's never been a flawless drummer and often i think it suits the material but there are times like that where i think it kinda blows the mood and wish they'd done another take or punched it in.

fucking LOVE thurston's "the diamond sea" vocal: lyrics, tone, delivery, the whole thing. the other day i listened to it while driving through low hills in a light rain w occasional sunbreaks. lonely miles, gray-green and glowing. could not help becoming one w the sound and moving out across the sky. the car looked like a tiny thing from up there, this weird metal ant driven by a sad chunk of monkey meat.

btw Gavin thanks so much for doing the Spotify playlist. i noticed it's missing "The Wonder," you should be able to add it, it's its own track on the remastered Daydream Nation (the same one you pulled "Rain King" and "Providence" etc.) from.

Love the passage that begins around 8:00.
xpost

"The World Looks Red" is so nuts, classic 'how the fuck do they even get guitars to sound like that?' song

Love the passage that begins around 8:00.

and the way it builds up starting around 11:00

all of it