Wasn't "Junkie's Promise" inspired by Thurston's obsessive record collecting?
lol, i dunno, that'd be funny cuz i've always taken it so serious. a few of kim's songs do seem to address that, though "heather angel" is the only one that springs to mind atm.
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/051.jpg51. Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)A Thousand Leaves, 1998(145 points, 9 votes, 1 #1)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:16 (eleven years ago) link
Cool, my #25. Sure that this song is one reason some people did not dig ATL at all.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:22 (eleven years ago) link
It was my #4. Just a flat-out masterpiece, maybe especially because it's not a guitar freakout in the regular sense.
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:24 (eleven years ago) link
One of the few tracks whose form and content are indivisible; the thing really sound like the aural equivalent of tripping balls watching colors change on a wall.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, and one of the main reasons i do dig ATL. or parts of it anyway...
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:26 (eleven years ago) link
currently obsessed with "I Love You Golden Blue", thanks poll!
― Euler, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
And so we enter the top 50...http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/050.jpg50. Youth Against FascismDirty, 1992(151 points, 9 votes)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:56 (eleven years ago) link
Oh come on. TOO LOW
― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:58 (eleven years ago) link
never really understood the appeal of this one
― silverfish, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:00 (eleven years ago) link
WOOT! i'm just glad it showed up. lot of fans seem to hate it.
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:00 (eleven years ago) link
the appeal is the part where it gets really fucking loud and especially "we're gonna bury you, maaan"
cracks me up every time
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:01 (eleven years ago) link
Sonic Youth - "Youth Against Fascism"
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:03 (eleven years ago) link
I was once in a band who covered this. It's definitely fun to play.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
goo strikes me as a oddly snarky portrait of indie-rock-as-legitimate-counterculture, a principle they seemed much more heavily invested in on their early albums. "youth against fascism" is the most explicit articulation of this new attitude. it seems sincere enough on a certain level, but it also seems to mock both itself and the idea that "punk rock" has anything to say.
i enjoy that about it, but can see why the goofiness might be off-putting.
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
Ian Mackaye on the collab (apparently from Swingset, posted in that ILM thread about YAF linked above):
Ian, how did you end up playing on Dirty? (1992 SY record)
IM: It's a good story actually. It's fucked up man. I was in New York and eating at a restaurant called Spring Street Natural and I called Thurston just to say "Hi," and there was a message on his machine saying that they were in the studio. I think you left the number too.
TM: Yeah.
IM: I was at the restaurant and I had just ordered. I called on a pay phone, the studio was half a block away, and Thurston said to just come down. I ran down and went in and those guys were all there and we're talking-- my food was coming, so I had to go. They just said, "Oh we want you to play on something." I don't do that, but all those people were hanging out and saying it would be great. I'm just not a player like that; it would not occur to me to play a lick on something. I go in the room and-- who was doing the record?
TM: Butch, I think. Was it Butch?
IM: The first thing I had to do was find a guitar I could play, which is of course is impossible, because they're all tuned bizarrely. I picked up the only SG because I can recognize it as a guitar. I plugged it in, put on the headphones and I was really nervous. First off I don't know what to play, I don't know how to play because it was such a weird tuning, and my dinner is going to be ready in two minutes!
(everyone laughs)
IM: So they run the tape and I'm standing in front of the speaker and I'm trying to find something, anything. So I just played some feedback. We do it once, Butch comes in to check the mic. I told him that I thought I had an idea and to turn me up in the headphones, and Thurston walks in and was like, "That was great!" Ok, cool, I said goodbye, walked out and went back to have my dinner. I never went back. Six months later we're on tour in Europe, and every interviewer is asking me about my collaboration with Sonic Youth. I had no idea it was on the record. I didn't hear the song until two months later. When I first heard it I couldn't even figure out what I played on it.
TM: The nature of the song is just this repetitive bass/drum thing and the guitars are just squalling. That was the thing, just turn your amp on and do whatever it is will sound happening.
IM: It was one pass. I love that kind of thing frankly. For me when Thurston came in and said "perfect." It was great, I put the guitar down said "Great to see you guys." I walk out and all the people hanging out were like, "Yeah, you were really great." Cool, that was perfect for me.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
lots of rong on that thread
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't read much, but I was actually looking for that quite and the ILM thread was one of the first things that came up in the search. I have no doubts that there is plenty of wrong in there though.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:12 (eleven years ago) link
Uh, "quote", not "quite"
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/049.jpg49. Kill Yr. IdolsKill Yr. Idols, 1983(155 points, 12 votes)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
yeah shit yeah
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
I wonder how high "Youth Against Fascism" ranks as a reason people don't like, or stopped liking, SY/Thurston Moore? Big guest spot on their highest-profile/most zeitgeisty record with lyrics that are really easy to rally around as being "not my thing" on many levels. I mean, I always dug it, but I could see this as being a big jumping off point for a certain demographic.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
xp yaf was my no.2. i love the energy and punk attitude of it. how it gets heavier and heavier. it is really powerful in a joy division kind of way. my favourite song from my favourite (and first) album by them.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
really fucking glad "kill yr idols" cracked the top 50
"brother james" next
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:22 (eleven years ago) link
Damn, it is kind of a crime that "Kill Yr Idols" is not on my ballot. Not feeling great about that.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:23 (eleven years ago) link
Hoping "Brother James" doesn't come too soon ....
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:24 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't know they noised this up live:http://youtu.be/Qkl8oeWiYcY
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:28 (eleven years ago) link
"Kill Yr Idols" was a late cut for me.
"Youth Against Fascism" can be fun if I don't focus on the lyrics. A little surprised to see it in the top 50.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:29 (eleven years ago) link
(That's a really good live recording of "I Love You Golden Blue" btw.)
Somehow I thought "Brother James" had already appeared. That was another late cut.
Man, the early-mid 2000s shows were great.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:32 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/048.jpg48. The Empty PageMurray Street, 2002(157 points, 10 votes)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:36 (eleven years ago) link
nice
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:40 (eleven years ago) link
Good album opener.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:42 (eleven years ago) link
okay song but it escapes me how it cn beat "kool thing" or "youth against fascism"? it's a little on the lame and boring side of the spectrum. sonic youth on sleeping pills.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:45 (eleven years ago) link
Kool Thing is pretty lame IMO. It was a huge disappointment the first time I heard it. Wow, Chuck D is on this? How cool is this gonna be! *puts song on* "Yeah, tell it like it is" *song ends* WTF, that was it? What was the fucking point of that?
― Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
really? but kool thing is fun and one of the few sy songs which make me want to dance. only for that a real classic.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 16:54 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/047.jpg47. Pipeline / Kill TimeSister, 1987(158 points, 10 votes)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:00 (eleven years ago) link
That is way, way, way too low. wtf you people.
― herr doktor (askance johnson), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:01 (eleven years ago) link
Always thought "Kool Thing" was fun, but am perfectly happy that SY morphed into the kind of band that could write a song like "The Empty Page". I guess for me SY stopped being a band that I needed to be fun, or rocking, or edgy at all really. I just put on "Sister" (or "Hold That Tiger"), "Bad Moon Rising", or any number of other stuff of theirs that fits that bill, but these days I love the textured and measured approach of the later records. There is just great playing all over the place.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
OTM. I was going to write a post about how I much prefer subtle Sonic Youth to 'fun' Sonic Youth these days, but it sounded kind of corny.Also agree with the 'too low!' for 'Pipeline'. Of the 9 Lee songs on my ballot it was second-to last, but still within the top 20.
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:06 (eleven years ago) link
Gotta side with Alex on empty page
― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:08 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I get that. Basically I am OK being a little corny, and for SY to get a little corny too.
I did not vote for "The Empty Page" btw, prefer other songs from that record and that period, but I like every song on Murray St at the same time. That record was a huge revelation for me, loved it when it came out and still do.
"Pipeline" did deserve a little better. Too many good songs on "Sister", and from that period. Just couldn't find room for it on my ballot.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:11 (eleven years ago) link
xp you may have a point there concernig the good playing of the instruments but over-all there are much more "serious" sy songs than light and bouncy ones. there is only one kool thing but there are dozens of empty pages. and i still enjoy kool thing after all those years.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:13 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, pipeline/kill time could've been higher, was one of my votes
― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:15 (eleven years ago) link
I would have thought that "Kool Thing" would place WAY higher than "The Empty Page", and would have placed it so myself if I had had more votes. Just sticking up for "The Empty Page" as not being lame or boring in my book. I agree that "Kool Thing" holds a special place in the catalogue, I just don't like it as much these days. If I was at a party and wanted to play an SY song though, "Kool Thing" would be at the top of the list perhaps. I would hope that people broke out in the Hal Hartley dance and that everyone had a better night for it for sure.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:18 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/046.jpg46. HalloweenBad Moon Rising, 1985(159 points, 10 votes)
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:29 (eleven years ago) link
I'd say this is just right
― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
Halloween is not on BMR, it was the b-side to Flower (or are we just listing things as how they show up on CD reissues now)?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
You're right, I made that same mistake earlier with 'Flower'. Consider it corrected.
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
Gotta say I would take "Flower" over "Halloween" (i.e., not sure why this placed so much higher), but "Halloween" is a weirder/more singular song.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:42 (eleven years ago) link