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

And so we enter the top 50...
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50. Youth Against Fascism
Dirty, 1992
(151 points, 9 votes)

Oh come on. TOO LOW

never really understood the appeal of this one

WOOT! i'm just glad it showed up. lot of fans seem to hate it.

the appeal is the part where it gets really fucking loud and especially "we're gonna bury you, maaan"

cracks me up every time

Sonic Youth - "Youth Against Fascism"

I was once in a band who covered this. It's definitely fun to play.

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.

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.

lots of rong on that thread

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.

Uh, "quote", not "quite"

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49. Kill Yr. Idols
Kill Yr. Idols, 1983
(155 points, 12 votes)

yeah shit yeah

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.

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.

really fucking glad "kill yr idols" cracked the top 50

"brother james" next

Damn, it is kind of a crime that "Kill Yr Idols" is not on my ballot. Not feeling great about that.

Hoping "Brother James" doesn't come too soon ....

Didn't know they noised this up live:
http://youtu.be/Qkl8oeWiYcY

"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.

(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.

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48. The Empty Page
Murray Street, 2002
(157 points, 10 votes)

nice

Good album opener.

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.

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?

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.

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47. Pipeline / Kill Time
Sister, 1987
(158 points, 10 votes)

That is way, way, way too low. wtf you people.

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.

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.

Gotta side with Alex on empty page

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.

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.

Yeah, pipeline/kill time could've been higher, was one of my votes

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.

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46. Halloween
Bad Moon Rising, 1985
(159 points, 10 votes)

I'd say this is just right

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)?

You're right, I made that same mistake earlier with 'Flower'. Consider it corrected.

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.

I like "Kool Thing", but my enjoyment of it is inextricably bound up with early '90s nostalgia. It's about as zeitgeisty as SY ever got, but it's kind of their "Shiny Happy People" so I can see why some people might hate it.

yeah, seems strange that "halloween" beat "flower". both good songs tho.

agree that "pipeline/kt" should have been much higher. then again, only #16 on my ballot, so i can't complain too much.

Voted for 'Empty Page', I'd forgotten how good it was until I relistened to Murray Street the other weekend. Features my favourite SY bassline too.

i had BMR playing once in HS and my brother's friend pronounced "hallowe'en" the worst song he'd ever heard

xp i like the weird, slightly spooky atmosphere of halloween but as a song it is a failure. there is almost nothing happening in it and this non-happening is even repeated all through it. it reminds me of the andersen tale of the emperor's new clothes. the best bit maybe the coda which is just a fade-out of some pretty low-key noise.

XP: Hah, my best friend in high school said almost the same thing when I played 'Flower': "I really don't like this."

aargh what the hell is happening, why are Hits and Halloween not in the top 15 aargh

alex you have the same criticism every time, "nothing happening", that is very subjective and I disagree completely.