Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

he certainly does not come off well in that article

i feel thurston moore has fallen so low in my estimation over the past few years that i have trouble listening to any sonic youth these days, is that the case for anyone else? i just feel so turned off by him and right now it kind ruins the whole enterprise

yeah, same here :(

Is this still over his adultery or did he do something else?

doesn't bother me that he left his wife. life happens.

I'm still OK with the old records but I always think of that anecdote in Goodbye 20th Century where Steve Shelley starts yelling at Thurston for forgetting the words

Lee's solo is so good in that 1983 clip above

If you follow Thurston on facebook he's been posting tons of anti-Trump stuff, while the commentators feel betrayed for some reason. It makes me wonder about what the pro-trump/anti-clinton think about themselves that they're consistently amazed to find that their cultural icons disagree with them. /drunkandshouldbeignored.

see also david cameron's love for the smiths / chris christie's springsteen obsession

(he posts nonsense like this, though http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/rigged-election-hillary-clintons-early-voting-lead-florida-mathematically-insurmountable/114/)

Dude who sang "I believe Anita Hill" in song isn't a Trump voter whhaaaaaat? non-shocker

Yeah, I'm more disappointed that he posts dopey blog sources. I don't remember too many pro-Trump "wtf?" comments from fans in response to his posts, though? Some "get back to the music" stuff.

It was more people objecting to his pro-clinton stance.

Oh, I can see that.

i feel thurston moore has fallen so low in my estimation over the past few years that i have trouble listening to any sonic youth these days, is that the case for anyone else? i just feel so turned off by him and right now it kind ruins the whole enterprise

― I've read Ta-nehisi Coates. (marcos)

he kind of fell off with Trees outside the Academy and The Eternal.. the music just sounded super rote, hackneyed--almost like fourth-rate Malkmus music (which i like). and a lot of his later improv stuff (that i've heard) has the same problem. i had the same problem with Lee's rock stuff, interest just waned really hard. the Body/Head stuff has remained interesting though

yeah idk the last good thing any of them did was Rather Ripped imo

There was some nice tunes on "Demolished Thoughts". The Lee Ranaldo album was disappointing apart from a couple of tunes

Will still rep all day long for Best Day and what I've heard since then with that group.

there's a reinvigorated vibe about it, still need to sit down with it. i've also kinda tired of that Steve Shelley gallop, it really started to wear thin on "Rain on Tin" -- just like, 0 variation on the basic pattern. which serves the track fine, i suppose

"Murray Street + real guitar solos and a couple of acoustic tracks" is all I could really ask for from him at this point.

If you follow Thurston on facebook he's been posting tons of anti-Trump stuff, while the commentators feel betrayed for some reason. It makes me wonder about what the pro-trump/anti-clinton think about themselves that they're consistently amazed to find that their cultural icons disagree with them. /drunkandshouldbeignored

got in an argument with a partic dumb trump supporter on Lee's FB page the other day. still find the idea of Trump supporters digging SY and LEe bizarre, though I probs should not. she was on that 'participating medals' tip.

You see this kind of thing a lot on punk bands' FB pages, people up in arms because Jello Biafra hates Trump, or angry that Conflict aren't very fond of the police, you have to wonder how they manage to be fans of these bands for years yet somehow never notice what they sing about. I suppose in the case of Conflict it's because they are anarchists and maybe that appeals to libertarians/"anarcho-capitalists".

Dumb dudes like moshing.

White ppl

My wife had a friend back in California actually who was super excited to chat to me about all the old school British anarcho-punks, we had this great bonding session over mutual love of hardcore punk, then I made some random throwaway comment about climate change (can't remember the exact words now) and it turned out he was a massive Breitbart supporter. I didn't even know who Breitbart was back then. The weird thing was he was on welfare, never had a job, big stoner, yet super conservative. I don't know how you reconcile that. I think it goes back to the libertarian thing. Anarchists don't like government, libertarians don't like government.

Anyway this doesn't have much to do with Sonic Youth. Just stupid people.

the Body/Head stuff has remained interesting though
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 18:41

saw them live recently, really good

It does feel like a kind of sifting is happening, separating their parts. I quite like all of it - lots of less stuff is fairly conventional rock, body/head a bit more industrial/noisy, it's interesting to see what the products are.

i liked a lot of latter day SY, but I'd definitely say that Thurston's lyrics were the weakest link in there. but i've enjoyed pretty much all of the solo stuff from the various members, even if none of it is super brilliant.

Was lucky to have a long (audio) interview in Brussels last week, on his new album, Trump, end of SY, E. P. Library,.... Also received the recording of his solo set that night (new ones, stuff from the Best Day and Psychic Hearts). Airs tonight 9pm CET, will post an archive link afterwards.

Here it is: https://www.mixcloud.com/Sterrenplaten/sterrenplaten-25-november-2016-thurston-moore
Very happy with the result

Playlist that night (at the Brussels venue called Les Ateliers Claus, Forevermore was the opening song, decided that placing the almost 20 min song at the end would suit the interview more):

* Speak To The Wild (from The Best Day)
* Aphrodite
* Turn On (from Rock n Roll Consciousness)
* Anti-Weapon (also called 'Cease Fire')
* Miss Liberty (Based on Ono Soul, from Psychic Hearts)
* Queen Bee And Her Pals (from Psychic Hearts)
* Psychic Hearts (from Psychic Hearts)
* Forevermore (from The Best Day)

Serious bummer, was recalled tonight by Ecstatic Peace for using the live songs. Let's say we were a bit too enthousiast after the wonderful gig and dito interview that both of us misinterpreted things. Re-uploaded the whole interview again and replaced live songs with studio songs. The cherry might be missing, but the cake is still here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/Sterrenplaten/sterrenplaten-25-november-2016-thurston-moore/

Man, I was really looking forward to listening to those live tracks.:(

Looks like Lee and Steve might be on ep 8 of the PBS show soundbreaking, talking about cassettes. https://instagram.com/p/BNVlbpVBC7n/

great interview maarten!

Oh thanks Tyler, very appreciated!

Yeah, sorry, that was a little harsh! Will definitely listen to the interview!

ha, i was looking forward to the live tracks too, but the interview was good enough...

I finally watched Heavy (from 1995!) now that Netflix is carrying it. Somehow, I remember really wanting to watch it as a teenager, for no real reason other than that Moore did the score, but never got around to it. I was actually pretty impressed with how well the score worked with the film. Sounds like he was layering prepared electric with acoustic at times, sometimes with some very light percussion?

that's exactly what it sounds like.. some of his prettiest tracks

Huh, never heard this. Had no idea it even existed.

Was that the movie with liv tyler about the twitchy short order fry cook? I loved that movie.

Yeah, it was a lovely film.

I thought this was interesting. This guy from Chile has uploaded a tonne of faithful solo acoustic guitar versions of Sonic Youth songs. It's surprising how well a lot of it translates.

Interestingly, his covers of latter-day SY seem to work better than the 80s/90s stuff.

Winner's Blues & Massage The History were some rare acoustic-driven tunes that I wish they'd done more of.

Just listened to "J'Accuse Ted Hughes" while reading Plath ("Tulips"). It worked pretty well, although the vocal bits could distract from the poetry at moments.

Speaking of acoustic covers (with gobs of reverb):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dGB7mkOm0I

"Theresa's Sound World"

haha, sweet

I finally memorized it;
Sort of
People see rock and roll as youth culture and when youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? (Do you have any idea?)
I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture

Is this really the closest thing they have to a “Best Of” comp?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hits_Are_for_Squares

Aren’t they a shoo-in for a lavish, career-spanning, 2-disc retrospective (or even 4-disc box)? Most their stuff is on a single label, too... Why hasn’t it been done?