best Sonic Youth album of the '80s

KJB you mad

evol or daydream

Forgot how cool EVOL is. I'll go with that one.

Leaving aside the fact that I like Confusion best of all, there can't be many bands where most people really seem to think album number six is actually the best.

The Beatles?

Yeah I don't think its as uncommon as you'd think it is.

Sclavunos for life!

"Leaving aside the fact that I like Confusion best of all, there can't be many bands where most people really seem to think album number six is actually the best."

Plenty of folks out there love Sabotage, British Steel, Somewhere in Time, Angel Rat, etc.

Physical Graffiti... Painful...

what about a "best sonic youth record of the 70's"?
now that is challenging poll!

i was trying to think songs by other bands that sound exactly like Sonic Youth songs for a poll ... but I wasn't getting far.

there can't be many bands where most people really seem to think album number six is actually the best.

You'd be surprised...

i was trying to think songs by other bands that sound exactly like Sonic Youth songs for a poll ... but I wasn't getting far.

How about a Best Band Overtly Influenced by Sonic Youth poll?

what about a "best sonic youth record of the 70's"?
now that is challenging poll!

It could be done. Metal Machine Music, No New York, Et Cetera, Sand, some free jazz, etc.

Sonny Sharrock would pwn that poll.

No way. All about Hawkwind.

Oh yes Hawkwind! Forgot about them. Maybe Cosmic Jokers too.

Listen to the guitar playing on "Whippings and Apologies" by Sparks, there are some total SY guitarisms there (and it is just a great great song). Thurston is a professed fan, so perhaps some direct quoting.

no love for s/t :(

I think it's being counted as an EP.

I am a Bad Moon diehard, all the way. Nothing sounds better to me, it is so much more loose and unstructured than the others.

what about a "best sonic youth record of the 70's"?

MX-80 Sound - Hard Attack amirite?

Voting for Confusion Is Sex here. For a record I've heard a zillion times, it still sounds tense and exciting.

great to see so much love for the early records. BMR is fantastic. Daydream Nation is going to win though, because it sounds like REM.

It didn't win the original poll so I hope not.

Daydream Nation is my LEAST favorite of these. De-evolution in practice.

Fascinated by Zeno's "Best Sonic Youth Album of the 70's" idea - a mix should be assembled!

I reckon some Chrome is needed, perhaps 'ST37' of 'Alien Soundtracks', along with suitable tracks from the other artists cited above.

yeah a mix of the 70s roots of SY would be cool - obv. would need branca/chatham/theoretical girls

What KISS track to include, though?

"Strutter," obv. Sampled on Master=Dik

my 70s Sonic Youth album would include Helen Fordsdale by Mars and The Helicopter Spies by Swell Maps, a song who's intro has always sounded amazingly Sonic Youth-y to me. It would also be smart to license Computer Dating by Theoretical Girls and something off Branca's The Ascension. Send all inquiries to me.

Actually, a Sonic Youth curated influences/back to mine kind of thing would be pretty awesome.

I can practically smell the mixes brewing across ilx-land.

looking forward to those.

voting Daydream Nation.

Some ZZ Top, maybe

Sister
Daydream Nation
EVOL

Daydream Nation is going to win though, because it sounds like REM.

― Soukesian, Friday, July 17, 2009 6:48 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

o_O

love those weird tunings on Everybody Hurts

yeah a mix of the 70s roots of SY would be cool - obv. would need branca/chatham/theoretical girls

― tylerw, Saturday, July 18, 2009 11:23 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

red transistor ftw

Daydream Nation is going to win though, because it sounds like REM.

Yeah. Sister always reminded me of Jody Watley.

also in the sy influences corner, monitor's "in terrae interium" and "I saw dead jim's shade"

and The Breakfast Club's "Right On Track."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKAunVtF-xs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojRgNfBRR4g

tbh i was kind of bummed that the last time I saw them most of the token '80s songs (Tom Violence, Death Valley, Shadow Of A Doubt) were the same ones they were playing when i started seeing them live a decade ago.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

awesome results!!! glad bad moon rising got so many votes too. these days i would far rather hear evol/sister/bad moon rising ahead of daydream.

in honor of this momentous occasion, i just posted a great Sister-era SY show on my blog: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

Do you know what town that show was in? I saw a bunch of the Sister shows, and it was interesting how half-formed the performances of the songs were at the start, even though the record was already recorded. Pacific Coast Highway fell apart so much at the Electric Banana, they didn't even finish it, IIRC. By the end of the year, they were killing it though.

It's from a show at the Cat's Cradle in North Carolina ... http://www.luxnet.at/sonic-youth/record-180.html (i only posted the 1987 tracks, there are bonus tracks from later on)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hsXXEcIwM0&feature=related

i think that whole gig must be on youtube