C/D: Sonic Youth's GOO

(custos, i keed i keed)

..but I'm guessing they are the same ones, but remastered. Also, there are two "Lee #2"s. There's the 8-track version, and the studio version, which I'm guessing was slanted for a B-side, but never got used. Which makes sense as "Lee #2" is a complete departure.. very pleasant and poppy. It's another secret reason to get this.

Byron Coley's notes actually irritated me, especially the bit at the front that was more or less saying "IF YOU NEVER HEARD THE ROCK BEFORE YOUR EARS SUCK NYAH NYAH ROCKIST ROCKIST BTW PEEPS OK".

from this site
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/new.html

Line-up:
Thurston - guitar
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar/vocals
Steve - drums/percussion
J. Mascis - backing vocals
w/ additional percussion by
nick sansano & don fleming

More annoyingly, I got a copy with fucked-up liners that repeat pages several times and leave others out. It's possibly intentional but definitely irritating.

Well, at least, this time, there seems to be more quotes from the band in his liner notes, which is what I was primarily interested in... Wasn't into his Deluxe Dirty liner notes... especially after giving Dirty a good listen, and confirming it sounded like a constipated Goo, but not in a good way.

Seconded...no such repetition in my booklet. Just irritation.

Listened to and/or owned a copy?
Daydream Nation
Whitey Album
Goo (actually listened to this quite a bit in some weird sado-masochistic ritual fashion)
Dirty
Experimental Jet-Set Trash and No Star
SYR1 / SYR3
Sonic Nurse

Have sampled songs here and there from other releases but have heard nothing to disprove my theory. Also saw them live a couple of times in the late 80s / early 90s.

* Sonic Youth (1982)
* Confusion Is Sex, Kill Yr Idols (1983)
* Bad Moon Rising, EVOL, Sister, Master-Dik 12", Ciccone Youth (1985-1988)
* Daydream Nation, Goo, Dirty (1988-1992)
* Experimental Jet Set, Trash, And No Star, Washing Machine, A Thousand Leaves (1994-1998)
* NYC Ghosts & Flowers, Murray Street, and Sonic Nurse (2000-2004)

(The SYR series is its own parallel universe, though not completely unconnected. I left off some other odds and ends here and there like Silver Sessions (for Jason Knuth) for brevity.)

I did this because my appreciation of each "phase" (as I broke it down here) sways up and down in varying degrees. Sometimes, I want to listen to Sonic Nurse.. other times, I just want to here "Inhuman" REALLY fucking loud.

This probably speaks very highly of the band, if my opinion of the albums wavers up and down all around the catalog, all the time. I can't think of too many other bands where I'll revisit and revise my opinion on a band's oeuvre like that.

Currently, I'm re-appreciating the 1994-1998 phase... I don't see this as a sliding scale from the previous one at all! In fact, while it may have been a departure from Dirty, Experimental, etc. is a pretty damn stellar album, better than Dirty by miles -- I say this now of course.

i think goo's a really spotty, flawed album. its got great moments and then really really horrible moments -- which is kind of what's ultimately great about it. from what ive read about the recording process, it seems like they just went hog crazy with the advance form DGC. they set up mics in all corners of the room, the mixes were lousy, they did what they could to salvage it.

I bought the vinyl version of the deluxe edition, largely because Goo was the only SY album I didn't have on vinyl, so I can't say if the CD sounds radically different than the original, but I didn't notice any major changes. The drums on "Dirty Boots" sounded a lot better, but that could also be due to the format. The live version of "The Bedroom", which I did have on vinyl prior to this, sounded better on the Dirty Boots EP, however.

That said, there's an interesting mini-essay by the guy that helped put together the deluxe edition, and all the sonic renovations they made, here: http://www.sonicyouthmedia.com/alt-main/goopop.html

I guess I should download those UC Irvine live show Mp3s while I can, if they are improved.

It's a testament to the writing on this album that the band, per the deluxe edition, probably could have released the songs in demo form and folks would have been cool with that. And SY likely would have "broken through" just as well.

This is the only SY album I really like. I've tried and tried with Daydream Nation and can never get further than a few songs in.

How many others have you tried?

FWIW I think "Washing Machine" is now the correct point of entry for this band.

Goo is a very good album tho.

i could never get into daydream nation either but i had a huge goo phase

goo my fav

Sister and Sonic Nurse are the correct entry points.

Also good albums

Goo and Rather Ripped are the two I will listen to front to back. I go in search of particular tracks on all the others.

I've dabbled in SY. I bought Rather Ripped when it came out and remember enjoying it. Every so often I have a rummage around in their back catalogue and try a random album. Often I'm put off by the fuzziness and lack of low-end, although I get the point, but black metal usually fills that frequency for me better than indie-noise. Now I come to think of it, my first intro to the band was Experimental, Jetset... which I got out the library when I was quite young and was confused by. I haven't heard Washing Machine or Sonic Nurse, but I hear they're good.