Sonic Youth new album "Rather Ripped"

for my money steve shelley really came into his own around the time of those SY instrumental albums and their motorik-esque groove has benefitted ever since. and my favorite drummers of all time are the two tonys -- thompson and williams.

If I am being fingered for having initiated the discussion it was only because your comment that Shelley was a "fantastic drummer" struck me as maybe being a bit of an exaggeration. (And my only claim in that post was I'd never noticed him being particularly "fantastic.")

-- Matthew C Perpetua (perpetu...), April 18th, 2006.

are you talking about that syncopated tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-hi hat thwack groove he gets into?
yeah: killer. one of the coolest rock beats ever.

Call me crazy, but this is the album they should have released after "Daydream Nation" (first album on a major label, "alt rock" breaking through on the radio, why not?)

Matos, thanks for the tip on the meters' funk, it's anything but rigid.

Shelley sometimes reminds me a bit of Anton Fier with the bu-bu-ba, bu-bu-ba thing, which might be part of why a lot of recent SY reminds me of Chatham + vocals, which never seems quite as compelling as turning Branca into pop. I'm thinking you could probably sneak Die Donnergotter past a lot of casual SY fans these days, something that couldn't have happened in '87.

!

(Surely not as spazzed out?)

Fowley wasn't *always* spazzed out...there's this hyper-aware "rock and roll voice" thing going on on some of his more straightforward stuff that's very similar to the current SY vocal style. It's probably always been there, but seems to be increasing. Or maybe it's just that the vocals are so far forward on this one.

I could picture Cecil playing along with a rock band - he'd just kind of do his thing and the band would do theirs - sort of like the duo concert (later released as a record) he did with Mary Lou Williams where she was playing boogie-woogie and stride stuff while Cecil pounded away with the cluster chords and chromatic runs.

i dunno how i feel about this record.

Yes, thats what "jams run free" sounds like!

I haven't seen a confirmation of this yet, but when I first heard about it a couple days ago I was immediately reminded of how bad Free Kitten was. Please, music gods, do not let this happen.

SORRY! I COULD NOT RESIST!

Why don't you think instead of how awesome he was in Pavement?

"1979" always reminded me of the song "Psychic Hearts" by Thurston Moore.

no."goo" was their last great album.

Reading all these Rather Ripped impressions, AND, waiting for June 13, is a wonderful experience! Thank you all.

Cecil taylor RULES, OK? :)

Darren Skuja

"As long as the squares write stuff like that you know you must be doing something right" -- Fred "Sonic" Smith onstage circa 1978

Incinerate
Sleepin' Around
Do You Believe In Rapture
Pink Steam
Shakin' Hell
Rats
Pacific Coast Highway
Stones
Turquoise Boy
Lights Out
Sunday
Brother James
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Making The Nature Scene
Or
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Mote

They haven't done "Sunday" since the NYC Ghosts + Flowers tour, "Shakin' Hell" hasn't been around since maybe 1985 as far as I know, and it's strange that they only did one of Kim's new tunes. "Mote" and "Brother James" are high up on my list of songs that I'd like to see them do (both are pretty common, but I've never seen them), so that's rad.