Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

in less soap opera- news, this is sounding cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U76XHPAWddw&sns=fb

that's alan licht playing second guitar right?

The SY side on the three lobed box is great. First thing they've done that's interested me since the SYR stuff I think.

would like to hear that three lobed thing. sold out, right? can you buy it digitally?
another lee tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MBHDJYw1sA&NR=1

so psyched for the Lee album

sounds pretty nice to me -- guitar interplay is great. always wondered why he'd never made a straightforward solo album ...

I would've thought they'd reconciled in the four-day interim.

I was kinda surprised/bummed to hear this, they seemed like such an institution

So does anyone have an idea of figure a guess as to why there aren't more Lee tunes on the albums?

Or least Lee songs that he definitely sings etc

Just for a long time it was the Thurston/Kim/Lee show really and for a lot of people his songs were the album highlights, I thought he would be more assertive at least from a singer/songwriter point of view, as much as we can make sense of their writing processes. Maybe as a group dynamic there's something in the way they work, or worked, that he understands and plays up to.

So does anyone have an idea of figure a guess as to why there aren't more Lee tunes on the albums?

I don't know the band's dynamic well. Is he an equal partner or a George to whom they cede one or two okay to pretty good tracks per record?

(I'm no Ranaldo fan but "Hoarfrost" and "Hey Joni" are two of my favorite SY tracks)

I've just decided that I'm gonna see this 'last' show.

I don't know who the fuck these two think they are. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks still go through the Method acting motions of "inhabiting" "Go Your Own Way" on stage.

Lindsey and Stevie were together for less than a decade fwiw

when they were young and stupid and didn't have children

the Goodbye 20th Century book has a bit of detail about the role Lee and his songs play in the band, particularly the whole ordeal where he almost quit the band when one of the two songs he wrote for Dirty, "Genetic" was cut from the record (which i'm glad didn't happen, but his anger was definitely justified, that's a great song and Dirty has several subpar Thurston/Kim songs). apparently he tended to bring in semi-complete songs and Kim felt he wasn't as collaborative about them as they were with their other songs, and there was still some lingering idea of how SY started as 'Thurston's band playing his and Kim's songs'. bear in mind they were together for 5+ years before Lee did lead vocals on a song, and even then it was kind of a spoken word track and it was a couple more years until his singing/songwriting really blossomed.

in any event i got the impression that post-Jet Set his songs have been a little more valued in terms of album/set list placement and i've never gotten the sense he's writing a ton of songs and they're just not being used by SY (iirc "Genetic" and one Goo outtake are the only songs he's brought in that were not included on albums). i mean he's released tons of solo records that are mostly noise or spoken word or sound collage, so he's probably just not that prolific as a songwriter, which is kind of why him doing a whole solo album of songs now is so exciting.

ILX goes down and the whole world goes to crap. TBH, I don't know how couples make it as long as they did - 27 years, right? - and then decide to split, but one can surmise the reasons were totally banal.

Kim didn't approve of Thurston's "guitar tunings."

More likely she didn't like his choice of tech, if you get my drift.

despite the massive amount of music they've made, the idea that I may not have a new SY record to look forward to depresses me.

seriously. even the 3 years between the last couple kind of made me impatient! i'd gotten very comfortable with the idea that i had a favorite band that would be making good or great albums every 2 years for a long long time.

God, man, a near 30-year run wasn't good enough for you?

i was only a fan for a little over half of it! but yeah the point is it's easy to feel spoiled as an SY fan. there's been at least one or two worthwhile side project/solo albums a year for a while too, at least that will definitely continue if they split.

Kim didn't approve of Thurston's "guitar tunings."

LOL

one can surmise the reasons were totally banal.

nope

What does that mean? Kim has joined an alien worshipping cult and is about to move off-planet?

Kim's gone back to Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo to reform with her on bass?

if we're using Fleetwood Mac as a template, Kim is about to embark on a torrid affair with Steve Shelley.

It'd be kind of cool if all future Sonic Youth records were obliquely about one-another.

Their kid is a high school senior now, I think?

oops, that was mentioned upthread--her going to college as a time they would split.

Not sure how much that had to do with it, given how much she was farmed out to their various Connecticut nannies.

Wow, for some reason those Lee songs were not what I was expecting. I expect they may be growers (and the lack of clarity in the guitars doesn't suggest just how much Licht and Lee might be playing off of each other), but still not exactly the direction I was imagining. Was anyone here at the show?

Will chime in that I am really sad at this news. I had heard some things while living in New York in regards to T., but still imagined, like some dude, that I would be able to comfortably look forward to checking out new records and, especially, seeing this band live, for some time. Glad I tried to catch them whenever they were in the area for the last decade, every live show was at least good, but most were very good to great.

FWIW, every member of this band was nice and very low key on some level when I had the chance to be around them.

I don't know, I always think of Lee as the steady 'sensible' but cerebral element of SY and it's a bit weird he hasn't competed more with T with regards to songs.

I mean for one a shitload of people prefer Lee's vox over Kim and Thurston's leads

eh, i really think that if Lee wrote ten songs a year and WANTED to be a full-time frontman he would've done it. his songs feel more deliberate and considered than the way Thurston just kinds of cranks out riffs and silly lyrics, which means Lee ends up more consistent but a lot less productive overall.

calling dibs on having the first review of Lee's album that compares it to All Things Must Pass.

Oh please don't.

lee is only really a good singer when viewed with low expectations set by the other two sonic youth singers

or indie rock vocalists in general

lee's songwriting contribs to everything after murray st have not been his best work imho - thurston has, maybe, got closer to lee's more 'classical' songform w things like 'unmade bed'

yeah Lee has not been as consistently making standout tracks on the last few albums, but "What We Know" off the last one was a beast imo

total live killer as well

idk if anyone got around to OTMing this, but otm, i found it v moving

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/kim-gordon-thurston-moore-2011-10/

do read if you haven't (v short), but, particularly:

That a heterosexual married couple could not only work together but collaborate as equals and throw equally large shadows. What better fairy tale to reassure young people that they don’t ever have to settle? It’s like getting a notarized letter containing three important promises: that your bohemian dreams won’t conflict with middle-class contentment; that maybe the reason your parents’ generation all divorced was that they never found partners cool enough to be in a band with; and that you, as an adult, could do better.

one can surmise the reasons were totally banal.

nope

― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, October 20, 2011 1:25 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, from the "on every artist-specific message board ever" thread

88. Guy who claims to know band and claims to know something amazing is going to happen soon but that he isn't allowed to give any further details about it.

88. Guy who claims to know band and claims to know something amazing is going to happen soon

Thurston left Kim for Lee?

thurston and kim were one of those russian spy couples who had kids and everything & are gonna be handed back to the kremlin in a trade off, sorry i can't say anymore

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhd131x5iq1qchvwto1_500.jpg

thurston and kim were one of those russian spy couples who had kids and everything & are gonna be handed back to the kremlin in a trade off, sorry i can't say anymore

o-boy o-boy! and who are russia gonna extradite in return? both of taTu, and the whole of Akvarium?