Can't wait.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
they need to stop now
― someone who seems to only rep for ghastly prefab autotuned pop (The Brainwasher), Friday, February 13, 2009 3:52 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
. . . says someone who seems to only rep for ghastly prefab autotuned pop
also Jaymc OTM
― Mr. Que, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/o2015188.jpg
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
smells like Rather Ripped pt. 2 (same producer at least)
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Not that I didn't like Rather Ripped, I just feel like that aren't really advancing their sound anymore and that at this point they're treading water....
― someone who seems to only rep for ghastly prefab autotuned pop (The Brainwasher), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
"Massage The History," eh?
hooray!
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Murray St is the last one I really like, I've never bothered with the SYR stuff, should I?
― Plaxico (I know, right?), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
no
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:56 (fifteen years ago) link
anti orgasm- calming the snake - massage the history...sexy!
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
last three SY albums have been three of their best, and they CERTAINLY have advanced their sound. if they release ten more albums as good as nurse or rather ripped, ill buy them all.
― 69, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
but i mean OBV id say that!
― 69, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I just feel like that aren't really advancing their sound anymore and that at this point they're treading water....
I think they've increasingly refined it over the last couple of albums, but that's been a good thing: they're sharp and focused and writing really great songs.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah "rather ripped" was good, I'll take more of that thanks
― J0hn D., Friday, 13 February 2009 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I totally agree. Goo and Dirty seem like a dress rehearsal for the fully realized three- and four-minute songs on the last three albums; the textures also assimilate what they learned on A Thousand Leaves and NY Ghost and Flowers.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 February 2009 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Loved Rather Ripped. Psyched for this.
― caek, Friday, 13 February 2009 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
at least one thing's for sure:the artwork is great, as oppose to Rather Ripped
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:01 (fifteen years ago) link
haha, just about to say: "Any word of cover artwork. It always seems weird that Tony Oursler never featured on any of their covers."
― Plaxico (I know, right?), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:01 (fifteen years ago) link
John Fahey did the new artwork!!!!
― Mr. Que, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:01 (fifteen years ago) link
whoa?
― caek, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:02 (fifteen years ago) link
anyone have an image link?
― Plaxico (I know, right?), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
it's their best artwork since Goo imo
― Zeno, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/thumbnails/posts/sonic_youth-the-eternal-album_art.jpg
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Noice.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:04 (fifteen years ago) link
the fahey painting is ok but the cover design is pretty shitty imo. i'm pumped for the album though, rather ripped was their best album in years
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:04 (fifteen years ago) link
i do like the dash in "sonic-youth" though
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
it looks like goatse
― someone who seems to only rep for ghastly prefab autotuned pop (The Brainwasher), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm totally pumped about this album -- didn't like Rather Ripped as much as the 2 before it, but my general feeling is that, to paraphrase Keith Moon, Sonic Youth are still the best Sonic Youth-style band in the world, so as long as they want to make records I will listen to them.
It's kind of funny to read Thurston's recent interviews where he talks about how excited he is to get off Geffen and how constricted they felt making the last few albums...like wtf, they lasted on a major label about 10 years longer than almost any comparable band had, and gave up any hope of getting on the radio like 5 albums ago. I find it hard to believe they were trying to appease record execs with Sonic Nurse or NYC Ghosts & Flowers, or that they're really going to do much differently, musically or otherwise, with Matador.
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:06 (fifteen years ago) link
the rather ripped LP art was awesome! (i agree, the CD art was good but not great)
― 69, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
the fahey painting is ok but the cover design is pretty shitty imo
lol do you guys realize that it's supposedly from a series of painting fahey made with his butt?
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
sorry, i am egregiously undereducated on the subject of john fahey asshole art
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
like wtf, they lasted on a major label about 10 years longer than almost any comparable band had
I was going to say, the only other one I can think of with a run approaching that was Stereolab on Elektra.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Mark Ibold is apparently being credited as a full member of the band now.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link
hey i'm no fahey sphincter aficionado myself, i just happened to read the interview in the new Blender where Thurston mentioned the origin of the cover art
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:20 (fifteen years ago) link
08 Malibu Gas Station
This was my dad's occupation the last time I saw him when I was 3.
Anyway, carry on.
― System Jr. (Mackro Mackro), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link
fahey sphincter aficionado
^ username anyone? ^
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 13 February 2009 16:36 (fifteen years ago) link
looking forward to this -- I just got Rather Ripped last year and really like it. Actually might like 00s SY more than 90s SY. Maybe.
― tylerw, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Rather Ripped fans: You all know you're mental, right? kthx
Sonic Youth are still the best Sonic Youth-style band in the world
I totally disagree!
― Sundar, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
what's wrong with Rather Ripped? Might be a bit low-key, but I like that ...
― tylerw, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Sundar, who else would you nominate? I mean I guess it all depends on how broadly you define "Sonic Youth-style band," but still, I feel like for all their influence they're still in a category fo their own.
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought that looked like Ibold in the promo photo in a magazine I was flipping through the other day.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Rather Ripped surprised me with how good it was, making me realize I'd just been settling and pep-talking myself about SY for years when I really shouldn't have been. More like that one, plz!
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't think RR fans are mental per se but I don't really get the enthusiasm, do y'all think it's dramatically different from or better than the 2 before it? It feels like such a continuation (but not improvement on) the sound of those albums to me.
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― someone who seems to only rep for ghastly prefab autotuned pop (The Brainwasher), Friday, February 13, 2009 3:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
um i had to say this, like saying "candyman" three times in the mirror..but..isn't this attitude sort of....rockist?
― Yah Trick Ya Kid K (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 13 February 2009 17:05 (fifteen years ago) link
weird, sounds totally different to me ... shorter, peppier songs with parts more approximating "hooks" and choruses. i was pretty bored by murray street, sonic nurse, and i feel like there's another one in there i've completely forgotten about
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 13 February 2009 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
RR is a continuation yes, but a marked improvement.
I guess it all comes down to songs, though. Unlike Sonic Nurse and Murray Street, there's not a single moment of RR I don't like.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd say SY's 00s output is more enjoyable than their 90s output.
Rather Ripped was enjoyable, cruisin in the car summer tunes in way that I can't say about the bulk of their output. That's a good thing.
So yay to The Eternal.
― Brooker Buckingham, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah maybe this is just a personal preference thing...to me the best of SY's later records are the ecstatic instrumental sections of 7+ minute jams like "Rain On Tin"...i don't really look to them for shorter, peppier songs with "hooks," although they did excel at those at one point earlier in their career.
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:14 (fifteen years ago) link
the Blender article did mention one song on The Eternal being 8 minutes long, though, so there'll be at least one surefire jam for me.
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link
rather ripped is fukkin great
― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Friday, 13 February 2009 17:16 (fifteen years ago) link
btw this seems like a good candidate for another IMM tribute album
er, not white cross. also, I left before the final encore where they did sprawl, so, my fault
― akm, Monday, 3 August 2009 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link
AKM, are you an Oaklander? I agree that they made the new songs sound great.
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 3 August 2009 16:04 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah this album really kicks ass live, even the songs i had reservations about on record
― surm dude (some dude), Monday, 3 August 2009 16:07 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah I was at the oakland show. kind of wish we'd seen the daydream nation songs in the encore but I saw that DN show last year so not a huge loss, and we had to get home. but the show made me appreciate these songs more; I still think they sound kind of weak on the album though.
― akm, Monday, 3 August 2009 16:28 (fourteen years ago) link
I saw the 2nd show in D.C. on this tour and I wish there was more DN stuff (only 1 out of the 5 old songs, "Hey Joni"), since they never came anywhere near here with the tour where they played the whole album.
― surm dude (some dude), Monday, 3 August 2009 16:34 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm even more psyched for tonight's show after reading your guys' posts about the fox show. but i think the new album is a great SY disc, though it did take about 6 good listens for it to begin to really grow on me
― outdoor_miner, Monday, 3 August 2009 16:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Here's the setlist from last night's show. Pretty typical of this tour as far as catalogue tracks.
Tom Violence No Way Sacred Trickster Calming the Snake Hey Joni Anti-Orgasm Walkin Blue Poison Arrow Malibu Gas Station Antenna Leaky Lifeboat Massage the History Stereo Sanctity
Encore:What We Know Shadow of a Doubt
Encore 2:The Sprawl 'Cross the Breeze
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 3 August 2009 17:14 (fourteen years ago) link
woah have never seen "Stereo Sanctity" live, totally jealous
― surm dude (some dude), Monday, 3 August 2009 17:19 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah that was excellent despite the fact I called it white cross a few hours ago. I suppose SY's catalogue is so deep, at this point, that it is impossible and unlikely that they are going to play even 1/4 of what I want to hear.
― akm, Monday, 3 August 2009 18:30 (fourteen years ago) link
...until they do a "Live By Request" tour... to which I would not be opposed.
BTW highlights for me were "What We Know" and the seemingly endless (but hypnotic) Massage the History, which has been a household fave on the new one.
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 3 August 2009 19:06 (fourteen years ago) link
was massage the history the one with the thurston sitting down playing an acoustic? cuz that was awesome (I am awful with the names of SY songs)
― akm, Monday, 3 August 2009 22:30 (fourteen years ago) link
Massage the memory.
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 August 2009 22:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, that was the one. I was in a trance. (xpost)
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 05:15 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah "Massage The History" is good live -- at my show people actually starting CLAPPING to the rhythm at the very end when it was just Kim plucking out that slow guitar line, which was weird but kind of awesome
― kevin and the ragged keller (some dude), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 12:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Anybody see the SF show last night?
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 16:04 (fourteen years ago) link
i was there with a friend that was at the fox the night before. first thing he said about the previous night was that something was just not right with the sound at the fox. after the show last night he said the sound was 20X better. and the band is just a well-oiled machine. the best show i've seen this decade, if not ever. and i'm not just saying that. i love the "lows" that the addition of Mark I. brings; it really fills out their sound well, imo. the crowd was great, too, but there was extra excitement when they broke out Death Valley 69 and another early one for their second encore. there is a link common to the greatest NY bands(VU, Dolls, even the Ramones to an extent)- that capturing the essence of careening subway train - and i LOVE that.
― outdoor_miner, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
i was there. how can they keep up with the double encores at this stage in their career? jesus
but yes the show was great- it was awesome to see them in a smaller club context instead of a festival like last time, such a traet
― psychgawsple, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:29 (fourteen years ago) link
i don't understand what you mean by the double encore thing. they pretty much spend the bare minimum amount of time a band of their stature/catalog can spend onstage for a headlining show, and just happen to divide the encore into two encores; pretty much any other band with over a dozen albums and a rabid fanbase does longer shows and gets more out of encores.
― kevin and the ragged keller (some dude), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:42 (fourteen years ago) link
it's not like it's all physically taxing to play guitars anyway
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:44 (fourteen years ago) link
f u drum boy
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
sitting there on your throne the whole time
hey now half the time i stand up and wear a bass drum
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:50 (fourteen years ago) link
do you ever wear the bass drum on dates, to impress ladies
y/n?
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:51 (fourteen years ago) link
y
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:51 (fourteen years ago) link
not sure if you were completely serious, some dude. but with all the enrgy and decibels SY put out, i'm completely satisfied w/ even just a 60 minute set. maybe becuz my ears are kind of old; more than 90 minutes of SY @ maximum volume is PLENTY (for me). i did enjoy a couple Grateful Dead shows a long time ago, but they are kind of the exception to my less is more rule
― outdoor_miner, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link
well, they played well under 90 minutes when i saw them and i kinda doubt they go much longer than that very often. a lot of bands their age or older tend to play at least 2 hours (admittedly usually in bigger venues, but still), and i don't feel like SY are so energetic that they're exhausting themselves onstage. not complaining at all, though, it was a great show, one of the best I've seen this year
― kevin and the ragged keller (some dude), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 22:16 (fourteen years ago) link
honestly i don't think i want to see anyone play for more than an hour, and most bands could stand to stick to half-hour sets
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
last minute of malibu gas station is pretty good
― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 22 November 2009 04:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Going back for seconds at the Fillmore in January. I'm still into this record enough to hear them play it again.
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Sunday, 22 November 2009 06:21 (fourteen years ago) link
i kind of feel like a lot of the loops thrown by their post-2000 records involve having the bass playing be done by musicians, i.e. people who learned how to play the bass in other kinds of music than sonic youth music. i don't exactly want to denigrate kim gordon's playing, but it's always seemed to me like the least interesting part of the band. whereas a lot of the recent stuff seems to be most 'normal' (as far as their settling into groovy tuneful jamsmiths goes) where the bass is most prominent.
i've never really tried to get straight on who's playing what on all these records, though.
― j., Monday, 15 April 2013 03:59 (ten years ago) link
Disappointing end to the band.
Still an alright album, though.
― Austin, Monday, 15 April 2013 04:10 (ten years ago) link
xp - i dunno, it seems to me that they switched gears on a number of fronts between washing machine and nyc ghosts. they biggest change, it seems to me, was that they at least partially disengaged from the the alternative pop culture that they'd helped create. they'd never again even try to write a song like "kool thing" or "bull in the heather", wouldn't pull another "into the groove(y)". they didn't seem to be shooting for 120 minutes success anymore, were content to simply be sonic youth, existing in an art-rock bubble of their own design. at the same time, they de-emphasized the noise, angst and transgression that had once balanced and sharpened the pop flirtations. they may not have abandoned difficult listening, but they saved the outest stuff for peripheral releases (like the SYR series) and solo projects. plus all their voodoo shit got yoinked.
not saying you're wrong, just that there's factors.
― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Monday, 15 April 2013 04:27 (ten years ago) link
I've always really enjoyed Kim's bass-playing, though I'm sure her move to third guitar might explain their ease with the jammier material that followed.
― media conglomerates are pedaling the same product (stevie), Monday, 15 April 2013 09:26 (ten years ago) link
they biggest change, it seems to me, was that they at least partially disengaged from the the alternative pop culture that they'd helped create. they'd never again even try to write a song like "kool thing" or "bull in the heather", wouldn't pull another "into the groove(y)". they didn't seem to be shooting for 120 minutes success anymore, were content to simply be sonic youth, existing in an art-rock bubble of their own design.
What was left of that 'alternative pop culture' by 2000? How well did Sonic Youth even fit into it in the early 90s? None of those singles was a "Creep" or "Loser", let alone a "Teen Spirit"/"Jeremy". Afaict, releasing singles like "The Empty Page" and "Incinerate" and touring with the Black Keys probably showed about as much effort to engage with 00s modern rock as they showed in the early 90s. "Into the Groove(y)" was as peripheral as the SYR releases, surely.
I mostly agree with j. One interesting KG bass moment is the harmonics on "Secret Girl". She has some cool riffs on Confusion too, esp "Protect Me You".
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:03 (ten years ago) link
This is the only meh post -2000 SY album.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link
I never really got into Rather Ripped or this one as albums but I like "Antenna" quite a bit. Maybe I should try them again.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
well, i think the shift is most apparent between dirty & experimental jet-set on one hand and a thousand leaves on the other, and the latter came out in '98. i wasn't saying that they they were ever hitmakers on the nirvana/radiohead level, but rather that they at one time seemed to be fascinated and legitimately engaged with pop as something existing outside of themselves, as part of the urban landscape, something to mock, borrow, bounce off of, transform and criticize. in addition to the above examples, the booth recording of "addicted to love", blasting snippets of madonna & J&MC, rapping, tons of covers, grunge promotion, "eliminator jr.", carpenters fixation, etc. this side of y2k the sensibility lingers in tracks like "mariah carey & the arthur doyle hand cream", but the sense of a real push-pull relationship with mainstream pop is gone, imo.
i seem to remember "groove(y)" being kind of a big deal among critics and indie rockers at the time of its release, especially in the UK mags i was reading, but sonic youth in general were closer to the center of the pop cultural conversation back then. i retrospect it has come to seem rather peripheral, yeah.
― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:29 (ten years ago) link
that to sund4r. my least favorite is NYC ghosts & flowers, but it's nowhere near as bad as i thought at the time. sonic nurse and rather ripped are great.
― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:30 (ten years ago) link
Hm, maybe it was part of aging? I'll admit that I think a lot of those things are among their least successful projects.
xpost "Free City Rhymes" is one of their best songs imo.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 15 April 2013 20:35 (ten years ago) link
i wouldn't say any of this is wrong, i was just thinking of what kinds of problems the band had to deal with when they were making music. like, the latter-day basslines move around a lot more, and often seem more idiomatically 'rock' or 'alt-rock' or whatever in minor but consequential ways. or on some of the songs on 'the eternal', it just seems way more resonant, filling up the soundspace, which means that either the guitars have to play through it (to different effect than in the past) or to be played a different way than before (which i think happens a lot on, say, 'malibu gas station' - those chordings!).
but this all seems pretty hard to make out to me. i think the band more or less kept up its practice of tinkering and modifying and trying new ways to do 'the same thing', but the results don't always stand out in terms of what was done, what problems were solved, what choices were made.
― j., Monday, 15 April 2013 22:58 (ten years ago) link
.. i thought the revive of this thread means they are making a new album...
― nostormo, Monday, 15 April 2013 23:24 (ten years ago) link
I wish I liked this album more.
― Raymond Cummings, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 00:19 (ten years ago) link
"Malibu Gas Station" and "No Way" and "What We Know" are fantastic, among my favorite later SY songs
― some dude, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 00:53 (ten years ago) link
So the discussion on this thread got me to listen to Rather Ripped and The Eternal. I've actually really been enjoying them! Once you're willing to accept their late-period style, it's clear that they really had mastered it.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 22 April 2013 23:03 (ten years ago) link
the fahey painting is ok but the cover design is pretty shitty imoit looks like goatselol do you guys realize that it's supposedly from a series of painting fahey made with his butt?― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:14 (nine years ago) Permalink
― some dude, Friday, 13 February 2009 16:14 (nine years ago) Permalink
for whatever reason this factoid has lodged itself in my brain but i see like no evidence of it online. is it true?
― circa1916, Monday, 7 January 2019 19:38 (five years ago) link
SY made this album with their butt!!
+67 upvotes; -11 downvotes; 2 fp's
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Monday, 7 January 2019 20:25 (five years ago) link
i read that elsewhere as well but haven't been able to track down info anywhere xp
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 07:59 (five years ago) link
interesting article from Simon Reynolds on the artist as consumer re: The Eternal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/sonic-youth-underground-influences
― Dan S, Saturday, April 11, 2009 10:26 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink
i still dn really know what they're doing here but at least this SR review has this virtue (for all his frequent sniffy undercutting of records just not to his taste that he's found theses to indict them with), that he identifies something for them to be doing:
So The Eternal is literally a self-portrait of the artists as consumers.
― j., Wednesday, 8 July 2020 05:34 (three years ago) link