POLL YR. IDOLS: The official SONIC YOUTH RESULTS thread!

FAVORITE SIDE PROJECTS, SOLO WORK AND COLLABORATIONS:

Honorable mentions:

1 point:

• Glacial - On Jones Beach
• Lee Ranaldo - Ambient Loop for Vancouver
• Lee Ranaldo - Dirty Windows
• Lee Ranaldo - Scriptures of the Golden Eternity
• Lee Ranaldo - Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson)
• Moore/Dietrich/Sauter - Barefoot in the Head
• Thurston Moore (solo)
• Wylde Rattz

2 points:
Can - 'Spoon' (Sonic Youth remix)
Ciccone Youth
Free Kitten
Free Kitten - Sentimental Education
Free Kitten - Unboxed
Glenn Branca - The Ascension
Kim Gordon, DJ Olive and Ikue Mori - SYR 5
Lee Ranaldo - East Jesus
Loren Mazzacane Connors, Jean-Marc Montera, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo - mmmr
Thurston Moore and Nels Cline - In-store

3 points:

• Chelsea Light Moving
• 'I Love You Mary Jane'
• Kim's Bedroom
• Two Dollar Guitar - Burned And Buried

4 points:

• Lee Ranaldo - From Here to Infinity

3. (tie; 5 points)

• Dim Stars
• Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts

2. (tie; 6 points)

• Lee Ranaldo - Between the Times and the Tides
• Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy

1. (13 points)
http://img.noiset.com/images/album/thurston-moore-psychic-hearts-album-artwork-16513.jpeg
Thurston Moore - Psychic Hearts

One of these days I'm gonna do some kind of thread or comprehensive guide to SY side projects, there's a gold mine of stuff not even voted for here

Hm. Guess I should own Psychic Hearts.

It's kind of beautiful -- while the band was on hiatus and his wife at home with their new daughter, he went and made basically an album-length meditation on femininity womanhood and female heroes like Patti and Yoko

My favorite side prjects/collaborations don't appear to have been counted.

Wow, I didn't know Branca compositions that Thurston and Lee happened to play on count as Sonic Youth side projects. I might have given a vote to one then.

Psychic Hearts REALLY doesn't hold up for me, as much as I loved it in high school. Interesting that it still seems so popular here.

i think it's popularity is relative -- it's just by far the highest selling/highest profile side project, major label solo album released by the most visible member of the band during their mainstream peak years. not that it isn't good.

Shit, just a few posts in and already an error (hey, it's an ILM poll, what else is new?)
Here are EZ Snappin's votes:

• Shonen Knife f. Thurston Moore - "Butterfly Boy" (3 points)
• Pussy Galore - Sugarshit Sharp EP (2 points)
• Lee Ranaldo - Scriptures of the Golden Eternity (1 point)

As long as my votes count for the real thing all the side stuff is gravy!

Are there SY members on that Pussy Galore EP?

Bob Bert

http://i.imgur.com/yWLqzbl.jpg

lol/poor Steve

Goddamnit, why don't I check that stuff BEFORE I throw it only? Moderator, please remove that first image!

http://i.imgur.com/bvoFwNB.jpg

haha

http://i.imgur.com/poHIxrd.jpg

(and I really hope that that's Jim...)

Lol some dude = good dude.

Couldnt vote in the favorite member poll, just didnt feel right but Steve is def one of the great rock drummers of the last 25 years

i voted for steve and my name is not william, i demand a recount

ha oh n/m i had only looked at the first img

http://i.imgur.com/QTELgw4.jpg

ha, nice reveal. Thank goodness some dude's vote for Steve is saving us from an awkward Stalinized band photo. (Unless I dunno Jim Sclavunos ousts Kim.)

http://i.imgur.com/2uEyZNI.jpg

Wow, I remember in the 90s, Lee was often the fans' choice. Seems like it's still the case.

Are people able to distinguish Thurston's and Lee's playing on the albums? I assume that most of the more traditionally melodic lead parts are Lee but otherwise, I can never tell by listening. Not like listening to, I dunno Clapton and Allman or Metheny/Scofield.

Phh. I shouldn't say this here but I struggle to distinguish between their voices sometimes.

I always thought Lee had the noisy parts!

Speaking of Lee:
http://i.imgur.com/vXaGuhI.jpg

I always thought Lee had the noisy parts!

They both do plenty of noisy parts, though. Some of the most 'out' stuff is Lee, you're right, e.g. the 'antennabox' on "Antenna" or the prepared guitar on "She's in a Bad Mood". But Thurston also did prepared guitar on the first two albums and played the guitar with a drumstick (iirc?) on "Burning Spear". In any live stuff I've seen, they both do plenty of the Hendrix-style feedback. I thought most of the parts that sound like 'normal' rock lead guitar solos were Lee though? The "Pacific Coast Highway" solo is him, right? "Purr" sounds like it's split up. Even that's not too reliable, though: doesn't Thurston play the solo on "Washing Machine"?

Thurston has some pretty distinctive strumming rhythms that make his stuff stick out pretty often, a lot of time in those riffy sections Lee has more of the 'lead' lines. but there have definitely been times when i visualize one or the other playing particular parts, but then i see them play the song live and i had it totally backwards.

You guys don't deserve Steve.

The lead guitar parts on "Chapel Hill": those are Lee?

xpost Fripp/Belew on 80s KC is another example where it's really easy to distinguish the guitarists.

the huge gap in votes between thurston and kim is pretty funny, wonder what it would've looked like before that elle interview ran

You guys don't deserve Steve.

Even you didn't vote for him!

I didn't vote for a favourite band member btw. I almost never have a favourite member of a band, most especially with a band like this where the ensemble playing is so much the point (to the point where we have trouble identifying which guitarist is playing what).

I didn't vote, I did a list but I am a little too shy.

I voted in this poll, like the band, have most of their records...but I find Thurston & Kim insufferable. anytime I read anything that those said, or hear them talk, I want to throw their records in the trash.

honestly i don't think any list of best SY album covers shouldn't include Washing Machine

― seanpennderizer (some dude), Saturday, May 11, 2013 1:39 AM (9 hours ago)

Sadly, it received just one vote, just like A Thousand Leaves, Confusion Is Sex, Goodbye 20th Century, Sonic Nurse and The Whitey Album

― ArchCarrier, Saturday, May 11, 2013 1:41 AM (9 hours ago)

all of which are less ugly than all of the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, w/the possible exception of bad moon rising.

(lol, just noticed some dude's handle)

Seriously? I don't at all see the appeal of the Washing Machine and ATL covers.

http://i.imgur.com/Cm4HUkG.png

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GA9bBKSpL.jpg
10. Dirty
(25 points, 7 votes)

washing machine cover is clean, simple & rather clever, imo.

ATL cover is awfully a bit heavy-handed, but well-designed, texturally interesting. plus i like marnie weber.

http://991.com/NewGallery/Sonic-Youth-Confusion-Is-Sex-277107.jpg
9. Confusion Is Sex
(26 points, 8 votes)

oh yeah my top 5 albums were

1. Sister
2. Sonic Nurse
3. Washing Machine
4. Goo
5. EVOL

Big drop between 1 and 2

sleeve, there's the excellent gila monster jamboree vhs documenting a show from 85 in the mojave desert
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/vid2.html
― today's tom soy yum, mean mean thai (Spectrist), Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:37 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Holy shit, this is fantastic (on you tube)

Croup!!! Sonic Nurse!

I'm still baffled by White Kross not making the top 100 when everything else from Sister placed so high. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

i cut "white kross" fairly early on and never looked back. it's a classic, no doubt, but not any moreso than most of the rest of the album. my favorite attack-mode track from sister = "stereo sanctity", and i felt i had SY as a noise-punk force of nature p well covered elsewhere w "kill your idols" & brother james".

overall, i'd call it luck of the draw more than an outright dismissal

yeah nearly every sister track made it so would guess its absence is due more to ppl putting a limit to how many tracks from sister they'd vote for than any judgment on the track itself. would guess w/ a different voting scheme in place, one where say ppl ranked every single sonic youth track it would've placed in top 100. curious what albums had the most ballot representation, if there were any ballots w/ no tracks from sister or daydream nation, etc. i know there were stones ballots that didn't have any exile tracks.

Great answers re: "Schizophrenia", cheers. The Kim/Thurston vocal tradeoff def. feels more organic than "Teenage Riot"'s prelude/main act structure (maybe reinforced by them skipping Kim's parts when they play it live) - Sister also has "Kotton Krown" which has unison-y vocals, and I guess a similar appeal (not really knowing Sister's rep, I would've guessed "Catholic Block" would have come in second, though I guess both that & "Silver Rocket" didn't place as highly as my expectations).

This cover is great btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ZXr9uAolI

Trawling around the 'net looking for Sonic Youth covers - combination of SY's sounds being hard to easily replicate & SY's lyrics often sounding really, really dumb when not carried by Kim/Lee/Thurston's attitudes or w/e mean it's slim pickings - the Faint & the Go! Team provide game reinterpretations of "Mote" & "Bull In The Heather" respectively, Cat Power's "Schizophrenia" sounds exactly as you'd imagine it, the Elf Power "Kotton Krown" turns the freakout into a 60s quasi-raga ... I'm quite taken with this alt-country "The Diamond Sea" by Cuff the Duke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbE9nTMrnXU

Gutted, can't seem to find the Young@heart Choir version of 'Schizophrenia' on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUOpcic0jE

I was at a wedding over the weekend so missed the end of the poll - very interesting. Of course, if you asked me now it would be an entirely different list; does anyone actually have a favourite SY song? Anyway, here's my ballot:

1. Washing Machine
2. The Diamond Sea
3. Wish Fulfillment
4. I Love Her All The Time
5. Shadow Of A Doubt
6. Expressway To Your Skull
7. Hoarfrost
8. Schizophrenia
9. Beauty Lies In The Eye
10. Kotton Krown
11. Mote
12. NYC Ghosts & Flowers
13. Kill Yr Idols
14. JC
15. I Love You Golden Blue
16. She Is Not Alone
17. Skip Tracer
18. Shaking Hell
19. Wild Flower Soul
20. Green Light
21. Antenna
22. Walkin Blue
23. Radical Adults lick Godhead Style
24. Slaapkamers Met Slagroom
25. Unmade Bed
26. Sweet Shine
27. Blink
28. Genetic
29. Sympathy For The Strawberry
30. Anagrama

Five Favourite Albums
1. A Thousand Leaves
2. Sister
3. Evol
4. Dirty
5. Washing Machine

Favourite Sides etc.
1. lee Ranaldo - From Here To Infinity
2. Thurston Moore - Psychic Hearts
3. Lee Ranaldo - Dirty Windows

Favourite Band Member: Lee

Least Ugly Album Cover: Murray Street

Lastly, it just really set me down the road of thinking that there may never be a band like Sonic Youth again, and perhaps they are utterly singular even now, in regards to maintaining a quality and consistency to their catalogue over as long a stretch of time as they have. They never stopped putting out records that didn't suck (in my opinion of course, but at this point I at least like to love every damn one of them) for pretty much 30 years, which is truly just nuts.

grandavis sounding presidential here

― j., Friday, May 17, 2013 5:20 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol read it aloud in an Obama voice

― trick paddy pollars (some dude), Friday, May 17, 2013 9:58 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hah, this is great. If you guys knew how far my speaking voice was from "presidential" and Obama-like it would be even funnier.

It is pretty tough to re-read some of my comments sometimes. There are very good reasons I do not write about music much, and glad there are so many others here that do it well. Going to still be listening to a ton of SY for the next week or so.

Speaking of which, for all you "Mote" fans check out this live version from 2004 (with O'Rourke), which smokes! Band is totally feeling it. Segues in a really fast and pretty good "New Hampshire". They were so good live on this tour, wish I had seen them more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_1krnCvRE

I was away over the weekend as well. Cool roll out - Diamond Sea is way too high:

1.. Disintegration Notice

2.. Sugar Kane

3.. Silver Rocket

4.. Teenage Riot

5.. Superstar

6.. Paper Cup Exit

7.. Rain On Tin

8.. Schizophrenia

9.. 100%

10. Death Valley 69

11. Expressway To Yr Skull

12. Starpower

13. Stones

14. Total Trash

15. Inhuman

16. Cotton Crown

17. Eric's Trip

18. Cross The Breeze

19. Candle

20. Hot Wire My Heart

21. Reena

22. I Love Her All The Time

23. Shadow Of A Doubt

24. Antenna

25. Tom Violence

26. Ghost Bitch

27. Poison Arrow

28. Do You Believe In Rapture?

29. The Diamond Sea

30. Genetic

yeah as the poll went on i was like "Diamond Sea doesn't need to be in the top 10 but i can understand it" to "hmm wow top 5" to "top two? get the fuck outta here"

Disintegration Notice?

i didn't think i was going to make diamond sea my number one but for some reason it felt right, possibly because i can't help but hear these ballots as setlists and #1's a closer

Missed the grand finale as well, but caught up to the thread and love how it turned out, especially since "fan faves" like Cotton Crown and PCH and Theresa's Sound World all cracked the top 20. Always felt Theresa was a classic from the first time I heard it, glad to see others feel similarly. It really benefits from the sleek production, in the same measure that Inhuman works with its swampy, humid production. I've rated that as my #1 for years, it'll never change. It totally sounds like steam rising off of an overworked mesh of gears to me. I think I read somewhere that someone spilled a can of Coke on the masters for Confusion is Sex, and ever since then I've loved hearing it all as a rotten, sticky mess. Certainly my fave LP of theirs by a mile. Happy to see Lee is Free almost make the top 100!

inhuman
hyperstation
the diamond sea
schizophrenia
total trash
she's in a bad mood
i love her all the time
the sprawl
lee is free
pch
brother james
protect me you
shadow of a doubt
titanium expose
madonna sean and me (aka expressway to yr skull)
eliminator jr
i dreamed i dream
the world looks red
cotton crown
society is a hole
the bedroom (aka the destroyed room)
providence
beauty lies in the eye
teen age riot
sugar kane
macbeth
jc
sweet shine
theresa's sound world
tunic

I completely agree with contenderizer about the first half of "Mote". The noisy instrumental section, however, never really seems to go anywhere and doesn't justify its length for me (and I'm a "Diamond Sea" fan). However, this is almost reversed in that live version! Ranaldo either didn't pull off or changed the melody, which was a big part of the song's appeal. However, that noise interlude is fantastic, with real motion, and segues so effortlessly into "New Hampshire". And the version of "New Hampshire" is great! They really work that coda. Such tight players by that point. Know where that clip is from?

Yeah, Lee's vocals are a little shaky, but I find the music all around great (and yeah, the segue specifically is really tight). I do not know where the show is, but there are at least a few other clips from it on Youtube. It is dated, so you can go onto the SY site and find the archive for the show I imagine.

On the rare occasions Lee sang two songs back to back, it was usually "Mote" segueing into "Hoarfrost," which was awesome

Shit, sorry, thought it was dated but was wrong. Seems like they opened with Pacific Coast Highway, so that might help. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f_bb7iVfak&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Shit again. That video was already posted upthread (maybe even by you ....)

Disintegration Notice?

huh! Yeah. Hadn't noticed that - I'm pretty sure my first place vote was picked up correctly despite my lack of care.

Seems like that show is 08/04/04 -- Montreal, PQ @ Metropolis, as it is the only show from 2004 where they do a "Mote-->New Hampshire" and a "Pacific Coast Highway" where they would have come from offstage and gone right into it (it was an encore, not an opener).

Set list:

I Love You Golden Blue
Empty Page
Pattern Recognition
Unmade Bed
Paper Cup Exit
Bull in the Heather
Stones
Mariah Carey
Mote
New Hampshire
Dude Ranch Nurse
Brother James
--
PCH
Sugar Kane
--
Making the Nature Scene

The 08/04 was inside, at the Metropolis. It was my very first show!

oh yeah heres my list of traxx:

01 death valley '69
02 shadow of a doubt
03 schizophrenia
04 diamond sea
05 theresa's sound-world
06 society is a hole
07 pacific coast highway
08 karen revisited
09 personality crisis
10 expressway to yr skull
11 addicted to love
12 bull in the heather
13 kill yr idols
14 100%
15 karen koltrane
16 candle
17 eric's trip
18 rain on tin
19 tv shit EP
20 unmade bed
21 dirty boots
22 kool thing
23 becuz
24 two cool rock chix listening to neu

just had a look what i had in common in my ballot with everyone else:
- closest was da croupier with 12 songs
- furthest was raymond cummings with 2 songs

whatever that means...

Lamp has like 30% the same ballot as me! ::hugglez::

Where's Glenn when you need him?

A mall store close by has had some SY CDs on the wall for $4.99; bought NYC Ghosts & Flowers and Murray Street, which I've never had, and also A Thousand Leaves--I bought that on vinyl a few years ago, but vinyl at home tends to be background for me these days, and I don't really listen attentively to something new unless it's in the car. So I've essentially been listening to A Thousand Leaves for the first time too.

Two songs I would have had on my ballot for sure: "Free City Rhymes" and "Wildflower Soul." I've played the latter six or seven times the last couple of days--perfect driving music. I wish it were 20 minutes long instead of nine.

Yeah, "Free City Rhymes" is really great. That was my #12.

This poll got me interested in reading David Browne's book Goodbye 20th Century. I think it's great, much better than Foege's earlier book. Interesting to read that as per the discussion on this thread, it really was a deliberate move for them to get sloppy with the albums after Dirty and before O'Rourke, intentionally e.g. recording things in just one take, influenced by bands like Pavement. Also to read about them (or people close to them?) acknowledging that their ambivalence about pursuing fame and mainstream success meant that they never really pursued those things wholeheartedly.

Also enjoyed the discussions about their legendary thriftiness.

love that book.

sund4r, I only got your webmail about that show in the last week. During the next week I should be able to email you and get that together.

Play this, hit mute (something brilliant, but do it anyway), and play either "Wildflower Soul" or "Kotton Krown" overtop. Sublime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exFokKr-WEg

The Body/Head album is VICIOUS

Esp the third track, damn. It's the flip of Kim's recent interviews, claws out

This whole album slays

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/02/kim-gordon-girl-in-a-band-10-things

I updated my list

Winner's Blues at #7 is something you don't see every day.
And only one Lee song? That's madness.