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

It's the Macaulay Culkin effect.

ATL would sit just outside my top 5.

Notice the jump in points:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RD8fe3qwL.jpg
3. Evol
(71 points, 20 votes)

Notice the jump in points:

yeah, wow. but otm.

p.s. i like goo

Dirty is so underrated ;_;. #3VOL is my number one but Dirty had the most songs on my ballot

I'd put Goo over Dirty but I think I'd have difficulty arguing with any order of the top 9 (or the top 9 I'm now boldly assuming), I can definitely understand why each would be a favourite for someone.

http://eil.com/Gallery/188066b.jpg
2. Sister
(91 points, 29 votes)

And of course
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4gDLlfzH6WM/UPYRFhoElUI/AAAAAAAABoE/UM7TFoVK5Tc/s1600/sonicyouthdaydreamnatio.jpg
1. Daydream Nation
(107 points, 30 votes)

Goo is better than any of the albums that came after it - they never fully recovered after the Dirty nadir. Kim's post-Goo voice is mostly intolerable with few exceptions.

Voted Kim fave member to help liberate her from male, white, corporate oppression. Always liked her songs best. Can't stand Thurston and Lee's bad beat poetry songs are overrated.

Never got the praise of DN cover. Voted BMR. EVOL cover is better than DN.

Full album results:
01. Daydream Nation (107 points, 30 votes)
02. Sister (91 points, 29 votes)
03. Evol (71 points, 20 votes)
04. A Thousand Leaves (35 points, 12 votes)
05. Murray Street (34 points, 13 votes)
06. Bad Moon Rising (33 points, 10 votes)
07. Sonic Nurse (29 points, 12 votes)
08. Washing Machine (27 points, 9 votes)
09. Confusion Is Sex (26 points, 8 votes)
10. Dirty (25 points, 7 votes)
11. Goo (23 points, 10 votes)
12. Rather Ripped (8 points, 4 votes)
13. Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (7 points, 2 votes)
14. SYR9 (5 points, 1 vote)
15. (TIE) Smart Bar Chicago 1985 (4 points, 1 vote)
15. (TIE) Sonic Youth (4 points, 1 vote)
17. Kill Yr Idols EP (3 points, 2 votes)
18. (TIE) NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2 points, 1 vote)
18. (TIE) Sonic Death (2 points, 1 vote)
18. (TIE) The Whitey Album (2 points, 1 vote)
21. (TIE) Goodbye 20th Century (1 point, 1 vote)
21. (TIE) Hits Are for Squares (1 point, 1 vote)
21. (TIE) Silver Session (For Jason Knuth) (1 point, 1 vote)
21. (TIE) SYR3 (1 point, 1 vote)
21. (TIE) The Eternal (1 point, 1 vote)

Alright, that's it for today. I'm taking a break tomorrow, but check this space on Monday for the results of the song poll.
Good night, everybody!

Lee's bad beat poetry songs

more obvious during the Geffen era but he becomes more graceful sometime after Washing Machine.

Kim's post-Goo voice is mostly intolerable with few exceptions.

disagree, but i was asking earlier where she acquired the strangled whisper/scream voice that, imo, only really becomes a problem on ATL. and yeah, she started doing that on dirty: "shoot", "drunken butterfly", "orange rolls". but i love those songs! and she's done good work post-dirty. i like her on experimental and washing machine, count a few of her sonic nurse and rather ripped tracks among SY's best.

man I am wondering if you just hate ATL's pacing, where Kim's aggro noisepunk is allowed to completely disrupt the beatific calm the other two are cultivating, rather than Kim's aggro noisepunk in and of itself (which to me doesn't blot out the autumnal groovejamz but just inverts their beauty/noise ratio, and offers interesting counterpoint, but I've made this case before blah blah blah...)

(that was to contenderizer, btw)

very interesting/weird album results -- maybe people were voting strategically for underrated stuff or something? that's what i did -- my ballot was Murray St/Jet Set/Sonic Nurse/Sonic Death/The Eternal because i figured the '80s studio classics didn't really need my vote. in any event now i feel bad for stuff like Goo and Confusion now, those albums are pretty central to the band's identity and catalog.

i wonder if this means A Thousand Leaves tracks will do super well? i kind of assumed it'd just lodge a couple songs into the lower reaches of the poll. how many are we doing anyway, top 50?

"Lee's bad beat poetry songs"

more obvious during the Geffen era but he becomes more graceful sometime after Washing Machine.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, May 11, 2013 1:24 PM (1 minute ago)

yeah, poetry can be a problem w SY. i'm rarely bothered by lee's poetry styles because they worked so v well early on: "in the kingdom", "pipeline/kill time", "me & jill". as a result, even when he makes me wince ("skip tracer"), i'm likely to give him a pass.

thurston sometimes bugs the crap out of me though. i don't believe he has much invested in most of what he says. that works great for goofy nonsense like "mary-christ" and "youth against fascism", but it makes vocal sections of "wildflower soul" and the "hits of sunshine" intolerable.

there's a story in "Goodbye 20th Century" about how Steve finally snaps w/r/t Thurston's habit of forgetting/making up lyrics when they played live, yelling "they're YOUR songs! you WROTE them!!!"

when they played "Wildflower Soul" live Thurston would stop singing even sooner than he does on the record and just focus on the jam.

Ha, "Small Flowers Crack Concrete" was his lyrical nadir. I was going to say that whatever you think of Lee's beat poetry, it's better than Thurston's.

"Hits of Sunshine" is all about Moore's faux stoner impersonation (BLOOZE AND HAY-KOOOO)

man I am wondering if you just hate ATL's pacing, where Kim's aggro noisepunk is allowed to completely disrupt the beatific calm the other two are cultivating, rather than Kim's aggro noisepunk in and of itself

i'm not sure why i single out kim's ATL tracks as notable failures, given that i like roughly similar stuff on earlier and later albums. maybe it is, as you say, the uncomfortable contrast between T & L's blissed-out hippie vibes and kim's artpunk harshness.

still, i can't escape the sense that the musical support she's getting is halfhearted at best. "orange rolls" and "arthur doyle" at least wash the monkey wrenching down with dumb-catchy riffs. i also miss the personality and offhand wit of stuff like "quest for the cup" and "washing machine".

love the Kim Gordon tracks. she always brings the seething, wounded viciousness that drags the band back to NYC, back to urban decay, squall, desolation, desperation. her tracks can be embarrassing and shrill and harsh, but she still cracks the coolness and detachment of the band's later autopilot years w/ a ragged delivery that brings a missing element of urgency.

still, i can't escape the sense that the musical support she's getting is halfhearted at best. "orange rolls" and "arthur doyle" at least wash the monkey wrenching down with dumb-catchy riffs. i also miss the personality and offhand wit of stuff like "quest for the cup" and "washing machine".

I like "Orange Rolls" but for me, "Contre le Sexisme" and "Heather Angel" >>>>> the rest of the songs you mention.

well said! xp

also, "Female Mechanic" rules.

Yeah, that one too.

I'd probably love a whole album that was like the KG songs on ATL, actually.

the day last week that i listened to nothing but Kim songs was really enjoyable.

I don't know where to put this so I'm putting it here.

Brief descriptions of my Sonic Youth shows:

EVOL tour, 7/19/86 (I am 19):
Indianapolis, IN @ Hoosier Ballroom

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/071986.html

Hot summer in Indiana. I was fully on board with EVOL and had been really fanatical about the band since the fall of 85 when I got turned on to BMR. Word came that they were playing in Indianapolis at a venue called the Hoosier Ballroom. I drove up with some older people from the community radio station, a couple of friends my age, and the kid brother of one of my roommates. Everybody under 21 had to be paired off with a "guardian" who of course pretended to be an older brother or whatever. All the minors also had to have food on the table in front of them at all times. Despite what the link says, Dinosaur did not open - there were two local bands. Probably 30 people there. I have a flyer, but just found out my scanner is outdated.

The band was in prime form. A year or two later I found a zine interview where they explained that they had done mushrooms the night before, which they claimed was unusual and changed the vibe of the show. I remember "Death To Our Friends", screwdrivers in guitars, Kim's hair all in her face, Thurston screaming. I've talked to a few of the friends I went with over the intervening decades, and we are all still blown away by how good it sounded, as well as the performance itself. A hurricane of sound.

SET LIST:
Tom Violence
White Kross
Shadow of a Doubt
Starpower
Death to our Friends
I Love Her All the Time
Flower
Green Light
Brother James
Kill Yr Idols
Expressway To Yr Skull
--
World Looks Red
(no existing recording known)

Sister tour, 4/25/87 (I am 20):
Oberlin, OH @ Hales Gym

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/042587.html

Three friends and I drove to Cleveland to participate in a No Business As Usual anarchist demonstration, and to visit one guy's girlfriend, who went to Oberlin. As a bonus, the weekend included the WOBC annual music festival, and one of the events was Sonic Youth and Big Black on campus (it was $6). I remember more about the demo and the weekend in general than the show, but it was one of those shows where they played a ton of stuff from a not-yet-released LP (in this case, Sister). In addition to what the link says, they also played the Ramones medley for the encore which made me freak out and jump up and down a lot. I have clearer memories of Big Black playing than SY - it was right before Headache came out. There were maybe 200 people? Lots of students. I also have a flyer for this show.

SET LIST:
Catholic Block
Tuff Gnarl
Pipeline
PCH
Stereo Sanctity
Cotton Crown
Schizophrenia
White Kross
Beauty Lies in the Eye
Hotwire my Heart
Ramones medley, maybe other songs?
(audience recording exists)

Daydream Nation tour, 12/10/88 (I am 22)
Charlottesville, VA @ Traxx

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/121088.html

Got my heart broken right after graduating from college, six months later I took a leave of absence from my dead end pizza job and went to stay with my folks for like six weeks, feeling sorry for myself. I even ended up staying later than I had planned because of this show. Happy Flowers and B.A.L.L. opened. The band was totally burnt out, it was like the second to last gig on the DN tour. Show was good, and like the link implies they did in fact open with "The Sprawl". But I remember the set being a bit short, and they got sloppy near the end. Kramer was passing a bag of wine through the crowd and there was a big chaotic tired jam for the encore (see link). I have a really shitty walkman recording of this show somewhere. Maybe 150 people?

SET LIST:
Cross the Breeze
The Wonder
Hyperstation
Teenage Riot
Hey Joni
Rain King
Kissability
Brother James
Eliminator Jr
Silver Rocket
I Wanna Be Yr Dog => Jumpin' Jack Flash jam

Goo tour, 8/4/90 (I am 23)
Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart's

http://sonicyouth.com/history/con-set.html

Jesus, I barely remember anything about this show. Thurston had some goofy hat on and Kim was giving him shit for it, I think? We had driven a couple of hours to get there. There were WAY more people than at the Traxx show I had seen less than two years before, it was more like a big concert hall show. 500 people, maybe? Recorded and bootlegged.

SET LIST:
Tom Violence
White Kross
Dirty Boots
Tunic
Titanium Expose
The Wonder
Mote
Cinderella's Big Score
Kool Thing
Mary Christ
Catholic Block
Kill Yr Idols
(bootleg release as 'Energy")

Pre-NYCGAF tour, 9/5/99 (I am 33)
Seattle Center Arena, Bumbershoot Festival

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/090599.html

Well look at that, my memory is bad - they played 'She Is Not Alone", not IDID as I thought in the voting thread. Like I described there, this was almost entirely an instrumental set - another "work the songs out on tour before recording" gig. Kim played a lot of guitar. The (hordes of) mostly younger kids were confused, restless, and started leaving about halfway in. The Master Musicians Of Jajouka did NOT open, they played a different set later that night with Lee Ranaldo. This was in an 8,000 seat mini-stadium. There's at least one AUD recording.

SET LIST:
Free City Rhymes
Renegade Princess
Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)
Small Flowers Crack Concrete
Side2Side
StreamXSonik Subway
She Is Not Alone
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
--
Lightnin'

Next chance I had to see them was on the Nurse tour, I think, but I didn't wanna go up to Portland with a friend. Oh well, looks like I missed my last chance!

Oddly, I saw them do a show in NYC sometime around DN I think where there was a spiel about a hat, I think Kim's in that case. I wonder if there was a SY hat thing...

awesome post, sleeve, jealous that you saw those

I saw the same Daydream Nation show as sleeve, about a month earlier. Found some footage on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeyjIZPrH9g

It was the last live show I'd see for more than 15 years. I was 27, and after almost a decade of doing nothing but, it wasn't fun anymore. Not Sonic Youth's fault, although I can see where their particular style might have fit well into something that was going to happen with me sooner or later anyway.

awesome post, sleeve, jealous that you saw those

^^^

cosign. EIII and I tried to see them on the EVOL tour at Maxwell's in Hoboken but we were turned away at the door. we got lost on our way home and ended up taking, like, fifteen different buses in ever-tightening concentric circles around Jersey City in the cheap urban-interzone version of After Hours. NJ Transit was prob. just fucking w/us b/c EIII puked all over the train on the way up.

wow, thanks for that tour, sleeve! i wish my show memory were half as detailed. hell, even a third would be an improvement...

yeah, great post sleeve, thanks so much for taking the time to share that!

Sister ALMOST beat Daydream Nation! Sigh.

Amazed tbh

anyways, here is not a bad way to spend an hour. I posted it on Facebook, but it is probably appropriate here too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QZAETFJ3a8

loving these Youtubes, thanks folks! That brief 2-minute clips thing clemenze posted seems significantly more focused than I remember them being at the show I saw.

is there any official concert footage available other than their stuff on The Year Punk Broke?

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

STOKED

Wow, they have the energy and intensity of a metal band in that 1987 show. Very different from the dazzling precision of the Murray Street tour (or the relatively blase ATL tour).

I kind of feel like I'm watching Krallice.

yeah, for the first four songs or so, I was like, "okay, yeah, shoegaze" and then it turned into something quite a bit more fierce...!

haha this is great. "this song is called 'Sister'...::plays unaccompanied guitar for a few seconds, stops:: oh, Steve, you wanna start it?"

dangit, i wanna watch these, but am beat. maybe i will watch them psychically while i sleep.

that sounds like a good premise for a pk dick book to be adapted into an sy song

do contendroids dream of electric guitars?

^underrated display names ship won't use

Everybody ready?
http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/song_results.png