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

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?
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100. Secret Girl
Evol, 1986
(50 points, 4 votes)

woah, top 100!

question: are you gonna do a Spotify playlist of the songs in the countdown as we go, or will you leave that for someone else to do? (i'd volunteer myself, but i'm gonna be working a lot this week and probably wouldn't update it very promptly)

I don't use Spotify, but I'm sure someone else will volunteer.

Also, I'm not going to post YouTube videos with the entries, but I highly encourage everyone to post relevant clips!

Secret Girl had such a huge impact on me.

Ha, I wonder if I gave "Secret Girl" half its points. I've always loved it. All the percussive sounds in the first half are them whacking muted guitar strings with a lot of reverb, right?

xpost

OK, watching a couple of live clips, I think they were playing with a tape. Does anyone know the source? A horror film soundtrack? Actual sound collage?

Yes! Secret Girl made it! Voted for it.

IMO Secret Girl >>> Providence

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99. Saucer-Like
Washing Machine, 1995
(52 points, 3 votes)

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/098.jpg
98. Paper Cup Exit
Sonic Nurse, 2004
(55 points, 4 votes)

ATL was the first SY album I disliked. I even gave the CD away. I like "hoarfrost", "sunday" and "hits of sunshine" but the album was a bit of a chore for me to listen to. I guess I should listen to it again, its been a long while. Whats is it that everyone loves about it?

"Saucer-Like" is a good song that always kinda gets lost in the shuffle for me, nice to see it get a little shine

If PCE made it, Lee is going to rampage the poll.

Sweet that "Saucer Like" made it - that was one of my votes.

It took me to cotton to ATL and I never really LOVED it - there were a few songs I liked way more than others, and I remember transporting for and catching overlap with SYR songs. It never became a real favorite overall, but it's special in the sense that a) it dropped during the summer I stayed I'm my college town, between junior and senior years, b) I saw SY touring it and they were great, and c) the killer moments on it, like some of the gently psychedelic tilts on "Sunshine," are absolutely sublime even now.

NYCG&F is the first/only SY I sold almost back almost right away.

I thought ATL was amazing the first time I heard it (I can remember I'd just got a new stereo at the time and it was one of the first things I played) but after a few listens the handful of annoying filler tracks started to grate. I still think it's a pretty good album because the highs are really good but it's not first-tier SY by any means. I'd probably put it on a par with Washing Machine.

Really surprised Goo didn't make the top ten albums.

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97. Computer Age
The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young, 1989
(57 points, 4 votes)

(whisper it) Washing Machine is actually maybe my favourite SY of the albums I've heard (Evol / Daydream Nation / Dirty / WM / A Thousand Leaves / Murray Street / Sonic Nurse).

Washing Machine contains both my favourite and least-favourite SY songs.

WM is like 80% great, which is a winner in my book - it made my top 5 albums ballot

I think I like how bass-driven it feels. Someone said upthread that it carried over some of the "bluesy" quality of EJST&NS - is that an accurate description? Maybe i should check that album out.

Love that cover of "Computer Age"; v.appropriate for SY's uh curation instincts or w/e that they'd cover off Trans before the 80s had ended.

I'm a pretty sporadic fan of SY but I voted "Computer Age" super high (#3?). Waaaaay better than the original, it seems built for SY: Moore's voice on the sing-songy "weeks and months & years" parts is my favorite vocal of his, against the squall.

Yeah, without your vote it would have been #130 or so.

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96. The Neutral
Rather Ripped, 2006
(58 points, 4 votes)

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/095.jpg
95. Pattern Recognition
Sonic Nurse, 2004
(60 points, 5 votes)

i'm loving the photos!!!

"Pattern Rec" was one of my votes, one of the few tracks from that album that i actually love

did we ever do a pavement poll like this one?

it was one of the first, actually: PAVEMENT • TRAX • POLL rEsULtS!!!

"Pattern Recognition" smokes

I hope I Love You Golden Blue gets in.

"The Neutral" one of mine. So is "Paper Cup Exit."