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

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

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/100.jpg
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

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/099.jpg
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.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/097.jpg
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.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/096.jpg
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."

i am kicking myself for missing that pavement poll

praying "Becuz" places somewhere in the top 100

i'm loving the photos!!!

― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Monday, May 13, 2013 5:41 AM (12 minutes ago)

yeah, me too. nice work, ac.

Pattern Recognition is the first one of mine to place. One of the songs I rediscovered while listening to the albums the last couple of weeks. I think at the time Sonic Nurse was released I kept going straight to "Unmade Bed" and thus never gave this one a fair chance.

cannot forgive the word "coolhunter". will fight to the death. i cringe at it like the "what becomes a mirrorshade most?" line in g-force. cyberpunk not kind to SY.

http://www.melson.nl/ILM/sypoll/094.jpg
94. Little Trouble Girl
Washing Machine, 1995
(60 points, 6 votes)