C/D: Sonic Youth - Washing Machine

Either way, Washing Machine is the last Sonic Youth record that I really listened to over and over, unlike the albums that came after which I have given only a few listens then put on the shelf.

I still have never picked up the last one.

Hear, hear!

And I have to jump in on the EJSTANS argument: my favorite SY album, and one of my favorite albums, period. I don't know if that says anything about its objective quality, but I know that I love it.

And I know that you are WRONG if you do not also love it. WRONG.

anyways, CLASSIC. better than Daydream! as good as Sister or EVOL!

then the dramatic slide into the most severe mediocrity imaginable with A Thousand Leaves. they ain't come up since.

If you want to avoid the boring peg you have abandon SY entirely. The 80s stuff isn't as boring as the 00s stuff but its also 20 years old, so the boringness evens out.

you're lonely.

i'm not sure why i even posted, rssvldonalds and sleeve already said everything i had to say. DITTO'D

I'm a big Eric's Trip fan.

well, I bought Goo this past summer and fell in love with it-- and then they came out with a deluxe version two months later. so, now i want to pick up Washing Machine, but if they're going to do a deluxe version, I might as well just wait until that comes out... yafeelme?

K!z!K:
It is 8pm here on KUCI 88.9fM in Irvine...
Voice:
It's 8pm...

K!z!K:
Pacific time of course! And we're on the phone right now with Mark Hosler of Negativland, so, say hi.

Voice:
[Gurgling] "GGGH-GHGGHG-GGHGHGHHG-GHGHHGHGHG_GGHGMmmm..... GGHGHGGHGG- GHGHGHGHHG-GHGHG-GHGHGmmmm"

K!z!K:
[laugh] Well, there you go... well, anyway, you released the Fair Use book about a few months ago, and it ended on a somewhat positive note. You reached an out-of-court settlement with SST. Island records and affiliates finally agreed to give permission for the re-release of the U2 single, provided of course that Casey Kasem give permission. So that only leaves that one obstacle...the "Casey" barrier... I wanted to ask how far you've gotten along in tackling that barrier, and in perhaps convincing Casey to finally give the OK.

Voice:
[Gurgling] "GHGHGHG-GGGHGHGHGHG_GHGHG GOOOHHGmOGHGGHM GGGANNSWERR GU GGHGAT GGGESTIONGGh.... GHIM GNONT GGHGMARGHGK GHGOOSLEGLER... GHGHI GGHAAM GNOT.....[in background] he wants to know about...U2"

Mark Hosler:
Hi.

K!z!K:
[laugh] Did you hear my question?

MH:
No, I didn't hear your question. They...they wouldn't let me use the phone. Someone else had the telephone, and I just...[LOUD BANG AND CRASH] ...got it from him. That was, man... [LOUD TONE PITCH BENDING].... wait a minute... you're going to have to repeat that question. Real sorry.

K!z!K:
[laughing] No problem! The question was this: Fair Use was released about a few... well, almost a year ago...

MH:
See, now everyone here is talking while you're talking...[CRASHING SOUND]...and I can't hear...the question.

K!z!K:
Well, OK, then...now can you hear me? Am I coming through clear?

Voice [background]: I was not talking!

MH [to Voice in background]: Will you shut up? [SCREECH AND ANOTHER LOUD BANG] I'm trying to talk on the RADIO... in Southern California after a lame Sonic Youth song. [to K!z!K] OK, go ahead.

LIstening to this again now after perhaps a decade. No Queen Blues is great. Actually, the whole thing is very good.

this one = good.

A Thousand Leaves = much, much, much better.

title track = awez

This is perhaps my favourite Sonic Youth album. It certainly was a few years ago, though Daydream Nation may edge it now, since I've become a lot more familiar with that album in the last year or so.

It's the only one since Sister that I really like much.

now i want to pick up Washing Machine, but if they're going to do a deluxe version, I might as well just wait until that comes out

i doubt that this will ever happen

I've never actually heard this album but I've played "The Diamond Sea" more than any other Sonic Youth track.

Then you should probably check this out...

I think this is one of their best, still a rewarding listen. A Thousand Leaves is similar and fine but a bit more on the SYR side...

My least fave SY album.

Love "Unwind" and "The Diamond Sea," can't remember anything else.

'Little Trouble Girl' turned me off Sonic Youth for YEARS. It took a chance encounter with EVOL to change my mind about them.

And the vocal melody is "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys, which is a much better song.

I'm trying to work out what Vic meant by this. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is definitely more sophisticated in terms of melody-writing craft but I don't see a strong similarity with the melody of "The Diamond Sea". Nor would it have occurred to me that SY was attempting that kind of songwriting with this song.

This was my favourite album in high school. I still really like "The Diamond Sea", as basic as its melodies are.

This is one of my favorite SY records. Probably my most favorite.

I wish they they had included more ‘Skip Tracer’-type stuff on their 90s-and beyond material

I think that it would have opened up that era of the band in terms of bringing back many of those who stopped paying attention after Goo (to me, there’s a direct lineage from a lot of the stuff on Bad Moon Rising and ‘In The Kingdom #19’ to ‘Skip Tracer’)

What do you mean by "'Skip Tracer'-type stuff"? There are still a number of tracks with spoken word over dissonant guitars on those albums, I think?

but not Lee's, I don't think

Title track of "NYC Ghosts and Flowers" is probably the closest.

There is, but I don’t think a lot of that stuff is as interesting in terms of integrating the talking with a pop-rock structure. Skip Tracer is SY doing something interesting within that 3-4 minute side of the band, whereas a lot of the things they were doing at that point were more a case of “somewhat conventional rock-pop with noise bit in middle”, or “relatively ambient track with spoken word interlude”

I think a lot of those Geffen albums are really good but I don’t think the marriage of those elements above were that common; if they were, it was more incidental, or a part of something much longer (ie not in a 4 min tune)

Ah, yeah, I see what you mean.