Sonic Youth new album "Rather Ripped"

I understand the comments regarding long songs. Rapture especially seems like it wants to burst forth into instramental jam heaven, but is henceforth restrained. However, I think the restraints are a charm on this cd, rather than a frustration.

question for anyone that saw the Rather Ripped tour -- when they did played "Or" live, did they have an acoustic guitar onstage? I was gonna write that "Massage The History" on the Eternal tour was the first time they regularly featured an acoustic guitar on tour but then i realized i never saw a Rather Ripped show so i don't know how they did "Or."

Saw 'em in Seattle as mumbled upthread and...I don't remember? Excellent show but I can't recall them busting out an acoustic guitar for that.

good record, not as good as SN, bring back jim o'rourke

thurston played acoustic on one track when i saw them last year, but it wasn't "Or" i think it was something from The Eternal.
re: markers' comment, i think people overestimate o'rourke's influence on those SY records. not that he didn't have an effect on the sound (probably mainly from the mixing side of things) but to assume that o'rourke came in to a band that'd been together 20+ years and took over strikes me as off-base. i think murray st./sonic nurse would've been strong records even if he wasn't in the band at the time.

agreed but they were better than either album that preceeded or succeeded them

yeah, i'd agree with that, but just assuming that o'rourke wsa the main catalyst for that seems like ... an assumption.

I'm interviewing Thurston in a few hours. Please think of an absolutely killer question for me to ask him. Thanks.

i don't know if he's been asked a million times now, but i'd be interested in hearing about how his move away from NYC (where he founded one of the quintessential NYC bands) to the "country" has informed his songwriting/musical outlook.

Kudos for the good idea of including free mp3 download when you bought the vinyl.

thurston played acoustic on one track when i saw them last year, but it wasn't "Or" i think it was something from The Eternal.
re: markers' comment, i think people overestimate o'rourke's influence on those SY records. not that he didn't have an effect on the sound (probably mainly from the mixing side of things) but to assume that o'rourke came in to a band that'd been together 20+ years and took over strikes me as off-base. i think murray st./sonic nurse would've been strong records even if he wasn't in the band at the time.

― tylerw, Tuesday, May 31, 2011 10:53 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah "Massage The History" from The Eternal, as i alluded in my post, is the one he played acoustic on when they toured that record. i was just wondering if he did the same when they played "Or" live regularly in 2006/2007

Northampton isn't the country at all, btw. Just sorta New England suburbia with a slight 'aging hippie' sort of bent.

I saw them on that tour about ten times and don't remember an acoustic guitar on "Or"

well, yeah, but certainly more of a pastoral setting than NYC.

I usually try and ask something about landscape and how it affects song writing because when people don't look at you like you're a wanker they often say something interesting. So cheers.

Ask him when he's gonna collaborate with aTelecine!!

A fair question...

ask him if jim o'rourke was the catalyst for Murray St and Sonic Nurse. We need to get this settled.

Ha ha. Ok.

ask him why you can hear sister play in its entirety if you turn it up really loud underneath experimental jet set

? That can't be true surely... Are you sure that's not just yr old cassette?

SY recorded once again at Sear Sound (on 16-track), where they'd recorded Sister six years prior (though it had since relocated) and had done some overdubs for Dirty the previous year. The band supposedly joked that they'd recorded over the masters for "Sister" to save tape costs -- which sounds silly at first, until you really, really crank "Jet Set" up... you can actually hear "Sister" played in its entirety underneath the album! Listen closely between songs if you have any doubts...

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/lp10.html

who knows tho

Well I never!

yeah i've never actually tried it myself. i want it to be true though!

Please let that be true

i've owned that record but i don't even remember how much of it i've ever heard -- almost definitely not the whole thing. probably very, very, very little of it

If that is true, it's too bad they didn't make 'Sister' louder in the mix! that record is about 100x better than 'Experimental Jet Set...' was. I don't think I've listened to the latter album since it came out.

it's true. turn up "Winner's Blues" real loud and you can hear "Schizophrenia." reusing master tapes was not unusual in the analog era.

geeta you shld re-listen to experimental jet set! its good!

you shoudl alwyas store yoru tapes fast forwarded to the end so you dont get magnetic bleed through "preecho"

Had a good chat with his nibs this evening. I forgot what some of the questions were (gutted about forgetting to ask about aTelecine) but he did have this to say:

Was Jim O’Rourke the catalyst for Murray Street and Sonic Nurse?
Thurston Moore: He was kind of a catalyst for those records... only because he brought a new voice into the group which at the time was really... shocking. Because we were in this place where we could never have imagined someone else coming into our group and actually sort of working within just how strange the group is. Both Kim and I are kind of coming out of a place where we taught ourselves. We’re just not traditional players but Lee and Steve have a much more... uh... they have chops! Jim came in and he was able to be this creative balance between these two aspects to the band. He’s someone who has a very intensified musical language. He’s a great, great player but at the same time he understood the wildness that Kim and I had. He could be a really great bridge [between these aspects] and it really excited us. It did influence the song writing. We wanted him to get involved with that process, so sure, there were some catalytic elements to his involvement with those records.

And he confirmed the Sister/Experimental Jet Set tape thing. He said you need to be wearing headphones, have it turned up loud and it's only really on the gaps between a couple of songs where you can hear it but it's there.

Nice! Thanks for posting the bit about Jim. I'm a big pro-Jim era SY guy.

super cool--thanks!

thurston definitely used an acoustic for 'or' in 2006.

ok cool, thanks!

Definitive answers to burning questions--love it

yeah, we should just get thurston to come to ilm so he can answer these questions whenever we want. "why have you not played 'mary christ' since 1992?!"

haha i bet he'd post exactly like skot

we should get lee to post to ILM...i'd be more psyched for that. he once offered to write an article for me, when i was freaking out about it.

i would ask one of those guys if the record is named after the store

http://www.dedicatedfool.com/

"Jams Run Free" is still so wonderful.

for real

Still p sure this is my favorite SY record front to back.

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"Rather Ripped" is the new title? Seriously?
I hope Thurston hasn't been pumping iron with Bobby Bonds! lol

I see M. Perpetua posts here, august company indeed!

― Wrinklepaws (Wrinklepaws), Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:11 AM (6 years ago)

Oh, Wrinklepaws.

this is a very good album, their most concise & focused imo. I still like Bad Moon Rising more.

it's def the best late-period SY album

eh it's my least fav of the last 4. still pretty good though.

I used to prefer Sonic Nurse but not anymore; the last few tracks slay me.

God, was Wrinklepaws really 7 years ago?

least fave of last 4 for me also but still pretty great. man these guys are really done huh?