Click here to talk about the next Sonic Youth album - The Eternal

saw this sonic youth doc/concert movie last night, it's awesome and it made me excited for a new album.

I saw that a few months ago at a sneak preview in Austin, was pretty "meh" for me and I'm a huge fan.

so what is it? a doc about the band by teenagers, or just a concert movie? both?

mostly concert movie, with some brief interview snippets between songs and about 10 minutes of bullshitting with the band after the show.

what did you like about it? i'm only a casual fan, so it's not like i've even seen them live before.

Today i saw a leak around

a doc about the band by teenagers

OTM.

Granted it was mostly concert footage, but was pretty poorly organized and not very engaging.

Strange. There's a leak that is unmistakeably Sonic Youth (it's certainly Kim Gordon singing on a couple of tracks, though the rest could be them just improvising stuff), but it's not the album that's sampled here: .

interesting article from Simon Reynolds on the artist as consumer re: The Eternal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/sonic-youth-underground-influences

Yeah the idea of Sonic Youth simply putting out generic SY album 1,2,3....no one needs that,surely. Where's the next Goo-esque cool t shirt design going to come from? Massive black marks for '5th member' influence - O'Rourke, Ibold.

Once upon a time Sonic Youth were funny people from New York who had the key to castle irony and sang about people much more famous than themselves. They should put Lung Leg on their next album cover.

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2009/04/20/sonic-youth-first-mp3-secret-show-in-london/

Good song. I can't get over how short it is.

i just keep staring at that Edward Figaro post wondering what to make fun of first

haha, me too

don't know, it is strange to me the incredibly high standard some people hold this band to, as though at this stage in their close to 30-year career, they should be releasing some kind of game-changing record. For me, a new Sonic Youth record is like a new Neil Young record. Is The Eternal going to be as incredible as their masterpieces? Probably not. Am I going to enjoy the hell out of it? Totally. Because I like Sonic Youth.

tylerw crazy OTM. In fact, the Neil Young comparison is great for me, in that Sonic Youth has earned a spot like Neil's in my mind - in that I'll buy any new able unheard because I've loved so much of their previous material.

the quietus crews opinion is now online : here

i clicked on that link, read the first paragraph, then remembered why i shldnt click on any quietus links

The song descriptions and lyrics quoted in that article sound astoundingly like Kim Fowley in the 70's. I know they covered him, but sometimes I wonder just how many KF albums they actually have.

John says: They built a monorail linking Idlewild to Manhattan in 2002. An expressway to getting out of your skull. It towered over Gotham but a fatal accident meant it ran pretty much empty for the first few months of 2003. Ride the snake, said fat Jim. No pain, no gain, said Revolting Cocks. What does AirTrain sound like? I don't know. I was always too afraid to get on it. Ride the Claus Dinger highway baby. Kim Gordon sounds deranged. Nights out in Manhattan. A Piet Mondrian grid, seen from the air. Sleek lines. Brake light red. Street light yellow. White Light. White Heat.

Ugh quietus, wtf?

don't know, it is strange to me the incredibly high standard some people hold this band to, as though at this stage in their close to 30-year career, they should be releasing some kind of game-changing record. For me, a new Sonic Youth record is like a new Neil Young record. Is The Eternal going to be as incredible as their masterpieces? Probably not. Am I going to enjoy the hell out of it? Totally. Because I like Sonic Youth.

Thank you. i'd say Murray Street was a game-changing record. what do people want them to go electronic or something?

what do people want them to go electronic or something?
^
that would be awesome, i'd love to hear SY's version of trans

well, they did cover "Computer Age" ...

I got about one paragraph into that Quietus article and had to stop. Horrifically overwritten.

the key to castle irony

well you could say 'the whitey album' was their dance album

good tight energy and guitar playing in that song,sounds like something out of Dirty,but Kim Gordon's songs are-as always in the last 20 years or so-too obvious, boring,even annoying.

Chris, you got farther in that article than I did!

well you could say 'the whitey album' was their dance album

― Michael B, Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:34 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i always wondered about the creation of that album, whether they were messing with drum machines really heavily or just sampled a bunch of stuff i don't recognize or what

i think it was them messing around with drum machines/loops/etc. Don't know if there's actually much sampled stuff. Could be wrong though.

Kim Gordon sounds deranged. Nights out in Manhattan. A Piet Mondrian grid, seen from the air. Sleek lines. Brake light red. Street light yellow. White Light. White Heat.

i will never understand rapturous writing about SY voices.

The Eternal according to Sonic Youth:

Sacred Trickster
Out-of-the gate hardcore matinee track with Kim singing salutes to French painter Yves Klein and Western Massachusetts noise artist Noise Nomads.

Anti-Orgasm
Inspired by the story of Berlin 60s model/activist Uschi Obermeier and the gang at Kommune 1. Free love, dominance and submission, and other political states-of-confusion.

Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)
The NYC beat poet Gregory Corso once referred life on Earth as a leaky lifeboat. This tune expounds on this rumination.

Antenna
Melodious ode to fleeting fantasy and unresolved desire with the sound of two analogue radios communicating the emotional action.

What We Know
Charging forth with a riff in reference to Sonics Rendezvous Band, Lee sings a triptych to identity and unity.

Calming the Snake
One of the first tracks written, musical references to the Dead C, the MC5 and Neu. Kim musing on visions of Death in painting.

Poison Arrow
Dedicated to the lust groove of Kevin Ayers where thoughts of love as pretty poison rejoice in surrealist deliverance.

Malibu Gas Station
An ode to the flash moment of the camera as you knowingly step from your SUV sans panties.

Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn
Flashing back to a wishful existence in the original Masque basement on N. Cherokee in Hollywood, crashing through lawns and garbage cans en route to the Canterbury/Disgraceland to jump up and down on beds with Helen Killer, Mary Rat and Trudi.

No Way
First song written for the album, with a nod to The Wipers of Portland, Oregon. A confrontation with the devil in his guise of temptation and staking a distinct place amongst the black legions.

Walkin Blue
Lee with his arm around yr shoulder, getting you through a seemingly impenetrable day of dread to a clear vision towards sweet foreverness.

Massage the History
The long way home, where blood rules the universe and time becomes myth.

Massage the History
The long way home, where blood rules the universe and time becomes myth.

Funny, that's the way I usually take home too!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QIdnmsC1Luk/SZg1HQgIoPI/AAAAAAAAAKc/9uVTcu_xEUQ/s320/the+eternal+-+sonic+youth.jpg

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/ad6659c8aa81f52ab6dc51d6ac954c05/82427.jpg

The bloody vortex of existence.

when will this fucker leak already

um

It leaked a few days ago

Aye, I had a listen to it this morning.

My post above was meant to have the cover of Disco Inferno's The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea, too. They're very similar.

mostly disappointing.
too straightforward-rock,almost no depth, and the songwriting is kinda weak and banal.
2nd half seems a bit better though.(thunderclap and walking blue are nice)

Haven't heard a note from this yet, but the prob I have with Sonic Youth (and not quite Neil Young)is that each Sonic Youth album increasingly feels like nothing more than "the next Sonic Youth record." Not really generic, and certainly enjoyable, but not any sort of "next step," either, just missing something compelling. I mean, I've liked the last few Sonic Youth albums fine, but Young, even on his fourth-ish decade of making music, still seems capable of releasing something truly galvanizing or ambitious amidst the missteps. I'm not sure which of the past several Sonic Youth albums I'd consider either of those things. The ones I haven't gotten into haven't been bad, just boring. Maybe my expectations are indeed too high, but, like, yes, the Dead, the Youth seems to be coasting a little, at least in the studio.

Last time I saw them live was very bad.

Kim consistently writes some of the worst lyrics in music.

Are we not asking too much with this 'step forward' thing? I mean, could we not simply enjoy 'the new Sonic Youth record' and not hope for another 'Daydream Nation' feel? Because I see the same reaction here in all the 'new album from classic band' threads.

Just listened. Did not expect or ask for step forward. Did not enjoy.

x-post Except that bands like Mission of Burma show it can be done, and if Burma can do it, I bet Sonic Youth can do it, too. I mean, I'm rooting for them!

sinking feeling during first two tracks, but after that I liked and liked. generally my favorite SY I dislike on first hearing fwiw.

"sinking feeling during first two tracks" - which are Kim's tracks btw +
"Kim consistently writes some of the worst lyrics" (and music imo)=

you are the weakest link.goodbye.

"could we not simply enjoy 'the new Sonic Youth record' and not hope for another 'Daydream Nation' feel?"

we could, if it was a good record, but it isnt.

i liked it, and i don't really like sonic youth