Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

This is cool, a show from August 2000 where they did one set of individual solo projects (including solo TM acoustic versions of "Rain on Tin" and "Disconnection Notice") and one full rock set of NYC G&F material plus older classics. I found that NYC G&F songs sometimes came across better when I saw them live (though I never disliked the album per se) and I get something of that here: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/152688686497/sonic-youth-cats-cradle-carrboro-north

yeah, that one is highly recommended -- those NYC G&F tracks sound awesome. I've got another cat's cradle show from the sonic nurse tour i'll probably put up too, really really good.

There's a great NYCGAF-era show in Japan too, the title track feels like your stereo is about to implode

Going to see Lee in Edinburgh tonight. My first gig for a loooong time

That was awesome, btw.

Timely thread bump - I just dug out the Helen Lundberg/Eyeliner single from 2006. I think it was the first 7" single I ever bought. Great couple songs.

I'll check out that show, I had no idea Thurston had already written Murray Street material in 2000. does anyone know if a recording of the 10/9/01 benefit show is circulating in full? i believe it was at the knitting factory. the album version of Karen Revisited/Karenology segues into a recording of the show at the end

murray street stuff on that 2000 tape is acoustic/instrumental/sketchy, but still recognizable.
have we talked enough about how great that Spinhead Sessions disc they put out this year is? it is great!

OK I'm confused after looking at that - this is different material than the Made In USA ost? cuz I found that to be a total snooze back in the day.

ha, it's rehearsals for Made in the USA, I think? Stronger than that OST, I think.

ah cool, will listen

Made in the USA was basically snippets of Secret Girl over and over again iirc.

exactly!!!

I had no idea Thurston had already written Murray Street material in 2000.

Murray Street songs began as a proposed Thurston Moore solo album, iirc, that ended up morphing into the SY album.

Ha, I was SO disappointed when I first listened to Made in USA.

Never listened to the Made in USA album but I've seen the movie.

i loved "made in usa" back in the day. especially the shortness of the songs appealed to me. probably that's also a reason why my fave sonic youth album will always be "dirty". another reason being that it was their first album i seriously listened to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10K074bs5hk

Recorded live September 16, 1999

1983!

http://theartnewspaper.com/news/richard-prince-is-sued-yet-again/

Richard Prince opened for Lee Ranaldo, maybe? Was good, but long and unappreciated.

Nope! Sorry, was Richard Youngs.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfA7To2HzVo

Yeah, Prince does the 'Nurse' series of paintings, some of which were used for the Sonic Nurse alb.

he certainly does not come off well in that article

i feel thurston moore has fallen so low in my estimation over the past few years that i have trouble listening to any sonic youth these days, is that the case for anyone else? i just feel so turned off by him and right now it kind ruins the whole enterprise

yeah, same here :(

Is this still over his adultery or did he do something else?

doesn't bother me that he left his wife. life happens.

I'm still OK with the old records but I always think of that anecdote in Goodbye 20th Century where Steve Shelley starts yelling at Thurston for forgetting the words

Lee's solo is so good in that 1983 clip above

If you follow Thurston on facebook he's been posting tons of anti-Trump stuff, while the commentators feel betrayed for some reason. It makes me wonder about what the pro-trump/anti-clinton think about themselves that they're consistently amazed to find that their cultural icons disagree with them. /drunkandshouldbeignored.

see also david cameron's love for the smiths / chris christie's springsteen obsession

(he posts nonsense like this, though http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/rigged-election-hillary-clintons-early-voting-lead-florida-mathematically-insurmountable/114/)

Dude who sang "I believe Anita Hill" in song isn't a Trump voter whhaaaaaat? non-shocker

Yeah, I'm more disappointed that he posts dopey blog sources. I don't remember too many pro-Trump "wtf?" comments from fans in response to his posts, though? Some "get back to the music" stuff.

It was more people objecting to his pro-clinton stance.

Oh, I can see that.

i feel thurston moore has fallen so low in my estimation over the past few years that i have trouble listening to any sonic youth these days, is that the case for anyone else? i just feel so turned off by him and right now it kind ruins the whole enterprise

― I've read Ta-nehisi Coates. (marcos)

he kind of fell off with Trees outside the Academy and The Eternal.. the music just sounded super rote, hackneyed--almost like fourth-rate Malkmus music (which i like). and a lot of his later improv stuff (that i've heard) has the same problem. i had the same problem with Lee's rock stuff, interest just waned really hard. the Body/Head stuff has remained interesting though

yeah idk the last good thing any of them did was Rather Ripped imo

There was some nice tunes on "Demolished Thoughts". The Lee Ranaldo album was disappointing apart from a couple of tunes

Will still rep all day long for Best Day and what I've heard since then with that group.

there's a reinvigorated vibe about it, still need to sit down with it. i've also kinda tired of that Steve Shelley gallop, it really started to wear thin on "Rain on Tin" -- just like, 0 variation on the basic pattern. which serves the track fine, i suppose

"Murray Street + real guitar solos and a couple of acoustic tracks" is all I could really ask for from him at this point.

If you follow Thurston on facebook he's been posting tons of anti-Trump stuff, while the commentators feel betrayed for some reason. It makes me wonder about what the pro-trump/anti-clinton think about themselves that they're consistently amazed to find that their cultural icons disagree with them. /drunkandshouldbeignored

got in an argument with a partic dumb trump supporter on Lee's FB page the other day. still find the idea of Trump supporters digging SY and LEe bizarre, though I probs should not. she was on that 'participating medals' tip.

You see this kind of thing a lot on punk bands' FB pages, people up in arms because Jello Biafra hates Trump, or angry that Conflict aren't very fond of the police, you have to wonder how they manage to be fans of these bands for years yet somehow never notice what they sing about. I suppose in the case of Conflict it's because they are anarchists and maybe that appeals to libertarians/"anarcho-capitalists".

Dumb dudes like moshing.

White ppl

My wife had a friend back in California actually who was super excited to chat to me about all the old school British anarcho-punks, we had this great bonding session over mutual love of hardcore punk, then I made some random throwaway comment about climate change (can't remember the exact words now) and it turned out he was a massive Breitbart supporter. I didn't even know who Breitbart was back then. The weird thing was he was on welfare, never had a job, big stoner, yet super conservative. I don't know how you reconcile that. I think it goes back to the libertarian thing. Anarchists don't like government, libertarians don't like government.

Anyway this doesn't have much to do with Sonic Youth. Just stupid people.

the Body/Head stuff has remained interesting though
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 18:41

saw them live recently, really good

It does feel like a kind of sifting is happening, separating their parts. I quite like all of it - lots of less stuff is fairly conventional rock, body/head a bit more industrial/noisy, it's interesting to see what the products are.