Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse: The Poll

yes! another great one, same taper. (that's my site)

I remember Kim saying Coco said she wished Vedder was her dad

jesus, that's a harsh curve

i've been re-reading/skimming Kim's memoir lately (mostly for O'Rourke drama - the woman that Thurston had the affair with was with Jim first, and it ended "crazy, theatrically badly," and was a big reason he moved to Japan), but fuck, Thurston is so dark, i find it hard to listen to his songs anymore.

Favorite album of 2004.

Favorite album of 2004.

I kind of hate "Peace Attack". I'm not sure exactly why. Musically, it feels like a retread of one of Moore's solo tracks, which haven't ever really been truly essential material in the first place. The vocals seem especially lazy and somehow grating for me in the sing-song nature, I dunno?

― EveningStar (Sund4r)

still can't believe that's a piano at the end of The Dripping Dream. Can anybody confirm?

been listening to too many dead bootlegs lately, was hoping to explore SY/YLT live recordings to scratch that noisy itch, good timing on this! too bad there aren't many YLT recordings on archive.org...

See if you can find their show at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000 (I think?). John Peel introduces it, and they do an amazing, epic Night Falls as the opening track. Lots of technical difficulties throughout but still a charming show.

has Ira ever sang "The Crying of Lot G" properly live, or does he always mumble and talk thru it? the studio version of that song is perfect, every live version i've heard is awful

i'll go on soulseek after work and check that out xp. nothing streamable/downloadable that i can find right now other than a review

https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/live/yo-la-tengo-royal-festival-hall-london

ha and this review isn't even for that show

ha, isn't "crying of lot g" a mumble/talk song to begin with?
i posted that ylt royal festival show a million years ago, but the link is dead. if you can't find it anywhere i can see if i can dig it up.
but yeah, as i've probably said a million times, would be great if bands like SY and YLT would let fans put recordings up on archive.org.

it'd rekindle my interest in them anyway, i haven't really listened to either since college

ha, isn't "crying of lot g" a mumble/talk song to begin with?

yes, but the pacing and delivery on the studio version is perfect- it's very musical while still being a talking song. whenever i hear him sing it live he sounds like Dylan doing Ballad of a Thin Man or whatever today.

I should try to spend more time with Sonic Nurse. For me, it was just kind of...there at the time of release. Maybe too centered, or too grounded, or too comfortable. Perhaps if I'd seen them live at the time it would feel different, but in '04 SN seemed like less interesting versions of stuff they'd done before or would do more satisfyingly on Rather Ripped, a record I much prefer. (This is the period of the band's history when the SYRs did more for me than the studio albums, with occasional exceptions.)

Looking through the tracklist I recall liking: "Stones" or "New Hampshire" (can't remember which) and, to an extent, "Arthur Doyle Handcream".

I didn't warm to "Sonic Nurse" at all right away. Felt like a lesser "Murray St.", which I loved. I came around on it after seeing it live for sure, and just getting some distance from the record. I really enjoy it now (but still not as much as M.S.).

Yeah I didnt warm to it either for a long time. I didnt like "Peace Attack" either. In hindsight, its a really good album although not as great as "Murray Street"

Thanks for the dl, tyler! Any videos I've seen from this tour have been great.

I love Nurse but it definitely feels a lesser album to Murray Street for me

i agree, imo a big part of that is it's too long

about that 2000 recording- i was looking on youtube for sets from around the same time, and none of them have Jim doing his solo songs. there's a two hour video from like 4 days later where they do everything in the first set except Jim's songs. maybe because he was nervous? i was listening to it last night and got so pumped when he went into the main riff from "Not Sport, Marital Art" but then he abandoned it.

haha, yeah, i don't know how much jim really liked doing the solo acoustic troubadour thing.

Such a drag - his Drag City records are my core, heart music. A hero uploaded these pro-shot, multi-camera full band JimO performances from 2000 recently. I've thought about it a lot and "Not Sport, Marital Art" is my favorite song of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xizxQ8L78T8

^^ that's great. And "heart music" otm. I always thought he'd have one last 'troubadour' record in him, but the wait is long and I think by now that ship has sailed.

I thought The Visitor was amazing, but I really wanted to hear him sing again. I was disappointed with Simple Songs - there's just something off about that record.

fucking incredible record

also, i think some people on ILM have complained about steve shelley during this period (maybe being too same-y in his playing?) but man, on this tape the guy is incredible, just powering the whole thing along.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 9:20 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i was just thinking about these bullshit arguments while listening to shelley's awesome tom/hi-hat pattern in the chorus of "unmade bed"

to think he didn't want them to release his raw takes on thousand leaves

i was so fucken pissed that 'pink steam' didn't walk this but. . . o ya, that was a different album.

this one's good too, tho.

sorry if this is weird but "paper cut exit" is my favorite lee song of all time

"Paper Cup Exit" is so good. I love that song sincerely, and don't think you are off-base there. And as fans an idea of "favorite" needs to be different than "best" in some ways. Like, who cares what Lee's "best" song is, it doesn't matter. It is more fun to listen to people talk about what their favorites are and why. I personally think "Paper Cup Exit" is up there for Lee SY songs too.

Their best LP imo, at least, it's the one I've played the most over the years.

I saw them on the tour for this album and the sound from the stage was so good, it sounded like they were plugged into my brain. It's a great great record. I adore "Stones", it just washes me away.

My favorite of their '00s albums.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),

I still prefer Murray Street, but this album is magnificent.