when did Sonic Youth peak

in retrospect, this is v v true

I always felt that SY4 was more of an attempt to impress O'Rourke, or - we've now got this guy who knows a lot about avant-garde music and has improvised a lot, how do make USE of that?

And weren't they just saying, the more 'popular' things we like to do fund the less 'popular' things we like to do?

Considering the 90s were a time where Beck was into drone guitar and Olivia since before he could speak and he was so slack that his real name was the sound of a sneaker hitting the wall I think that playing into the dissonance = credibility = cool equation was probably a part of it, even if the story of them starting SYR to allay "sell-out" accusations was spurious

that Beck interview is fucking classic. SYR4 is great.. i was a super-stupid fan of sonic youth in 1999, and it fell right in line with my own trajectory outwards, discovering the larger world of music, fucking around with sounds and recording regularly. side A (of 4) sounded fully unhinged, with Kim G's vague, hushed vocals woven into the loose fabric - it was mysterious and difficult to understand. it introduced me to Christian Marclay, who made satisfying percussive sounds w/turntable, records etc. on "Burdocks" (a highlight) and throughout the four sides (the longer Cage pieces esp.) "Six for New Time" is another highlight, maybe the closest thing resembling a song (Slint-like?) on the album, and it introduced me to Pauline Oliveros. loved the variety of percussion and electronic sounds, the general sparseness of it, with meaty textures and odd juxtapositions.. but the ideas it presented were sometimes more appealing than the actual material/results. i'm glad to have been naive or ignorant of any supposed political or aesthetic intent for the album at the time, though i really dug the layout (font, graphics etc.) of the SYR series.

Considering the 90s were a time where Beck was into drone guitar and Olivia since before he could speak and he was so slack that his real name was the sound of a sneaker hitting the wall I think that playing into the dissonance = credibility = cool equation was probably a part of it, even if the story of them starting SYR to allay "sell-out" accusations was spurious

― fgti, Friday, June 9, 2017 8:13 PM (twelve minutes ago)

this post is poetry

True story (and PUA tip): I shared that interview with my current partner of 3.5 years when we were first courting.

SYR4 is great.. i was a super-stupid fan of sonic youth in 1999, and it fell right in line with my own trajectory outwards, discovering the larger world of music, fucking around with sounds and recording regularly.

This was very similar to my experience. By '99, I'd just started getting seriously into experimental composers. From my weirdly self-absorbed pov, it just seemed like a logical direction for them to go at the time, with the alternative moment in popular culture having more or less passed, esp after they had already put out a 20-minute song that was mostly a noise jam on a Geffen record.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

154 votes! nice. kinda surprised that 00s placed last

The results are too close

Lmao

this fuckin guy http://pitchfork.com/tv/22-over-under/1987-thurston-moore-rates-harry-styles-vaping-and-90s-nostalgia/

154 votes

wtf

xp i love that when they get to "90s nostalgia" thurston sounds like he's midway through a stereotypical old person speech "which was the style at the time..."

also damn i know i've thought this and probably posted this before but are those caricatures they do for the over/under's intentionally really bad and unflattering?

The "1987" in that url was really fucking with my head.

vaping blows

otm

"Sugar is just wicked at my age."

hey that too (i'm the same age as him); weight gain is a bitch for old dudes, even stringbeans like thurston

TeenAge wiot

hello twenty, fifteen!

sister-sister-sister

radical adults lick godhead style

boys go to jupiter get more stupider
girls go to mars become rockstars

one two one two one two titty

don't forget to close the door

Terror Twilight’s second attempt at actualization began at Sonic Youth’s Lower East Side studio/practice space Echo Canyon, rented out to the band at friends’ rates. The manageable budget was the main attraction but within a couple days it became apparent that the studio’s sundry idiosyncrasies were a bridge too far for Godrich. Acceptable headphone mixes were nearly impossible to achieve and the faders were upside down.

they peaked a lot when the faders were upside down, probably