which sonic youth?

jim!

O'Rourke has the best solo output so yeah, him.

Lee

Kim, duh.

^ x2

Kim

Thurston obv

lee

bob bert deserves an honorable mention

Kim wins for longevity.

richard edson is the true and correct answer!

Ciccone

our lord and savior jesus christ is the real answer

jim is such a boring challenging opinion please. voting kim obviously, this is clearly the only correct answer.

kim is the only one who 'gets' sonic youth

Edson -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ5jchmvkFQ

https://vdsqrecords005.bandcamp.com/album/vdsq-solo-acoustic-vol-5-12-string-meditations-for-jack-rose

lee

^v good solo acoustic 12-string album by Thurston
xp

i can't stand thurston moore

Lee and Jim, voted Lee

jim!

― reggie (qualmsley)

which one?

Bob Bert

Oh I thought this was gonna be 80s vs 90s vs 00s. Which would be really difficult!

i cannot decide this

I feel a little better about the "Jim" answers now that I imagine them being votes for Sclavunos.

steve

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

The episode of Homicide with Richard Edson and Bruno Kirby is a great SY deep cut.

Steve

What do you guys think of his drumming? I've seen the criticism made that he relies on the same groove for almost everything. (This would also not be an unfair cop wrt Thurston's playing; maybe why global hates him?)

it’s such a good groove tho

Kim wins for longevity.

Thurston.

My favourite songs are generally Thurston's so Thurston

don't rate any of them tbh!

I think Steve's drumming is deceptively simple and actually super intentional, tasteful, and in the pocket. There's clearly a reason they all keep hiring him for their solo projects when they could go with anyone.

I hate these kinds of polls in the same way that I hate the Cheers poll. Be real, a vote for anyone but Thurston is a vote for Cliff Claven over Sam Malone.

here is my evidence for steve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev4n7Bkn5QA

^^^ my fav SY song of all time

good call on rain on tin. steve is really great on that.

I know this is a very basic thing to say but SY didn’t really gel until Steve joined. His drumming style is basically a fourth guitar voice that meshes perfectly with the other three. One of my favourite drummers, kin to Klaus Dinger and I didn’t see anybody giving Klaus shit for having one dominant groove mode.

Lee is free.

this looks good, haven't listened yet (via Raymond C)

https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-los-angeles-1998

i was there! i remember thinking it was a boring show actually — but I was 19 and didn't know shit. the tape is awesome.

anyway, this is a band that is wayyyyyyyy more than the sum of its parts.

^^^ otm

My favourite songs are generally Thurston's so Thurston

His solo work is generally most consistent with what I like in Sonic Youth.

Psychic Hearts the song

that track really is fantastic, his finest moment in some ways, more lyrically direct than a lot of SY tunes

Kim is good. Lee is good. Steve is good. Thurston's kinda too much. Jim probably shouldn't count.

So Bob Bert it is.

xp to Psychic Hearts

Kinda the ultimate punk rock love song. In the grander, universal sense of the word love. One of the very few SY related tracks that gets me emotional.

Lee does all my favorite songs

i can't really stand Thurston Moore either, at least his personality, what happened with Kim, his embarrassing behavior in the Year Punk Broke....but he is still responsible for most of the Sonic Youth highpoints if you look at their entire career.

Some prime irritating Thurston in The Year Punk Broke, but some saving moments too.

*going at a bowl of soup*

“I need this elixir of... skinhead violence"

Lee saved them from becoming too much of the Thurston and Kim show and helped them become a much more rounded, venerable group as a whole (dodgy beat poet stuff aside)

Plus, his tunes and guitars etc

Amazing setlist on this one. Don't know if I'll shell out for any of these when there are plenty of good live shows on Youtube but a p good listen: https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-brooklyn-2011

(also via Raymond)

I saw that 98 tour in Toronto with the same setlist. I think they were very consistent with the setlist on that tour. I've heard "boring" from other people but I really enjoyed them all the three times I saw them.

(That 2011 Brooklyn show is probably one I'm most likely to shell out for if I do tbc! i'm already reconsidering, listening to it on good speakers now.)

Disappearer popped up on my playlist tonight, it was good

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i'm voting for steve shelley because hey, let's face it: drummers are cool.

also the one time i got to see them was on 4 july when they were touring rather ripped and all throughout the set, steve and lee had some sort of side banter going completely off mic and steve just kept bursting out laughing every time lee walked over, leaned in, and said something. it was very endearing.

this is a band that is wayyyyyyyy more than the sum of its parts

100% truth. That said, I'm voting Kim for the vocal on "Shadow of a Doubt," though I could just as easily vote Thurston for preaching the free jazz gospel to indie rock dorks in the 90s.

I think Steve's drumming is deceptively simple and actually super intentional, tasteful, and in the pocket. There's clearly a reason they all keep hiring him for their solo projects when they could go with anyone.

― change display name (Jordan), dimanche 26 avril 2020 17:07 (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Never responded to this but, yeah, thanks, that's cool and makes sense. He does sound effective and distinctive to me.

As much as I love the tonal chaos, SY really snapped into focus for me when Steve joined. I'd say his control over the dynamics of their songs is my favourite thing about the band.

i remember seeing lee renaldo in the photographers zone all through one ATP--sonic youth were playing, i mean, he wasn't just randomly there--but he looked like he was a camera nerd in a way that i also found suggested endearing things about him

Kim is way cooler than Thurston, but they are both too rich art school for me to really relate. Lee by comparison seems a bit more approachable and I have never really remember reading an interview with Steve.

kin to Klaus Dinger and I didn’t see anybody giving Klaus shit for having one dominant groove mode.

Here's Steve actually being Klaus for Michael Rother.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3Nt1xWjjE

Steve gets my vote for running Smells Like Records and actually tracking down Lee Hazlewood and somehow convincing him that people wanted to hear his records again.

Thanks, kind of surprised that he pulls off that motorik beat so well. I just realised that Hallogallo is probably a variation of Halligalli ("Halligalli machen", to make noise, to throw a party).

Kim is way cooler than Thurston, but they are both too rich art school for me to really relate. Lee by comparison seems a bit more approachable

Iirc, Ranaldo got a visual art degree like Gordon did (although his was from a state school), while Moore dropped out of college after a quarter semester and worked in a doughnut shop but, yeah, Ranaldo's family background was more blue-collar. Doubt that Moore grew up especially rich, with his Dad drifting between jobs and then dying when he was a teenager.

Good discussion, good points all around. Voting Thurston, the art not the artist I ftw, in this case at least.

Voted for Thurston as well.

A friend of mine one time went to some non-SY gig where Steve was on it and told me that he "couldn't keep a beat," or maybe "wouldn't" which kind of prejudiced me again him for a long time, but he seems to be the perfect drummer for this band though. Use to see Lee driving his old Mercedes Wagon near City Hall and probably would enjoy hanging at with him the most if it came to that, theoretically at least, but not going to let that sway me.

Found used copies of Kim’s Body/Head records and snatched them up happily. Struggled through them several times and I have decided they’re not for me. Similar feeling to their SYR series. I liked the idea of free range Sonic Youth but the listening experience is actively irritating.

Steve. The rest are pretentious, in various degrees

yah its sonic youth. vote kim 2020

Good poll. Midway thru Hits of Sunshine in the pre-dusk rays. Gen X Fab Four indeed

I didn't vote for Lee, but I hope to see some votes for him!

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

129 votes, heh. ILM stays true to its roots.

Oh man, Lee!

Lee only won because of the breakup

idk he was always my fave

Lee is free.

― earlnash, Sunday, April 26, 2020 4:10 PM (four weeks ago)

Lee is kinda corny, sorry.

i thought he was going to be third so i voted for him but kim is actually my favorite

Nice version of "Karen Revisited" here: https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-cabaret-metro-chicago-il-2002

v disappointed in you all

i thought he was going to be third so i voted for him but kim is actually my favorite

they're all corny

Corn is part of what makes them great.

sonic corn

just listened to Kim's solo album again, so good

steve (i love the first two records but he's so important! he focuses the band!) > kim ("shadow of a doubt" alone means kim > thurston) > thurston > lee

though this thread reminded me that i've never listened to every sonic youth album so i'm just gonna go through the whole discography

WHERES JIM?!

he doesn't count

if you listen to bad moon rising and liars' they were wrong so we drowned right in a row do u get automatically inducted into a satanic coven

Which Jim?

O'Rourke surely

which SY albums haven't you heard?

i think The Eternal might be the only one i've never heard in full

haven't heard any of the '90s records that aren't goo, have spent so little time with sister that i still don't really know it + rather ripped (love "incinerate" never heard the record) and the eternal

(xxp) Sclavunos

xp OMG Brad you are gonna flip over Dirty and Washing Machine

lol I was just doin a Turrican throwback, of all things... missed this poll but would've written in Jim, Murray St is my favorite

xp oh nice! you've got some really good ones to dig into

Holy shit yea Brad I bet you'll love Washing Machine

Thousand Leaves is really nice

Jet Set was my first one and I'm pretty nostalgic for it honestly.

BRAD

this is what you get for listening to all those other records instead of these other records

lol

i gotta be real sometimes i don't think music gets any better than evol

Evol and Sister are the peak afaic

Not that everything has to be a peak, there's lots of good stuff as they meander along from there

this is what you get for listening to all those other records instead of these other records

new board description

Washing Machine is a 68 minute tribute to the phaser pedal. it's a beautiful thing.

Evol and Sister are the peak afaic

^^^

each and every 90s record is great fuiid

even be here now?

NV otm

I like pretty much all their albums. never really got into EJSTNS apart from the single tho, not that I hate the rest of it. map almost otm

i gotta be real sometimes i don't think music gets any better than evol

Same :/

I remember playing Sister to a football hooligan idiot friend in the late 80's and he said: they sound like a hippy guitar version of new order, not bad. he was probably onto something there!

Literal hippie guitar version of New Order:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJnKf4bBEU

sister is just non-stop evidence for me picking steve in this poll. "catholic block"! the end of "tuff gnarl"!

<3 the drums on sister, so ferocious

Yeah, that one and Dirty are the ones where his drumming stands out most for me.

revisiting daydream nation, a record i've had a history of misunderstanding. i can't remember if it was my first sonic youth record or my third—i definitely rented murray street and sonic nurse from the library next to my high school, but i might not have bought daydream nation until i was in college? i was pretty unprepared for the particular way in which it—lol—sprawls, losing itself in long bleary tangles, wading out into lakes of sound and dragging back something gnarled, while also often sounding distant and ghostly, the guitars all kind of having that opaque glow of shapes of color in a frosted window pane. it just didn't really work the way i wanted a record to work. anyway i smoke weed and i get it now, but also i like... grew up, i think, and grew into it. they're totally on fire through the whole thing. where the kim, thurston, and lee songs seemed to inhabit related yet kind of distinct sonic worlds on evol and to a lesser extent sister, daydream nation the first record on which they sound like one mind... bending. (bad moon rising also sounds like one mind but like a totally cursed mind)

it's also occurring to me this time around that the best non-kim songs are "hey joni" and "candle," also the trilogy is so cool

ok steve on dirty icwym but if someone just made a compilation of the kim songs off sy (partic the major label blowup years) it would be by far their best album. like a better bongwater.

please be aware i don't say this lightly

hahaha OK noted, yeah I like Bongwater a lot

times are fucking weird & i worry about my daughter who lives out in minneapolis. and then for some reason today i decided to listen to all the sy albums from "goo" onward (cuz really, i never played them as much as the earlier ones) and man THEY ARE FUCKING GOOD!

— Byron Coley (@ByronColey1) May 30, 2020

brad this guy is COPYING you

lol

jet set is great imo! it has held up really well. even the filler is killer.

my favorite thing is how depleted "total trash" sounds after the noise breakdown

also when that one guitar turns into a cello in "hey joni"

i'm hearing the whitey album for the first time and it's incredibly fucking sick

raving to "macbeth" rn

oh yeah, that shit rules, like Neu formed a noise rock band

The Whitey Album remains my favourite of their records!

Also a big fan of Rather Ripped and Sonic Nurse, really great albums

Always thought of the Whitey Album as a jokey throwaway and mostly dud-ish. It does seem to get a lot of love here so maybe I should go back to it. Do like "Macbeth".

it also has the best version of "Making The Nature Scene"

Rly?

Kim Sonic is my favorite of the Sonic Youths

wouldn't that be the sonics youth

sonic youth is both the singular and plural, like deer

this is correct, continue

Les Sonic Youth

No, they're young siblings and Sonic is the surname. The Andrews Sisters, the Chemical Brothers, the Sonic Youths

Les Sonic Youth

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, May 31, 2020 11:16 AM (two hours ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s55WC-qkQa4

I love their goofy covers, that's a great one

Ramones medley is also all-time

#IWASTHERE

my favorite part of the whitey album is when whodini's "five minutes of funk" rears up in "two cool rock chicks listening to neu"

Wow that cover rules, thanks for sharing, I love that song to begin with

I just listened to White Flag's cover of "Wuthering Heights" from the same compilation and now I want to bury that band in a bog

This might be my favourite of their covers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ovGHzvuWw

Yes, that's a beaut.

That's cool. Just looked it up and it led me to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5BxKIeP6WM

goo was my fav sonic youth album in college, it just seemed to tighten up what they were doing on daydream nation in the perfect way. this is still true even though it is no longer my favorite sy album. "mote" is my favorite lee song and my favorite sy song ever and makes me sympathetic to the ppl who voted for him in this thread, but if "mote" weren't there this would be yet another sy album where kim delivered the best song, which is "cinderella's big score"

i also would not rate goo over daydream nation now

it's so fuckin good though still. hook city

ok i'm listening to dirty for... it can't be the first time, but i also can't remember ever making my way through the whole thing

anyway, steve is a fuckin monster on "drunken butterfly"

WHAT'S YR NAME

Kim has some amazing songs on Dirty IMO.

"swimsuit issue," "drunken butterfly," "orange rolls, angel's spit," "shoot," "jc," all hits

dirty: too long, yet every song kicks ass so who cares

rating individual band members seems pretty pointless but i did always love steve's drumming. it was obvious lee was going to win since he's the george of SY and hence the "cool" vote ("he only has one or two songs per album but actually ... they're the best songs"). i wonder if these people also think the joe lally songs are better than the ian and guy songs.

i am still the most otm re dirty, let me see if i can find my post

the production is also so good, all the songs sound so sharp and about as pop as they could be

For however creative you may think Sonic Youth is, I'm still puzzled why they named the album "Dirty" after the first single from their previous record was named "Dirty Boots"... or maybe the galaxy-brainers think it's like Houses of the Holy in reverse?

"on the strip" -> "chapel hill" -> "jc" -> "purr" is my favorite run on the record, incredible, thurston and kim at the peak of their powers

xp I think to match the Mike Kelly art? not sure tho

absolute best kim performances, vicious and totally confident

most production presence

biggest dumbest drums

sickest noises

most urgent riffing

best lee song?

CLOUD JAMS

i believe anita hill

'radio' songwriting fits in rather than sticking out

fat alt-rock bass

this is the best SY album forever

― j., Tuesday, July 8, 2014 7:49 PM (five years ago)

me otm

haha yeah the "fat alt-rock bass" is such a good look on this record

I’m a sadass daydream nation partisan, idk what’s wrong with me. that album just vaporizes everything in sight.

so much beauty... I should probably own sister

wow j. you were and are otm

<3 for the love for dirty

SY were on such a roll from Evol to Sister, Daydream Nation, Goo, Dirty

wow experimental jet set is like the anti-dirty, i kinda love it for that alone

Jim O'Rourke added a *lot* to Murray Street and Sonic Nurse

Kim has always been the most interesting component of the band though imo

xp lol it is totally the anti-Dirty, good call

I guess they all were important to the whole

"on the strip" -> "chapel hill" -> "jc" -> "purr" is my favorite run on the record, incredible, thurston and kim at the peak of their powers

Chapel Hill is my fave undersung Dirty track, incredible sections everywhere

haven't thought about Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star in a long time. I remember reading that 'Experimental' 'Jet Set' 'Trash' and 'No Star' referred to the members of the band, but I can't find the reference now

Sister / DN / Goo are like one unfuckwithable quadruple album, and Murray St / Sonic Nurse are their abstract cerebral second peak.
I have spoken

agree, would include Evol

Steve going nuts in the middle of Chapel Hill justifies the DGC move alone.

Dirty is their brattiest album, which generally speaking suits Thurston and Kim’s sensibilities over Lee’s; “Wish Fulfillment” as a lone track makes sense in this context but this (self imposed?) marginalisation of Lee is a detriment to Experimental Jet Set (a couple of Lee tunes would have worked wonders alongside ‘Winner’s Blues’, ‘BITH’ etc)

not self-imposed, he almost quit the band because they wouldn't put "Genetic" on the album, see the Goodbye Twentieth Century book for details

lee otm

i had to spend a little time with it to totally wrap my head around it, but experimental jet set is really good! kim, once again, completely rules it

it's prob their scariest and most sinister album since evol

that is an excellent observation, agreed

I found the songs on Experimental... much more catchy and palatable after Dirty. It was like a retreat to a comfy indie zone after the full frontal assault of grunge sonics and wrecked vocals.

that sounds backwards dude

Some promising new stuff up on their bandcamp today, including live sets from Yugoslavia in '85 and '87, Irvine in 1990 and Brixton Academy in 1992.

Why are the Lemonheads & Superchunk referenced in "Screaming Skull"?

i was wondering that too

also uh... wow. fuckin washing machine

xxp idk they were friends and contemporaries? lotta namechecking in that one iirc

oh Brad I am so happy that you get to bask in the glory of Washing Machine

Were their records not found in the SST Superstore?

"washing machine" -> "unwind," my god where has this album been all my life

Does that mean you haven't heard "The Diamond Sea"?

@sleeve: I don't think that "Screaming Skull" is a positive song, exactly... feel like it has a snarky arch tone (I should mention that Dave Markey gets a cowriter credit on the lyrics on this song).

SY (& Husker & Dinosaur &c.) were beyond unhappy with SST/Ginn for not paying them for their record sales and then opening a retail store on the Hollywood Sunset Strip (pretty damn far from Lawndale).

I also am under the impression SY and the Lemonheads were friends at all. Even the Pat mentions feel like digs as well (although he joined Nirvana very soon after this song).

Superchunk was kind of in a different universe at this point as well, I was a college DJ at the time and was got way more play/energy out of "On The Mouth" than "Experimental Jet Set" which I felt was kind of a compilation of tossed off/throwaway songs (except for Bull).

should read: "were NOT friends at all"

Does that mean you haven't heard "The Diamond Sea"?

― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Friday, June 5, 2020 11:39 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not knowingly! only song on this record i've heard before is "little trouble girl"

WHAT

if I had to pick a single album that showcases nearly all their strengths it would be that one

"Unwind" is the prettiest SY song, imo

Al that's interesting about the superstore, I knew the SST hate but not that detail. makes more sense now.

oh wait i totally have heard "the diamond sea" lol. maybe not in its entirety

yeah i've definitely only heard the radio edit before!!!!!

o u sweet summer child

Washing Machine is great and feels like a transition point to the more abstract era of A Thousand Leaves, Goodbye 20th Century and NYC Ghosts & Flowers.

my interpretation of the eras of sonic youth

1982-1985 presentation
1986-1993 creation
1994-1997 consolidation
1997-2001 abstraction, SYR
2002-2004 improvisation

all of them are pretty great

my interest in SY I think ends after 2004. it felt to me that Rather Ripped and The Eternal just went over old territory, but I will revisit them at some point

really can't believe washing machine

someone should've just given me this record when i was trying to get into sonic youth in high school

it and Dirty were my gateways and still my faves

this band has too many great albums

here’s a quarter
go put it in a washing machine

Dirty was the first I heard and it knocked me out. I never really heard it as some kind of pop or sellout move. Washing Machine was my favourite album by anyone for a few years starting from the time it came out. The whole thing doesn't really stand up as a catalogue peak anymore for me but I do still think "The Diamond Sea" is one of the best things they ever did. I almost envy being able to hear these for the first time.

Still love the single art for some unknown reason
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81sIAh9UWVL._SL1200_.jpg

DSea was great the first time I heard it. Never need to hear it again

pleasantly surprised at how the discussion on this dumb pool turned out

1982-2004 years were a supernova, not likely to see the same again

just figured out that lee's songs rule mostly for what he brings out in the band as opposed to what he brings to the table

someone should've just given me this record when i was trying to get into sonic youth in high school

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 6 June 2020 2:26 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

ha washing machine was the album that got me into sonic youth in high school

were you that chunky kid with the t-shirt

That kid died last year :(

shelley's drumming on the syr stuff is uniformly awesome

SYR2 is my jam

I hate 3

Ha, 3 might have been my favourite, unless it was 4.

I really liked 3 it was kind of a gateway for me into weirder stuff. But I haven’t listened to it in a long time.

I find it painfully unfocused, especially compared to 1 & 2.

also I dislike Jim O'Rourke intensely and think he was bad for the band overall

(as a member, maybe not as a producer)

I’m not a huge SY fan but you know what totally rules?

SILVER SESSIONS

S

oh yeah that one is good

this era was when i was in high school and had a friend who was obsessed with sonic youth so heard all these odds and sods

i'm curious about why sleeve doesn't like jim o'rourke

Whoa, same. "Dislike intensely" even. What brings on these intense feelings sleeve?

I just don't like him! his songwriting leaves me cold, his experimental stuff is pretentious, he smokes too much, and he fucked with one of my favorite bands. probably just still bitter that I bought SYR3 new with high expectations.

the only good stuff he did was with Illusion Of Safety imo

see also: weird creepy obsession with Japan

like, everything I read in Goodbye 20th Century made me think "wow I would hate this person if I met them IRL"

you know why he left SY right? it's in Kim's book.

Wait what

hmm I read it but I forget

we all get one popular ILX artist to hate, it's the rule

Thurston left Kim for Jim's then-girlfriend (who herself got divorced & married & divorced again to other unrelated people during this process).

ohhhhh right, ew

halfway to a noway

loooool

Bad two-timing

it would be so nice
if you weren't here

*why I don't want to know anything about the personal lives of the artists whose music I like

it would be so nice
if you weren't here

― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Monday, June 8, 2020 4:42 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

LMAO

lmao silver session is fucking amazing

jury's out on whether i think "invito al ĉielo" works really well or is just ok for what it is, but i love "hungara vivo" and "radio-amatoroj"

'Invito al ĉielo' is my favourite of the SYR series! And while on side projects etc, don't sleep on their 'In The Fishtank' ep w/ The Ex and ICP (Instant Composers Pool, not the insane pool of juggalos)

i'm prob not in the same space to appreciate free noise jams as i was in college

"radio-amatoroj" essentially splits the difference between free noise jamming and the more straightforward motoriky jamming they were doing on syr2 which is why i like it a lot

time for a thousand leaves!!!! i've heard a lot of things about this record and none of them give me any idea of what to expect lol

Challop maybe but to me that's always been "less focused Washing Machine" for the most part

uhhhhhh i can't believe i've never heard "sunday" before

or "wildflower soul" which is strongly hinting at what they were going to achieve on murray street

uh this record is fucking awesome. kim's songs are occurring on a different planet from our own

Washing Machine was the last one I truly loved, and my interest rapidly trailed off as they entered the Jim O'Rourke years. I probably should revisit these and see how I feel now.

uh this record is fucking awesome. kim's songs are occurring on a different planet from our own

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:07 (forty-five minutes ago) link

yeah i feel like kim's creativity really took off in the 90s like she matured into this really beautiful, still wild, complex thing

HITS OF SUNSHINE

heresy maybe but a thousand leaves has my favorite lee songs since "mote"

he really shines on nycg+f too

i've listened to it four times in a row today and there's v little doubt in my mind that a thousand leaves is my new favorite sonic youth album

it forecasts the o'rourke records perfectly while also being its own weedy thing. like daydream nation it's a record where i can feel their ideas of what they can do expanding

also i loved hearing "the ineffable me" and thinking "wait have i heard this song before?" because it's the same riff from "slaapkamers met slagroom"

"hits of sunshine" is just an amazing adventure through details. i mean it as a compliment when i say it reminds me of the doors lol

I never put my finger on which 60s band it sounded like. I think that's it.

sonic youth ranked, no syr:

a thousand leaves
murray street
sonic nurse
daydream nation
washing machine
dirty
evol
sister
goo
bad moon rising
whitey album
nyc ghosts & flowers
rather ripped
experimental jet set, trash and no star
the eternal
confusion is sex

which order?

best to least best

Confusion is Sex way way way too loW

'murray street' is definitely of of their best, if not the best, really.

it was my favorite before i finally heard a thousand leaves

thousand leaves is pretty much the ultimate collision of sonic youth: hip arch noise collagists + sonic youth: four people who've spent a lot of time stoned listening to different performances of "dark star"

i can't agree with EVOL or Sister in the middle like that but i don't read Brad's lists to agree :D

also they're a band that released a ton of amazing records that are basically all as good as each other. like from bad moon rising on up my list is hair-splitting

Brad is a thoughtful poster and I’m sure he could justify each placement but that ranking is o_O. Whitey album is dead last and I like it, even. A better approach may be to rank by decade.

‘80s:
Daydream Nation
Sister
Bad Moon Rising
Evol
Confusion is Sex
Sonic Death
S/T

‘90s
Washing Machine
Dirty
A Thousand Leaves
Goo
Experimental, Jet Set...

‘00s
Murray Street
Sonic Nurse
NYC Ghosts and Flowers
Rather Ripped
The Eternal

i havent heard a thousand leaves but the rest of brad's list tracks pretty well with the ones i like so maybe i should

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0t5-VRGPT4OMDoZBcy_WSgxaQ

also they're a band that released a ton of amazing records that are basically all as good as each other

yeah i think a lot of SY favouritism is "first introduction"

Daydream is still weaker than often claimed tho lol

my pronouns are they/them btw yelploaf

i feel like my ranking is pretty explicable! sorry confusion is so low, i just like bad moon rising so much more that i don't feel the need to go back to it almost ever

Daydream is still weaker than often claimed tho lol

― i have no scampo and i must scream (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, July 1, 2020 12:04 PM (twenty-six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i would've agreed with this before i did the discography run. idk, it just finally hit me

Noted, Brad. Thank you. I’ll agree with the ‘first introduction’ theory, too. My first was Goo and I bought every subsequent album on its release date. My fandom is not without its reservations but they’re forever lodged in my teenage heart as sign posts from which to explore. I would love to revisit the discography unclouded by sentimentality.

thousand leaves is pretty much the ultimate collision of sonic youth: hip arch noise collagists + sonic youth: four people who've spent a lot of time stoned listening to different performances of "dark star"

finally someone nails why I'm not that into A Thousand Leaves for the most part

it’s AMAZING THOUGH

finally someone nails why I'm into A Thousand Leaves for the most part

I’d wager that Lee is the only member who rates the Dead (and smokes pot).

i would've agreed with this before i did the discography run. idk, it just finally hit me

trying with DN is an every few years ritual with me

like i said, i'm not disagreeing. it feels like it *ought* to click

I’d wager that Lee is the only member who rates the Dead (and smokes pot).

― Yelploaf, Wednesday, July 1, 2020 12:24 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

well thurston’s really good at giving me the impression he’s a deadhead anyway cf. “wildflower soul,” “rain on tin,” “dripping dream”

thurston is also a huge deadhead. i remember reading a long article about the dead in Arthur that he wrote.

not sure about the others.

Daydream Nation was my first SY and had a huge impact on me but EVOL has been my favourite for a long time now.

I should revisit A Thousand Leaves - when I first bought it I thought it sounded amazing on this one particular EQ preset on the stereo I'd just got but that died about a week later and somehow I was never able to recapture the listening experience.

daydream nation is my favorite by far... I just don’t get that same warm buzzy vibe and urgency from the others idk. probably cuz I heard it first.

As a dilettante who only got into them way late, I think Rather Ripped is sick. :)

rather ripped is sick! i hated putting it so low

the kim songs are especially good(, they said about every sonic youth album ever)

thread proved its point when Kim didn't win

"thurston is also a huge deadhead. i remember reading a long article about the dead in Arthur that he wrote."

Not in Arthur. We ran more than one piece for the (um) Dead-curious, Thurston wasn't in any of them.

haha, my mistake! i'd say i swear i remember reading it, but i trust you :)

in that case, i withdraw my proof of thurston's deadheadism. but i do agree with the points upthread that he demonstrates their influence musically, at least

EVOL was my first Sonic Youth and I still think it is one of their best, it will always be special to me. Kim was key

I like that Brad rates the later SY albums

re Daydream Nation, the back-and-forth reverie of "you're it, no you're it" and then the blast of guitars is one of the best moments ever

ever since I had my revelation about Lee he will always be the lowest of the sonic youths, still cool tho

BMR was my first and still my fave, so yeah

i've been listening to Sonic Nurse pretty heavily the last few days, giving it solid listens for the first time in quite a while. absolutely in love with the main guitar progression in "Dude Ranch Nurse" (e.g. during "let the action begin, again"). it's such a simple line, but it sounds so good, a little shambolic but natural and human, like feeling your way down a staircase with a hangover.

I WAS AT THIS SHOW FUCK YEAH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xGU_cNGbs

sick show!!

it was like a god damn hurricane

saw them every year after that up through Goo, but this was the pinnacle

Such a July band. I think both times I saw them were in July.

If Leaves and Goo were swapped I could basically be made to agree with that ranking. When I say I love Sonic Youth, '02-'04 SY is generally at the forefront of my mind.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/sonic-youth-album-guide-a-look-back-on-all-16-studio-albums/

^ this guy's 'pop' / 'punk' / 'experimental' concepts are crude tools but he writes a lot

Such a July band. I think both times I saw them were in July.

I saw their last show before all their OG gear got stolen on July 2, 1999:

She Is Not Alone
Schizophrenia
Bull in the Heather
Starfield Road
Eric's Trip
French Tickler
The Ineffable Me
Karen Koltrane
Free City Rhymes
Renegade Princess
Sugar Kane
Teenage Riot
Shadow of a Doubt
Tom Violence
Brother James

they have so many fuckin songs, how do they remember them all

Whenever they forget, they can just slide into a feedback drone for a few minutes until they’re ready to bring it back

A Thousand Leaves got me into Daydream Nation, and I still love 3/4ths of it ("Hoarfrost" is my favorite Ranaldo song ever). As much shit as I give him now, Christgau's unbending enthusiasm for ATL helped me "get it" in 1998-1999.

My ranking: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/10/05/ranking-sonic-youth/

xxxp Thurston had a lot of trouble remembering lyrics, some very funny stuff abt this in Goodbye 20th Century