'Bad Moon Rising' is the best Sonic Youth album!

BTW, I know everyone around here thinks "Daydream Nation" sucks, but I love it. I truly don't hear the bad production that everyone complains about, and I think it contains some of SY's most focused noise-art and best songs.

Uh, no.

Bad Moon Rising is pretty darned good. One neat thing about my copy...it's the Blast First edition, and there's some wonko numbering going on. I think my copy has no track 9. Anyone else notice this?

http://www.ilxor.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004vWr

At any rate, I couldn't disagree more-LOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEIT.

-J

^^The above comment might be true...

But this is the best Sonic Youth album. Why don't they do the between song ambience any more? Really this album anticipated Washing Machine/A Thousand Leaves. Parts of it sound very similar to the recent B-sides thing they put out.

BRAVEMENRUNNNNNNN! INTO THE SETTING SUN!

i've never heard any sonic youth pre-daydream nation

That's fine, but it's no way to live. Really you should just fix that. Like quickly.

Toss up between this one and 'Confusion is Sex' for me.

esoj I think you would like Sister, give it a listen sometime.

this is the best SY album, yes.

society is a hole.. it makes me lie to my friends..

I almost started a Sonic Youth poll, but I didn't want to be that guy.
I would have voted for Bad Moon Rising. It's sexy!

My friends have big hair.
And everybody's scared.

I think there was an SY album poll. This album should have won, but didn't.

well, i didn't find it in a search.
All the better that I didn't start one, I guess.

BMR has always been my favorite. I just now noticed BMR is the album title and first song.

it's running down my street with white power sneakers

their first really good, but not great, album

side 1 is easily my favourite side of any sonic youth record.

Okay this is a bit weird...I pulled this album out earlier tonight before I saw this thread was revived. I'm shocked to find someone else revived it besides me! Yes..."Brave Men Run..." etc. I mainly pulled it out for "I Love Her All The Time", but I did play it from the beginning and let it roll. Sometimes I really, really love this album, and other times it doesn't grab me as much. It's kindof strange like that. I really dug it tonight, though. No doubt.

She started to HOLLER!

The thing to remember is that there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING which sounded anything like BMR when it came out. They refined it, other people picked up on it, but it was just shockingly new at the time.

The only track I'll return to here is "Death Valley `69", which still fucking delivers.

I only ever listen to "Brave Men Run".

"Sister" is the best one, tbh.

The whole first side is seamless, and I think I've said it elsewhere but I really wish that more people would use *this* album as their inspiration when they want to be influenced by Sonic Youth. The way Society is a Hole and I Love Her All The Time emerge from chaotic between-song collage remains breathtaking. I've never been as big on side two...seems like a lead-up to DV69, which sounds like Evol.

Secret theory is that once the band found a "good" drummer, the end was near, with Evol and Sister being (fantastic) documents of a band that had already peaked conceptually.

I pulled this album out earlier tonight before I saw this thread was revive

Weird. I just downloaded BMR this morning and am currently listening to it for the first time - jaw on the floor. The only Sonic Youth I'd heard previously was Daydream Nation, Goo, and Dirty. I can confidently say that the better qualities of those albums pale before anything on here. This record is the shit! I am on "Satan Is Boring" right now.

I totally agree with both dlp and Soukesian, I think part of my response to this record may have been my age and the time it came out in... familiar motifs for those incandescent early music experiences. The cover made a visceral impact, standing out from a wall of nondescript albums like a giant signal bonfire. The music itself had a cataclysmic impact on me and many of my friends. I may never love an album so much and so completely ever again (I was 19 when it came out, btw).

note to king kong: "Satan" is one of numerous extra CD tracks not on the original LP... I think "Halloween" and "Flower" are on there also. And yea, it is the shit.

kingkong, although different, you may want to hurry up and get the ep, confusion is sex, kill yr idols, evol and sister while you're at it!

Yeah, I might could do that.

as I put this album on I am reminded that my old Blast First CD had the very first few notes of the intro cut out, anybody else notice that? Get the LP... Where is the box set reissue treatment for this?!?! They should add the whole "Walls Have Ears" album in with it.

The way Society is a Hole and I Love Her All The Time emerge from chaotic between-song collage remains breathtaking.

absolutely! perhaps not the greatest SY song writing moment but possibly thee greatest SY sonic moment.

"death valley '69" rules but got pretty much killed for me by being the token SY song that i'd hear in discos back then (every week!). i can only dig the 7" mix nowadays.

xpost: "Evol and Sister being (fantastic) documents of a band that had already peaked conceptually"

That's the way I'd see it. Peaked conceptually is a bit harsh, perhaps. I don't personally like Daydream Nation and a lot of what came after, but they just moved on and so did I. I can acknowledge that, say, something like Washing Machine might be a peak for someone else.

But it's great to see other folk were as knocked out by early SY as me - anyone else at their first Glasgow gig, I think it was the EVOL tour?

King Kong, you should definitely hear 'Confusion is Sex' which is rougher but even more apocalyptic than BMR.

anyone else at their first Glasgow gig, I think it was the EVOL tour?

i was. i was stopped on my way to the gig by thurston moore and kim gordon on sauchiehall street and had to give them directions to the venue. i'm sure i acted like a starstruck teenager, which is exactly what i was!

I saw Sonic Youth for the first time this year. I know its like seeing the Stones now or whatever, but when they did 100% I saw stars! I was the one at the front screaming for Brave Men Run if you were there!

i saw them this year too and probably enjoyed it as much as the first time i saw them. still on fire.

I've got a ticket to see Thurston Moore this coming week. Haven't heard his new album yet, though.

Best Sonic Youth Studio Album

Fuck that shit, I like what I like!

Amen!

It's more like Swans/Neubauten industrial (but probably more fully realized) than like punk or indie rock, which is probably why it doesn't get as much notice from most critics. It's the only 80s SY album that didn't make Stairway to Hell!

This isn't true, actually! The debut didn't make the book, either. In retrospect, though, I like both of those more than Daydream Nation (and much more than anything Sonic Youth did post-'80s.

Also, in general, does it really get less respect from (other) critics than the first two albums, especially the debut? If so, that's news to me.

(And ps: I like Einsturzende Neubuaten.)

You have to take the whole thing in one bite, or not at all.

This seems really weird to me, too, especially since I always thought "Death Valley '69" was one of their best singles.

Damnit someone mentioned Neubauten to me recently and damned if I can remember who it was. Wait...someone who called themself Blixa something-or- other on some message board. I remember now. My plan was to listen to "Yu Gung" again after all these years. And so I shall.

I can't understand the appeal of Death Valley '69 at all, I'm afraid. They could have left it off the album for all I care.

You know, I've never actually heard the original Yu Gung (only the Pussy Galore version)! I should probably address that at some point. What album is it on?

the original version is an Adrian Sherwood-produced 12" single, then there is a later, somewhat more produced version on the Halber Mensch album. Strategies Against Architecture Volume 2 also has a live verson.

IIRC what I meant 5 yrs ago, I don't think I was considering the s/t EP as an album. (Still don't, really.) You seem to be right, though, that BMR doesn't really appear to have been reviewed that much worse than the other early records. (I was prob comparing it to the albums from Evol onwards.)

I just put on the album b/c of this thread. Sounds like a weird mix of jangly pop and sludge-noise, v 80s on both counts (maybe obv). "Intro/Brave Men Run" is still glorious. The break in "I Love Her..." is playing right now. There is still something hypnotic about it. If I listen to SY now, it's usu Sister and bits of DN but I put on Evol the other day and it really thrilled. (Prob a bad sign.)

Holy christ, I didn't realize there were so many different versions, sleeve. Adrian Sherwood produced 12", eh? How fascinating. But I OWNED the Halber Mensch album. So I don't know...I'd really like to hear the other two versions too!

There is no Sonic Youth in the entire world that beats their first eponymous EP. dlp9001 will back me up on this. And the live tracks added to the CD of that make it even more amazing.

(I ended up getting annoyed and switching it off in the middle of "I'm Insane.")

It doesn't sound dated at all. It's more like Swans/Neubauten industrial

haha this looks like such a blatant contradiction to me now.

(xpost)

I completely forgot to back Bimble up! I never would have predicted back in the 80's that I'd feel that way, but here I am. Best SY album is the first one with nerdy-looking Kim on the cover. Who knew!

(When I first bought it, on vinyl no less, it mystified me every bit as much as 2nd Edition. Where's the distorto-guitars and the punk rock 'n' roll, I wondered.)

My other unexpected SY favorite is the 1st track off of NYCG&F. Did they ever do anything else in such a weird time sig?

What time signature is "Free City Rhymes" in? I like that one too. I don't have the greatest ear for this but I just count it in 4 with some syncopation and layered guitar lines coming in at weird places. The drums emphasize 2 and the "&"'s of 3 and 4, AFAICT. But, like I said, my aural skills need serious work.

I should have said that I do listen to Sonic Nurse and Murray St a fair bit.

I could be wrong, but was listening to it on the train this morning and the drums are in 4, but the main guitar is in 5 (so they sync up every 20 beats). Not sure about the vocals or the other noticable guitar, and actually I'm not sure if that counts as a weird time sig! Whatever it is, I think it may be my favorite post-Sister track of theirs.

listening to this now, it's pretty fuckin good dudes

Robert Palmer named it his favorite album of the year in the New York Times. Later, a major label A&R guy called him up and cussed him out for making him waste his time.

Boggled to read Jim upthread saying he hasnt heard anything pre-DDN. Is this still the case?! Dude you have to at least hear Sister and EVOL!

I had a limited-run AuGoGo pressing of Bad Moon Rising/EVOL as a numbered special double pack vinyl with a poster and funky plasticy vinyl pouch thing. Must be worth quite a lot. Or would be - if I hadn't somehow one day drunkenly stood/knelt on my copy of EVOL and snapped it in half ;_;

BMR is great, but Confusion Is Sex is the true lost classic. - and my copy is on Zensor, motherfuckers!

archival live release coming soon from the bad moon rising tour
http://70.32.78.35/sonicnews/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/sonicyouth_smart_color1.jpg

Sonic Youth – Smart Bar – Chicago 1985

2xlp/ CD / digital

Release Date : November 14, 2012

In August 1985 Sonic Youth were touring across the states following the

release of their recently released LP ‘Bad Moon Rising’. This performance

from August 11, 1985 at Chicago’s Smart Bar was recorded on 4-track

cassette. This live recording consists of much of Bad Moon Rising and early

performances of Secret Girl + Expressway to Yr Skull later to be released on

EVOL, as well as a rare never before released live rendition of Kat ‘N’ Hat.

Mixed and mastered by the band from the original tape source for this double

LP edition w/ download card (or CD or digital edition) along w/ liner notes by Gerard

Cosloy and Sonic Youth engineer Aaron Mullan and photos by Pat Blashill and

Steven Koress and released by Sonic Youth on their own label Goofin’

Records and distributed via Revolver USA.

Sonic Youth – Smart Bar – Chicago 1985

1- Hallowe’en

2- Death Valley ’69

3- Intro/Brave Men Run(In My Family)

4- I Love Her All The Time

5- Ghost Bitch

6- I’m Insane

7- Kat ‘N’ Hat

8- Brother James

9- Kill Yr Idols

10- Secret Girl

11- Flower

12- The Burning Spear

13- Expressway To Yr Skull

14- Making The Nature Scene

Excited!

yeah, i've got a few 85 shows but not this one. is this right after steve shelley joined?

I know it was sometime in '85 when he joined, that seems about right.

This is the first Sonic Youth release I'm excited about in 20 years. Looks great.

haha! yeah i love live 80s SY. the Hold That Tiger fan club CD from the sister tour is probably in my top 5 SY releases.

Looks very similar to Walls Have Ears (which is great, I love that album!) That was recorded in November with Shelley so he should be on this too.

Shelley joined in June of 85 so it'll be him.

and yeah, he's the guy who looks about 9 years old in that cover pic

Awesome! I still have this on tape from years ago -- one of my favorites. This is the version of Expressway I hear in my head when I think about that song.

First clip is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2dpbiO7dZk

Sounds way better than the boot I have. Day one purchase.

That sounds pretty great, definitely excited about this. Love the setlist, and these days I just cannot hear enough versions of Expressway. Such a cool song.

I generally like the live version of BMR songs better than the album so I'm excited for this.

Yeah, that is what excites me most about that setlist actually. Feel like those songs take on a whole new life outside of the studio that is really cool. Would love to have seen the tours supporting/around BMR.

Listened to BMR yesterday. Great for this season.

white power sneakers

http://www.bizrate.com/mens-shoes/white-power-sneakers/

my friends have big heads

There must be a club for people whos first SY album was BMR.

Still an amazing album in so many ways (from someone expecting 8 version of 'Death Valley 69'), they could never do it again (literally = Bert/Shelley)

i'm in that club though i've never met a fellow member. i still clearly remember buying it not long after it came out (having only heard death valley '69) and the guy in the record shop who sold me it being crazily excited that someone had bought a copy. he built the record up to such epic proportions that i was sure it was going to be a huge anti climax but of course he was exactly right and it wasn't.

The first 2 songs of BMR essentially boils their entire career into a short 5 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ2fjLD45WQ

Everything you need to know is all there, the long spacey passages of Daydream Nation, the catchy "almost-pop" of the 90s, Kim playing tough, tape-loops, free-form noise dro, prepared guitar, open tunings for days, the (proto-)Steve Shelley shuffle, squalory whale calls of feedback, metronomic bass...

There must be a club for people whos first SY album was BMR.

*raises hand*

Somewhere upthread I talk about seeing the cover on the wall of a store that summer and being super intrigued, when I went back to college that fall ('85) one of the first people I met was a super cool girl who had that (and Alien Soundtracks, and other excellent records). I listened to my tape of it every day for at least a month.

The Smart Bar Chicago 1985 record is fucking amazing.

That's all.

yeah it's so cool hearing one of the first Shelley shows, a couple early performances of EVOL cuts, when they announced i thought it was gonna be a Bert era show and was like "whatever, I've already seen Gila Monster Jamboree"

I wouldn't mind having a nice version fo Gila Monster Jamboree, too! I love this stuff.

I'm also afraid this is going to get overlooked on end of year lists. Which would be a shame.

why?

it's practically a reissue, show had been around as a bootleg forever

why do I think it'll be overlooked or why is it a shame?

To answer the first, it's never been released, so shouldn't be considered a reissue, but because it's old and a live show a lot of people will dismiss it out of hand.

For the second, it's one of the best things to come out this year, and I would argue one of the very best things in Sonic Youth's catalog. It deserves to be recognized.

archival live records are rarely going to be looked at in an 'album of the year' way and i'm fine w/ that tbh

Led Zep's How The West Was Won made top 40 of Pazz & Jop, and rightfully so. It's about release date, not recording date.

yeah that was what i was thinking of when i said 'rarely.' 3-disc Zep is kind of understandably a diff't deal.

I understand why Zep did so well, but to dismiss archival first releases in general is weird. I don't expect this to be even a blip, though maybe with Sonic Youth inactive/kaput it'll get some sympathy. I'm just saying it should get more consideration than it will, because it's awesome.

this new Smart Bar Chicago 1985 show album they released is fucking great

is it streaming anywhere?

it's on spotify but i need to cop this SY jawn ASAP

ok found it -- funny the tape starts out all rough, i was like man they really put out a bootleggy sounding tape! but it improves after about a minute.

yeah i didn't know if i was gonna listen to the whole thing at first but overall the sound is pretty god

Yeah, they actually address that issue in the liner notes. The guy who taped the show at the higher quality apparently didn't start recording right away, so they patched in another, lower fidelity source for the start of the set. They liked the way it sounded, as if the band like really kicks in.

Listening to this now on Spotify. God, when Steve tears in on "Death Valley '69" it's just amazing.

ha, yeah, this rules.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1162221683055318405EaXRzv

eh? wrong thread?
anyway, this is kinda bumming me out that i'll (probably?) never see SY live again! oh well, last time i saw 'em they closed with an epic "expressway" so i guess that's as good a way to go out as any.

Should add I was a member of the Bad Moon club.

"Just buy me the album with the best cover".

I have my grade 6 art students design album covers every year. I've got a girl who arrived from China a couple of months ago--very good artist, not much English and close to an elective mute on top of that, so sometimes I let her copy existing art rather than come up with her own ideas. She did a really nice job copying the Bad Moon Rising cover. Just finished putting it and a dozen other covers up on a bulletin board, and noticed for the first time she renders their name as Song Youth.

It may not be their best album (that would be either Evol or Sister...probably Evol) but "I Love Her All the Time" is their best song, no contest.

My favorite Sonic Youth albums are Daydream Nation and Goo because I imagine a world where Sonic Youth were a pop band and it's a glorious world, I assure you.

Evol. It's the one that shows they could have done everything and been a band beyond category

(xpost) My student was probably trying to make the same point with Song Youth--that she likes their melodic, poppier side better than their arty stuff.

still BMR. forever.

good stuff here: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/06/08/wax-wonders-sonic-youth-singles/

Tthanks for the link; that version of "Kill Yr Idols" rules! i saw them on about 6 or 7 dates of the Evol, and Sister tours and would repeatedly (and no doubt annoyingly) shout for "Kill Yr Idols" from the front row to the band's evident annoyance. They never played it.

Ooh been looking for that kill yr idols single since high school