C/D: Sonic Youth's GOO

(those 8-track demos and live versions that appeared on, er, boy I can't remember what EPs around the same time were alright though)

Also:

Dirty Boots!

Dirty Boots baybeeee!

production = piss poor duddy dud

pettibon cover art = classic

search: goo demos.

cover's ace too, although isn't it something to do
with myra hindley or did i dream that ?

If anyone hears it and feels disappointed just be glad you weren't a silly bastard like me and shelled out SIXTEEN FUCKING QUID for Thurston Moore's "Psychic Hearts", possibly the worst album I've ever heard. Any other Youth related project sounds ace to me now as a result.

sundar- wasn't DN remastered? i never got holf of it. if you have can you tell me what do you think of it. thanks.

again. I love daydream and sister and Goo is beautiful rec but I can't rank 'em really. i have seen SY live so I don't know how diff the songs on DN are.

I can't haven't been able to get into their last three albums at all and haven't even bothered with the new one, although I would check them out live if they ever decided to play some place in the midwest again, which they haven't forever.

The thing that is such a let down on later Sonic Youth is that their music sounds lethargic and doesn't have the same energy coming up from the drums. For a couple of years Steve Shelley was tapping into some Keith Moon freakbeatery that was awesome, now the drums just don't have that kind of drive.

kim always has done great vocals. i can't remmeber 'tunic' but she's always been exceptional as a rock n' roll singer.

I really like the 'video album' (or whatever they're called) that SY made for 'Goo'.

With all due respect, Julio, I sincerenly think you're mistaken, or at least when it comes to this track. Dig it out and listen again, then let's discuss. I think it's absolutely vile.

I reread Kim's Spin interview with L.L. Cool J, which inspired the song, and I'm still like, What did he do to deserve this? Their best vid was "Beauty Is in the Eye"...

I like chuck's bit on 'kool thing' too. they are now on a major label and they can get chuck D to guest on a track. I never got the 'down with the kids' thing at all nicole.

Its a good rec.

What's right with it?

In all seriousness, it's less an example of "singing" and more of a recitation. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that part of it, but Gordon's lifelessly deadpan delivery, coupled with what I consider to be a rather churlishly contrived narrative (ooh, look, I'm eulogizing soft-rock demi-goddess Karen Carpenter in a relatively shallow way...am I being ironic? You decide!) renders the whole thing embarassing and unlistenable.

when I listen to music I listen to sound. I find it very hard to concentrate on the lyrics (so I didn't know what it was abt).

''again. I love daydream and sister and Goo is beautiful rec but I can't rank 'em really. i have seen SY live so I don't know how diff the songs on DN are.''

that should be ''haven't'' seen SY live.

Can you walk and chew gum at the same time, Julio?

it's not ironic, i don't think: KC wz a good singer and hers wz a sad story

Inarguably, but I don't feel said story was presented in a necessarily sincere manner in "Tunic." I'm not suggesting that Kim Gordon was intentioally MOCKING Karen Carpenter, but to address this issue so blithely ("you look so underfed") and then augment the story with the most tired cliché in the book (that Karen Carpenter is in heaven and has made friends with fellow dead rock stars and formed a band) is beyond trite. That I find it irritatingly distasteful has less to do with any reverance for the Carpenters and more to do with my disgust at Sonic Youth's pretentiousness.

my current holy trinity is Bad Moon Rising, Washing Machine, Murray Street. But that will change.

I definitely couldn't choose just one.

I've at least liked every album since 1987 1985.

Just a remarkable catalog, consistently great records. There's not one I dislike.

I think the title track to NYCGAF is one of the best things they ever did

I think that one and the opening track are both amazing, it's the whole middle of the album that doesn't quite work, though I don't hate it

it's the only one I am not positive I've ever listened to all the way through. I will rectify that tonight.

I'm also weirdly unfamiliar with the last album; listened to it a fair amount on release I guess, but haven't revisited it in recent memory.

Bad Moon through Experimental is just an incredible run of exceptional albums to me.

...and yet Washing Machine is better than anything since Daydream Nation.

I think the title track to NYCGAF is one of the best things they ever did

We're agreed on that and I like the whole alb. When I saw that get a fairly hostile reception doing their 'modern classical' thing at the South Bank, they encored with a very powerful fuck you version of NYCGAF that I would like to have a boot of.

when I saw THEM

ooh you know I think I did once have a boot of that

several hard drives ago tbh

may be mixing it up with mp3s of the gig with spiritualised at rfh

My favs right now are Washing Machine, Sonic Nurse and Sister. But this could change any given day.

Washing Machine is my latest love, No Queen Blues might be most played on my spotify.

i confess that washing machine and 1000 leaves are albums that I never fell in love with, despite liking them just fine. Probably need to give them more listens.

1000 Leaves can be hard work for me - the opening track is a slog - but when it catches fire, like on Sunday or Wildflower Soul - it is brilliant. Still unconvinced by Hits Of Sunshine, but it makes more sense as I become more Dead-friendly. Some fantastic work by Kim - French Tickler, Ineffable Me - and Snare Girl and Heather Angel end the record so well.

goo is my favourite sy

I saw sonic youth 4 times (1993, 1993, 1995, 2008) and the 1995 date was sooooooo good, leagues ahead of the others, the only time when they sounded like I wanted them to live

so i have a real soft spot for experimental jet set and washing machine cos those tracks ruled at that gig

First time I saw them was 95 and The Diamond Sea split my skull open and made wonderful things happen

Also saw Sonic Youth four times, and the end-of-the tour show was leagues ahead of the other three early-tour gigs.

Goo was the first SY album I waited for and bought on release. Like a lotta folks, I was caught up in the hype for Daydream Nation — not least by the huge article in … was it “Guitar Player” mag? “Guitar for the Practicing Musician”? I thing it was “Guitar Player” — the biggest article I’d ever seen on a single artist, going deep into their tunings & such. I was already drifting towards indie rock, but this yanked me straight over the edge and I never bought another Dokken record again.

First time I saw them was 95 and The Diamond Sea split my skull open and made wonderful things happen

― conspiracitorial theories (stevie), Friday, April 11, 2025 4:35 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

YES

35 today

what a great thread to revive, real taste of the old school here

Coco turns 31 on Monday.

Never liked this album, and this was the only time I ever saw SY live (on the Neil Young tour), but I'm listening to the demos on the deluxe edition now and they sound very much like Sonic Youth songs. So I guess it was the blandified major label production/mastering that put me off.

totally. IIRC they released those demos as a fan club CD, and then remixed? remastered? them for the deluxe edition reissues. when the deluxe came out it was like, wow these sound really great! something about the regular album always had an off sound to me as well and I'm generally ok-to-delighted with cost no object 80s/90s productions. there's something sort of.... placed in a psuedo-surround space about the mix? as if the whole thing was run through one of those 90s bookshelf stereos with presets for "Jazz Club", "Stadium"... etc...

To me it doesn't sound much different from "Daydream Nation". IMO "Dirty" is the one where they kinda fucked up the sound.

"Daydream Nation" and "Goo" both produced by same guy. On "Dirty" they brought in Butch Vig.

I used to love this album in the 90s, but put it on sometime in the last year and couldn't really stand listening to it, I guess it's the mastering/mix that felt oppressive but I was somehow immune to this when I was younger? Or maybe it sounded better on the cheap boombox I used back then?

I will check out the demos on the deluxe edition (which I actually own on CD, but not sure I ever bothered listening to the demos)

IMO "Dirty" is the one where they kinda fucked up the sound.

weirdly I love the way Dirty sounds, though it is an outlier in their catalog with regards to that, very bright

I kind of like that aspect of it, really sharpens the guitars.

I always thought it sounded a bit harsh, even when I wasn't an old fogey.

Recalling now how excited I was to learn in the advance hype that Chuck D was gonna be on it, then so disappointed he didn't actually rap. In retrospect, probably a good move!

"Daydream Nation" and "Goo" both produced by same guy.

Goo was mixed by Ron Saint Germain, whose credits are extremely wide-ranging but who goes for a big, polished sound.

Funny, I always thought the albums he worked on, at least the ones I am most familiar with that he produced, sound kind of dull and muddy. Thinking Bad Brains, Living Colour, lotta hard rock stuff. Badmotorfinger sounds awesome, though.

Last time I listened to Goo on headphones I heard all sorts of overdubs and studio tricks I'd never noticed before.

The mix is lusher and the vocals sound better recorded on Goo than DN (they had a lot more money to spend on the recording) but to me they still sound more similar than either vs. Dirty.

Interesting to see complaints about the sound/mastering/mix when the problem with it is that the songs aren't good.

yeah Goo and Daydream sound more similar to each other than any pair from SY's first 10 or so albums. both great imo even if there's very little room for debate as to which is better.

Interesting to see complaints about the sound/mastering/mix when the problem with it is that the songs aren't good.

RONG

Dirty Boots, Mote, Disappearer, and Mary-Christ are all excellent, with Mote being Lee’s best SY track afaic.

the album does go downhill after Midred Pierce but yknow.

oh man I love "Cinderella's Big Score" and "Titanium Expose," those are like Daydream Nation-scale epics to me

“What do you do when your mom’s a skinhead?”

Dirty Boots rulez

love titanium expose. i didn't realize they made a video for it lol.

I remember someone here imagining that Goo was the sound of SY trying as hard as possible to sell out and basically failing. I always liked that reading.

yeah Goo and Daydream sound more similar to each other than any pair from SY's first 10 or so albums. both great imo even if there's very little room for debate as to which is better.

― some dude,

DN is one of my least favorite SY albums and imo the biggest sacred cow in their oeuvre
i honestly prefer goo, disappearer is almost top tier plus tuff boyz from the deluxe reish has some delicious input jack abuse

I love Mote. Like a gothy Dino Jr?

huh I guess I need to check out the deluxe version

this rec is good but I like at least a half dozen of theirs way more

this is a great sounding album IMO

DN is one of my least favorite SY albums and imo the biggest sacred cow in their oeuvre

how so?