sonic youth are old and boring

F

francesco

Minerva Estassi
Robert Christgau from Village Voice:
"Forget "edge," or whatever the edgy are calling it these days. I wish we could forget their non-youth in the bargain, but that wheeze will remain with us—they create from what they know. So let me put it this way: Sonic Youth are the best band in the universe, and if you can't get behind that, that's your problem."

I totally agree.

And Rather Ripped is very very good; they have never (as Sonic Youth, forget some solo or minor releases) made a bad album ("a thousand leaves" is as good as "daydream nation" or "evol"; "nyc ghost and stories" the worst album ever made? you wish! it would be a masterpiece!! instead is a very compelling brief collection of understated ghastly low-fi low-bottom rumbled songs). They are the Fantastic 4. They are family. And i'm old and boring too.

Francisco.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
not to rain on your fanatic fan-boy parade or anything... I like S.Y. as much as the next 30-something... but surely there are much more interesting, innovative, and "good" bands to swear an undying eternal allegiance to?

Can is probably the best band in the history of modern rock. atleast a better contender for the title than 3-trick-pony S.Y.

Faust is up there too.

even Blonde Redhead could fair well in the competition.

I am, ofcourse limiting it to bands that came after 1970 - as a loose parameter for discussion - just to be fair... because I don't think you want to drag the Beatles into it or anything ridiculous like that...
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
well... Can's first release as a band (not solo whatshisname) was in 1971 - Monster Movie, right?
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
Funny how Sonic youth are sounding more like Yo La Tengo as they get older...

Sonic Youth the perfect example of 'sonic-law-of-diminshing-returns' since 1995.

Christgau is trying to keep his Noo-Yawk-Shitty hip-credentials intact since there hasn't been a truly decent, let alone 'important' guitar-rock band out of there since, Umm..Sonic Youth..?
 
F

francesco

Minerva Estassi
confucius said:
Can is probably the best band in the history of modern rock. ...
Click to expand...

Can are. Stooges are. Beatles are. Faust, Abba, Joy Division, the Sonics, Cluster and Kraftwerk are. Queen and Cabaret Voltaire are. Venom are. Dozens more are. Sonic Youth too, still today.

Francisco
 
G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Both Christgau and Sonic Youth are old- that's not the problem- the fact that they are both now very boring indeed is! They are both ponies with remarkably limited trick-vocabularies, which by this stage in the game they have refined into an elegant pointlessness. I would posit say, Scott Walker (who at 63 yrs old is genuinely old, rather than merely middle aged) as the ever-innovating antithesis to this kind of comfortable deliberate semi-obscuritanism.

Also even The Wire (which resides inside the anus of SY as far as I can tell) slated their new album as being pretty duff- and this was housed in a lengthy puff piece, so my suspicions are it really must be rather cack...

Thirdly, is it not the case that Christgau slated SY when they first appeared?
 
F

francesco

Minerva Estassi
.... So not much love on the web for Sonic Old, true?

But wait, I love "the Drift", but don't tell me is innovative, is 33 years that Scott make the same album (if only 3 times) but few complained about.
Because excellence and newness are not synonym.

francisco
 
G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Excellence and newness are not one and the same, true. However I would disagree on yr other point as rather than establishing a set of parameters and then circling aimlessly between them (see SY in my view) Walker has seemingly established a path, travelling from point A to point B, refining and remoulding it at each stage of the way. Not merely "same but different" but a clearly observable process of change. I guess I am somewhat resentful of SY as they very much rest in the category of music that I would like to like, but which unfortunately fundamentally underwhelms me at every occasion I encounter it. I suspect I prefer Glenn Branca for post no-wave harmonic laden guitar scree...
 
S

shudder

Well-known member
i'm definitely in the fan boy/cheerleader camp, although I haven't yet heard rather ripped... I'm a little scared it might be just a little *too* easy listening, but, well Sonic Nurse grew on me eventually.
 
M

mms

sometimes
they've done some great music but so would any band who have been going that long - they are the beatles for people who buy music in rough trade basically. what they do hasn't evolved that much really and it isn't that remarkable considering the time they've been at it, it just works along quite a narrow line and has worked every element of that line very well .
Although i like them the adoration they get is tiresome it's funny when an 'alternative' becomes the standard.
 
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B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
So I did my 'try before I buy' test off Soulseek..Feh, sounds like SY trying to be the Strokes or Yo La Tengo and doing this compact-guitar-pop thing to stay relevant. Kim Gordon's singing gets horibler with age. She's really milked the agro-femmo thing into parody, I mean most female singers get better with age (- I mean, even Lydia Lunch can hold a choon these days!!!) but anyway...

The rest of the album is filled with similar non-songs and non-art-rock landscapes, so what have you got?
 
F

francesco

Minerva Estassi
Buick6 said:
So I did my 'try before I buy' test off Soulseek..
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from this interesting article:
imperfectsound forever revisited

"We had longer attention spans back then,” Danger Mouse continues. “When we were young we had tapes, and you listened to every track. You didn't fast forward in case you overshot. And songs you didn't like turned out to be your favourites, because the album became a person. It grew on you. Now, if kids don't like the first few bars, they're gone. You've got to grab them. I tell you what the problem is—it's downloading.”


Sonic Youth albums are growers, i had an intense dislike at first listening of "Goo", "Murray Street" and "Sonic Nurse". Then they grow on me, slowly. Now I love those albums.
 
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G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
I would generally agree with the idea of spending some time on stuff, although strangely the more "pop" something is the more time I usually need to spend, along with the other end of the axis. However, its not really as if SY at this stage in their career (ignoring their pure experimental side projects, which may be quite good but I've yet to check out in enough depth) are some kind of puzzle to be figured out...
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
gek-opel said:
However, its not really as if SY at this stage in their career (ignoring their pure experimental side projects, which may be quite good but I've yet to check out in enough depth) are some kind of puzzle to be figured out...
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EXACTLY. Part of their initial appeal was the cryptic art-rock nature of their sound/lyrics. Then they came out as ironic post-modern poseurs. The sonics turning to dhiarrea soon after.
 
R

Rachel Verinder

Well-known member
They turned into a parody of themselves after Daydream Nation. Some of the later albums have "interesting" moments (doesn't the word "interesting" make you want to go to sleep more often than not?) but it's not as if anyone rushes to pull Washing Machine or A Thousand Leaves off the shelves.
 
F

foret

Guest
Rachel Verinder said:
They turned into a parody of themselves after Daydream Nation. Some of the later albums have "interesting" moments (doesn't the word "interesting" make you want to go to sleep more often than not?) but it's not as if anyone rushes to pull Washing Machine or A Thousand Leaves off the shelves.
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those are their two best albums

i might expand on this later, but it isn't for the same reasons as christgau

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0623,christgau,73468,22.html
 
M

mms

sometimes
Tactics said:
did Pavement ever fall off?
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everything about pavement wind me up, they are the parody of sonic youth x 100.

annoying out of tune guitars,winy pathetic voices saying nothing much in particular all weak and loathesome in a too lazy to lift my arms and ironic style.
 
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