Choon of the Day

there's a Nardwuar interview w/Nirvana from around the same time, and they're initially standoffish - already deep into fame paranoia - but once they realize he's a totally sincere, engaging oddball they warm up to him. Kurt Cobain was a legit weirdo who stumbled (partially thru a knack for self-promotion, tbf) into uneasy stardom and grokked another small-town weirdo, whereas SY cool art rock bros are like hey let's pull the wings off this helpless fly because we can.

Kim is cool tho, for sure.

I couldn't stop listening to this album today

Guy still making house music apparently

Leo said:

only the lee renaldo songs

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interesting

i was a great fan, but more for their artiness than the actual music, which i always wanted to be better than what it was & live up to the image

padraig (u.s.) said:

maybe Thurston a bit,

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Is he a Londoner now? He seems to crop up here pretty often.
I can def picture him at Cafe Oto pretending to try and be low profile

sufi said:

Is he a Londoner now? He seems to crop up here pretty often.
I can def picture him at Cafe Oto pretending to try and be low profile

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Yeah, he's been in London since 2013. He lives in Stoke Newington or he did at one point.

sufi said:

interesting

i was a great fan, but more for their artiness than the actual music, which i always wanted to be better than what it was & live up to the image

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there have always been art bands, but it could be argued SY were the first to bring a real rock sensibility to an art band, for better or worse. i too loved them at the time, don't dislike them now but just not into this type of thing much anymore.

iconic

Further on the eighties, 'mood hut' avant la lettre vibe.

bit of an oddball new one from french producer rroxymore, i guess it's techno but bright and melodic with a touch of weird.

Leo said:

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nice one - hadn't heard in years, way better than I remember, especially how dream pop it is. could totally manage it up next to Cocteaus, AC Marias, etc.

m99188868 said:

Further on the eighties, 'mood hut' avant la lettre vibe.

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I knew I recognized that name - it's the main dude from Brainticket, one of the most underrated krautrock bands - I think maybe they get left out cos they weren't actually German

big personal fave

he had an extremely prolific output of library LPs in the 80s which I've never gotten into

Leo said:

could be argued SY were the first to bring a real rock sensibility to an art band

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I'd call them the first to bring an alt bro mentality to avant rock - the inventors of alt bro even - but maybe that's semantics around "real rock sensibility"

I'd really like to hear an impassioned defense by someone because I have never found them at all interesting

they were into cool stuff for sure but then their own music is so whatever basic ass noise rock - like oh look weird tunings cool

especially their image, why is it attractive? it's so oh yeah we're cool rock bros. not having a go at anyone's taste or nostalgia, just curious.

idk I just think there so many better, more interesting people/bands in every scene they were associated with

my COTD

I'm agnostic on the recent/current lo-fi house trend - a great deal of it is super boring, blah, whatever - but this is pretty good, hook that worms into the recesses of your skull

Russian dude w/a minor cult following, tho the rest I've heard by him hasn't been particularly exciting

i honestly haven't paid attention or listened to sonic youth in 20+ year, probably not since "washing machine" or something, so it's a little difficult at this point to conjure up an impassioned defense. i recall liking how they helped lead the second generation of nyc art punk (the children of teenage jesus/voidoids etc) and melded it with riffs and choruses, most others were doing either one (art) or the other (punk/rock).

they were also good about letting much more obscure weirdo groups/artists open for them on tour, so i give them some credit for helping bring the spotlight to others. they were one of the prime movers in dragging underground music (somewhat) into the mainstream as early representatives of the form on MTV, getting geffen to pay major label attention to the scene, opening the door to indie/grunge/nirvana's global domination, etc. (which, depending on yr perspective, may be a good or bad thing).

don't get me wrong, i understand your issues with them, guess they just didn't rub me in quite the same wrong way.

Leo said:

letting much more obscure weirdo groups/artists open for them on tour, so i give the some credit for helping bring the spotlight to others. they were one of the prime movers in dragging underground music (somewhat) into the mainstream as early representatives of the form on MTV, getting geffen to pay major label attention to the scene, opening the door to indie/grunge/nirvana's global domination, etc

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those are good points.

even if dragging the underground into the mainstream was ultimately a mixed bag, it was still a huge accomplishment. actually SY makes the most sense to me as a gateway to much better/weirder/more interesting things - not a criticism, but I have to imagine that being photogenic straight white rock dudes/lady dude was a factor in that pioneering mainstream crossover, in addition to their more palatable/accessible sound - thinking on it, I'd change "real rock" to "classic rock" sensibility. there's a parallel to Nirvana - taking weird/dissonant/heavy guitarish music and melding it with classic rock (for Nirvana, more like power pop) hooks, riffs, melodies. there's plenty of other 80s examples - Husker Du, The Pixies, most obviously maybe - what distinguishes SY is the weird side they were into was weirder, artier, downtown early 80s NYC. personally I much prefer the full skronk and full disco not disco ends of NY art punk tho that's a fully retroactive opinion as I wasn't even born when it was happening.

idk SY doesn't rock as much as things that rock, and doesn't dissonant weird as much as dissonant weirdos (give me James Chance or give me death)

definitely solid curator/promoters of cool things. and like I said I fully understand their appeal at the time.

btw leo talking of the French are you up on this relatively new wave of French house(ish) producers - Folamour, Ringard, Mézigue, etc?

lot of pretty good stuff, might be up your alley

there's also Jeremy Underground's pretty well established at this point 90s NY/NJ deep/garage house revival w/My Love Is Underground

wasn't too into that particular rRoxymore track but I'm def gonna check her out, looks p cool aesthetically

padraig (u.s.) said:

I'd call them the first to bring an alt bro mentality to avant rock - the inventors of alt bro even - but maybe that's semantics around "real rock sensibility"

I'd really like to hear an impassioned defense by someone because I have never found them at all interesting

they were into cool stuff for sure but then their own music is so whatever basic ass noise rock - like oh look weird tunings cool

especially their image, why is it attractive? it's so oh yeah we're cool rock bros. not having a go at anyone's taste or nostalgia, just curious.

idk I just think there so many better, more interesting people/bands in every scene they were associated with

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Sonic Youth had 3 songwriters, I don't particularly love them as a band - everything that's been said about them is true - but I love Lee Renaldo's songs with them, they're often heartbreaking and beautiful and are full of a passion that doesn't ring with their label as art-rockers or aloof or whatever. For me, that's what was interesting about them, was seeing 3 songwriters conjoined as a band.

padraig (u.s.) said:

btw leo talking of the French are you up on this relatively new wave of French house(ish) producers - Folamour, Ringard, Mézigue, etc?

lot of pretty good stuff, might be up your alley

there's also Jeremy Underground's pretty well established at this point 90s NY/NJ deep/garage house revival w/My Love Is Underground

wasn't too into that particular rRoxymore track but I'm def gonna check her out, looks p cool aesthetically

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never heard any of that french stuff, will check it out, thx for the tip. i actually have a digital promo to the first jeremy underground comp but never really gave it much time, will dig that out as well. and that rroxymore track is a grower, don't give up on it. i like it more than other stuff of hers i've heard.