special introductory paragraph!
Sonic Youth EP
Confusion Is Sex
Sonic Death: Live 1981-83
Bad Moon Rising
Death Valley 69 EP
EVOL
Walls Have Ears
Made In USA
Sister
Master-Dik/Beat On The Brat EP
The Whitey Album
Daydream Nation
4 Tunna Brix EP
Goo
Sassy Single 7"
Dirty
TV Shit (with Yamatsuka Eye)
Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
Washing Machine
SYR1: Anagrama
SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom
SYR3: Invito Al Cielo
Silver Session For Jason Knuth
A Thousand Leaves
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Murray Street
Sonic Nurse
SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui
The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities
Rather Ripped
SYR7: J'accuse Ted Hughes
Sonic Youth are aural geniuses from
New York City who helped reshape post-punk underground music by
discovering new guitar sounds and styles of play, including beating guitars
with hammers and screwdrivers, and tuning them in crazy, crazy ways.
Extremely influential and creative, they have released about ten albums full
of really great melodies and weird, original ideas. To this day, although a
number of their former fans have become bored with them, they continue to
grow, experiment, and explore different moods and noises in their songs.
Unfortunately, for some reason, they seem completely incapable of
distinguishing good ideas from bad, and often ruin near-perfect collections of
songs by padding them with mind-numbing "art" crap, excruciatingly pointless
repetitive guitar noise, and generic indie rock. Darn shame. They have about
sixty great songs and a million great ideas, but, at most, one great album.
Just too much garbage to wade through! Buy a few anyway. They really are a
very good band. They just need to learn to edit their work a little better.
Aside from album details (which I think you covered fine here), two reasons you should get the reissue:
1. Everything redone done with a way less shitty mix
Very cool. Just felt like pitching this in since I'm assuming Mark (or "you", since I'm addressing this in an email) won't update the review based on the rerelease.
4/10
(a month or so later)
i have changed my mind about sonic youth's confusion is sex. i have decided that it is one of the bands best releases, the lyrics are brilliant not
many bands could come up with a line as supremely disturbing as "put you fingers in your mouth rip out your tongue, rip out the cancer the
fucking cancer" wow. the music is repetitive hypnotic noise, i love it! this is truly great, definitely There masterpiece.
10/10
I agree that "Shaking Hell", "Inhuman" and "The World Looks Red" are the strongest tracks. Let me add that "Lee is Free" is a memorable track too. It is entirely instrumental and highly experimental, and Thurston and Lee (or is it just Lee alone overdubbing himself, is that what the title suggests?) show a large diversity of sound with a mininum of effects. You can picture those hammers and screwdrivers! At times the guitars whistle like flutes, sing like frogs, chime like harps, beep like clunky synthesizers and cry and moan like mammals in slow pain. Expressive and impressive.
The bonus EP included on the reissue is just as weird. I love the title track Kill Yr. Idols and Brother James but Early American is boring and Shaking Hell is more a track which works the first time through a shock effect but then is just annoying.
So I would give the original album a very very low 8 and the reissue with the EP included a very very high 7. If you've heard other early SY and liked it then you'll dig this too.
And "She's in a Bad Mood" is probably their best pre-"Sister" song - they totally nailed the mood on this one. The lyric only has two lines repeated a few times, but the music is perfect in its portrayal of a volatile, dangerous woman; the narrator could be a man who's confused about her intentions: "She's in a bad mood/ but I won't fall for it / I believed all her lies / But I can't fall for it" That's it! Excellent stuff.
The rest of the album is kinda hit or miss with me. "Protect Me You" is the whispered moody Kim song, nice atmosphere but not quite as good as "I Dreamed I Dream" from the previous EP. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" has some great screaming from Kimmypoo, but the poor live recording robs it of a lot of power. "Shaking Hell" gets a lot of attention for some reason, but it does nothing for me. Same with "Making the Nature Scene". "Confusion is Next" is a nice piece and a great statement of purpose, even if it makes little conventional sense (what is a "sonic tooth"?). I believe the ideals expressed in this song would be described by Rolling Stone Record Guide as "Dadaist". The idealogy that values one's relationship to his da-da.
(a few minutes later)
ok, here's a list of who played what on confusion is sex (special thanks to
chris lawrence's extensive and amazingly well-researched sonic y. site), and
also some other assorted trax:
1 she's in a bad mood
2 Protect me you
3 Part 1 - freezer burn:
4 shaking hell
5 inhuman
6 world looks red
7 confusion is next
8 making the nature scene
9 lee is free
10 Burning Spear
11 i dreamed i dream
12 kill yr idols
13 brother james
14 early american
there you go
10/10
Also, around this time, they put out an ep called Kill Yr Idols,
but I think it's import only, so I've only heard two songs from it - but can I
tell you something here? The two songs, "Brother James" and the title track,
are two of the greatest, most intense, loudest, weirdest, and most creative
noise/melody explosions they've ever done. I'd love to hear the other songs.
Anyone out there heard 'em?
By the way check out my own band's homepage. I'm something playing SD like (of cause worse but brother hey giv m a breik) Don't know the address? Ask me
for it I already hate you all. Just don't ask me to suck you dick - those things cost you money. The music is free just not a cock teasin'
still, though:
"Cruisin' for some McReagan burgers..."
had me laughing for a long time.
"Death Valley 69"- When I listen to this song I get extremely aggressive, I don't know if there's anything in my other cds that makes me more hateful. But if she would actually appear in the room, I still wouldn't really do anything because strangling people sounds like a scary thing to actually do, it only works to talk about it. I don't know who Lydia Lunch is and after hearing this poor performance, I'm not really dying to find out. But she does ruin the song, a great song and I hate her for that. What bothers me most, the question I ask myself is WHY ? Why would we want to hear her moan like that over a fierce rock song ? Who does she thinks she is ? This is disrespectful... And why the hell didn't Sonic Youth do anything about it ? Couldn't they just edit it out ? This is not provocative art or anything - as listeners we can clearly see that the problem is a minor detail in a great song. If they enjoyed making it, great -but fact remains that they released this album for the public, so they should've thought about that - about the effect of hearing this bastard's horrible voice without any sensible reason. I'm not impressed by laziness - sometimes it's really a good idea to act proffesional as rock musicians.
The bonus tracks on every edition of the CD I've seen include the "Flower" and "Halloween" EPs, neither of which are particularly great, but I DO love "Satan is Boring". That's just woozy to the max. That should have been somewhere near the end of the BMR album, perhaps instead of "Death Valley 69".
Also, Bob Bert's drumming style is tom-heavy and, at times, slightly sloppy,
and it has the effect of sounding impressionistic and somewhat tribal; these
are attributes that certainly differentiate him from any other drummer the
band had over the years (Richard Edson's drumming is probably closest, but
he's far tighter and groove-oriented, while Bert is much more loose and
relaxed). It also differentiates the music as well; Bert simply isn't Steve
Shelley, and this gives the music a completely different thrust than it
would have had otherwise. Despite the looseness of the drumming, though,
Bert can lock into strange, minimalistic, thudding grooves that can be truly
offputting and strange to hear (Society Is A Hole, Ghost Bitch, I'm Insane).
The band also gets even farther into extended feedback collages, often
letting the amps scream/sing for minutes. This could all get extremely
annoying; astonishingly, it mostly isn't.
Still, though, there are problems with this release. As Mark pointed out,
the melodies are shockingly lacking on a good number of these songs, and
some don't even have any, which is fine if you're willing to coast on the
haze; if you're not, though, you're probably going to turn it off very
quickly. "I Love Her All The Time," for example, hinges on pretty much one
chord and a nasal Thurston vocal; then they get into a crash-n-bash noise
section, then it switches back. "Ghost Bitch" has no melody to speak of, yet
it provides the most visceral thrill of the album at the end, where Bert
starts smashing one tom and a metal object that gives off a strange
high-pitched ring as the guitars melt down and Kim plucks isolated bass
harmonics. So those are fine, if a little weak at times; hell, "Ghost Bitch"
is one of the best tracks on the album. "I'm Insane" also has a truly
menacing, artsy groove, where the guitars sound like helicopters chopping
above Bert's plodding drumming and Kim's increasingly tense and minimalist
bass. "Justice Is Might," however, is inexcusable; you kinda know a band's
short on ideas when the vocalist (Thurston, here) starts mumbling about what
the song is about for approximately half of the song's running time, and
there's no riff, melody, or much of anything, except for about thirty or
forty seconds when it sounds like they actually might start playing a song.
Pathetic.
Also, the vocals and lyrics on this album, in general, are pretty weak.
Kim's monotone sneer serves her well on "Brave Men Run," but I wish she'd
actually bothered to sing on "Ghost Bitch"; poetry recitations are not
really my cup of tea. Thurston's singing, however, really got lazy here; I
count "Society Is A Hole," "I Love Her All The Time," and "Death Valley '69"
as places where he actually sings notes. "I'm Insane" suffers from another
pretentious poetry spew in Thurston's worst coffeehouse-teen voice, and
ditto for "Justice Is Might." Lee should have sang one of these songs. The
much-vaunted "Death Valley '69" also feels weakened by the duet between
Thurston and guest vocalist Lydia Lunch, whose ridiculous moan at the end of
the song sounds like a middle-school drama queen doing Lady Macbeth. Kim
could have really given "Death Valley '69" some scary edge; Thurston and
Lydia sound like they're making a musical about Charles Manson for YouTube.
Despite that, though, the song rocks very well and is a great way to end the
album. The lyrics are quite good in places - mostly on the first side - but
"I'm Insane" and "Justice Is Might" are ridiculous.
I'd give this an 8 out of 10; the atmosphere really is incredible, and
really does distract from a lot of the problems. Plus, the songs that have
full-fledged melodies are, mostly, absolutely fantastic. An album that
doesn't sound like any other in the band's catalog, "Bad Moon Rising" is a
fascinating, if flawed, listen. Anyone who considers themselves fans should
get this immediately if they don't have it.
I forgot about the bonus tracks. Well, the difference splits 50/50, I
guess...two of them are really worthwhile, and two of them suck, but in a
funny way. In order: "Satan Is Boring" is stupid dog drool, but it's funny
dog drool: A) Thurston drones pure nonsense into a mic while he plays with
harmonizers randomly, B) Kim passes out on top of an organ from sheer
boredom, C) Bob experiences attacks of tardive dyskinesia, and D) Lee puts
different pickups into his guitar while the amp's on. Completely
insubstansial and stupid, but funny. "Flower" is a completely different
beast: a razor-edged Kim rant with not much melody, but tons of fury. Good
song! Better than that pile of shit "Justice Is Might," anyway (just a
mediocre riff played again and again over record noises while Thurston makes
throat noises into a walkie-talkie like your little brother would do just to
annoy you). Damn, Kim is such a good vocalist; I don't understand why people
prefer Thurston. I wouldn't mind if she actually sang, though... I haven't
heard enough of the band's catalog yet, so I can't really make a judgment on
who's a better vocalist. The best bonus track is "Hallowe'en," a truly,
truly creepy Kim number that would've been on "Bad Moon Rising" originally
if they'd had more brains. Yeeesh; Kim mutters and mumbles about what may or
may not be rape while the band stumbles through a drug-suffused and chilling
semi-Eastern vamp. Bob's sleeping-pill drumming is almost as scary as the
guitar plinking. Brilliant - should've ended Side 1, with "Intro" just made
into the beginning of "Brave Men Run" like it should be. Can you imagine the
contrast "Hallowe'en" would have made right after "I Love Her All The Time"?
Yikes! The untitled track - I think it's actually called "Echo Canyon" - is
a big echo noise for a minute. But it's funny, because I really feel like I
may hear someone who sounds like, of all people, Roger Waters (?!?!?!!)
screaming waaaaaaaaaayyyyy in the background before the echo noise really
starts. Am I hallucinating, or is that actually a Roger Waters or Pink Floyd
sample? So that's pretty funny too: the list of uncredited guest appearances
on this record now includes Lou Reed, the Stooges, and Roger Waters!
Good album. I'm really enjoying this CD a lot!
Since I didn't go into detail in my Confusion Is Sex review, let me do so now. "Inhuman" begins with a ringing double-guitar
assault reminiscent of those clocks at the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Time,"
then that floats away into the ether leaving behind only a steadily-thumping
bass and a distorted spoken "uhhh...." A few seconds later, the bass finds a
comfortable two-note melody (Kim Gordon has never been, uhh, Jaco Pastorius,
per se.), the singer signals his approval by imitating a skipping record, then
the guitars reappear - one making nothing but a repeating high-pitched squeaky
noise (or is that a keyboard? Aaaaahhh...who can tell anymore?), the other
smacking apart normal concepts of "rock" and "art" by Syd Barrettly tearing
away at nonexistent chords as the drummer begins to pound out a mean, fast
punk beat. Finally, the singer starts singing, quickly losing his rhythm
completely and falling behind the melody - the song continues regardless for a
good three minutes or so before the drummer smashes it into conclusion,
leaving only a steadily-thumping bass and high ringing guitar note to clean up
the mess left behind - they don't; it just ends. It rules my apartment.
"Kill Yr. Idols," which, much to my chagrin, isn't on this ep, is just as
intense and very similar. Fast and punky with twisted guitar noises forming
tuneless repetitive melodies that get stuck in your head even though they're
completely senseless. Senseless = creative. At least here. Not always. See
"Breakfast At Tiffany's," for example.
"Lydia Lunch isn't annoying, she's super super sexy. Lydia and Thurston singing together in "Death Valley '69" are having sonic intercourse. It's uncanny."
Okay. Sure.
If you define sonic intercourse as them raping each other with 19th century gynecological instruments while screaming "hit it. hit it. Hit it. Hit it.
Hit it! Hit it! Hit IT! HIT IT! HIT IT!!!!!!! AAIEIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" Whee. I just popped a boney.
"Bad Moon Rising" isn't a bad album, but this song blows.
Boring, side two is. "Secret Girl" has a nice enough piano thing, I suppose,
but the others are just endless stretches of boring guitar buzzing -
repetition at its most poorly-thought-out. "Madonna, Sean, And Me (Expressway
To Yr Skull)" has become a classic to the same people who can actually sit
through an entire Velvet Underground album without slipping into a coma, but,
as I suppose is obvious by this point in the sentence, I think it's a
snoozefest. And "Bubblegum" is just crap. Too bad. That side one was
real good.
First of all, Mark is wrong. EVOL is not quite a
perfect album, but it comes close. It certainly rates
higher than a shittyass six. Side two is almost as
good as side one too, but is my album the only one to
start with Tom Violence on Side One and with Death To
Our Friends on Side Two? My copy displays a different
running order on the sleeve than on the vinyl
stickers, which is the correct order for my copy. At
first I put this down to awkward indie-rock
sillybillyness, but from reading reviews elsewhere it
seems that most albums start with Green Light followed
by Star Power. I see that Mark's LP is the same as
mine, but all across the internet I've seen the track
listing for EVOL displayed as it is on my sleeve.
Fuck you toads anyway.
The first Sonic Youth I picked up was Goo towards the
end of 1998, I liked it but it lacked the mark of all
of the very greatest albums - cohesion. About a year
later I found EVOL in the vinyl racks at a shop on its
last legs, it was cheap and after Goo I had been
curious about independent-label era Sonic Youth so I
picked it up. After a few listens, the songs lost
their obscurity and I was able to feel the grim grey
mood of the album as a whole. You should buy this LP
just because this kind of menace can't be felt
anywhere else. The songs "Death To Our Friends" and
"Secret Girl/s" blend perfectly. One black mark : the
promising intro to Marilyn Moore leads to the albums
most dreary, boring four minutes. Though it is the
albums poorest track, it is still in keeping with the
enigmatic and morose feel of the LP. Buy it this
afternoon. See yuh. 8.5/10
The more I think about it, I think the only real flaw of this album is the production - it sounds like they were trying to streamline their sound a bit (shorter songs, tighter structures, less unnecessary noise), which is fine (and reaped great rewards eventually), but the execution feels a little flat. The mixing, engineering, whatever you want to call it, just doesn't SIZZLE like it does on so many other SY releases. I think "In the Kingdom #19" comes closest sound-wise to where they should have gone with this album - the guitars are freer, with the feedback under control but not overly so. And by the way, "Starpower" is one of my least favorite SY songs. Overall I'll give the songs an 8 and the production a 6, for a nice healthy, low-carb 7.
I'll never forget the moment I realized that there was an extra hit I had completely, totally and absolutely forgotten about. I had just reached the end of their first album's A side, flipped it over to a song whose title meant nothing at all to me, listened to the gritty guitar intro and WHAMMO! Lou Gramm peeked out from under his golden pearly locks and rocked hard at me, "It was a Monday! Just like any other day! I left a small town for the Apple in decay!" 'Wait a second,' I stopped in my tracks, 'I know this song! What the hell is it?' A few more familiar lines crept past my hair and into my ears: "It was my destiny/It's what we needed to do/They were telling me/Now I'm telling you! I was inside looking outside (etc)" My arms were simmering with boiled suggestion: "What the hell IS this? Is there a vocal hook somewhere?" And then it CAME. ALL OVER MY FACE. "I'm looking out for the two of us - I hope we'll be here when they're through with us!" Man, that was a HIT, man! A rockin' young hungry HIT! So why isn't it on my The Best...And Beyond! CD? I asked my wife this very question a few moments after playing it for her, and she replied, "Because it sucks?" But see - EVERY Foreigner song sucks if you look too closely at it. Just like Journey and Bad Company, that's what Foreigner is -- a band that sucks! A band whose only goal in life is to have hit singles. They never created music for themselves - it was ALWAYS intended to sound good enough to played on the radio and make them money. That's why all their songs are so obvious and their lyrics so horribly vapid and stupid! Have you ever listened closely to "Urgent"? It's about this girl who calls Lou Gramm all the time to come over and fuck her! That's what the whole goddamned song is about! And "Hot Blooded" is about balling a possibly underage groupie! "Dirty White Boy"? Don't make me read the lyrics to that one, please. Anyway, the song is called "Long, Long Way From Home" and it KIX ASSE!
On a related note, Walls Have Ears is a bootleg created from a few different Britain-country concerts by Sonic Youth back when they actually played their guitars in an interesting manner. Featuring two tracks each from the Kill Yr Idols EP and Evol, four from Bad Moon Rising and one each from Confusion Is Sex, the debut EP and the Flower single, this is Sonic Youth at their finest. And it still only gets a 7, but still. I mean, this is GOOD stuff. Like Sonic Death, but with actual SONGS! The sound is murky and dark with horrifying bloodstreaks of high jaggedy stringscrape tones cutting through dozens of weird tunings and seasickening waves of loose-string neck bendings as they riff away at some of the strangest and greatest songs they ever wrote.
Of interest you may find two alternate and surprisingly different-from-each-other versions of "Kill Yr Idols" (one with drums played at half-speed, one at normal-speed where you can't hear anything but the bass) and "Death Valley '69" (one with vocals by lone Thurston, one where he is joined by Lee Ranaldo; here's a shocker -- both versions are 4000% less nauseating than the original Lydia Lunch duet!). Elsewhere, chiming bell harmonics, colorful air-wind guitar noise, Kim screaming more aggressively than ever before or since, creepy descenindging guitar string noises, corroding distorted death throes and incredibly piercing feedback will make you rue the day you set foot onto my copy of this CD.
It's a quite good bootleg, to be honest. My only real complaints are that (a) "Expressway To Yr Skull" is the worst song I've ever heard, (b) every guitar in the universe is out of tune during a horrendous run-through of the previously excellent "Green Light," and (c) many of the guitar noise segments drag on and on and on in such a way that you KNOW they were doing something visually interesting on the stage but sitting at home in your chair you just feel like an asshole for listening to "Gweeeooo PISH!" 500 times in a row while Kim Gordon recites poetry.
Having said that, the 7 is a mighty mighty HIGH 7, and may eventually evolve into an 8 one day if I listen to it a few more times. It's definitely worth hunting down if you like all that cool early Sonic Youth guitar noise. Back when they were interesting. Long time ago when they was fab.
By the way, isn't it awesome how I spent two paragraphs raving about Foreigner, and then proceeded to call "Expressway To Yr Skull" 'the worst song I've ever heard'? Maybe I should try to explain that. Foreigner suck, but they're funny. "Expressway To Yr Skull" isn't funny - it sounds as if it wants to be taken VERY seriously as a mesmerizing beautiful rock noise epic. But it's so fuckin' BORING! It's like my wife says, "It's so boring FUCKIN'!"
But she's talking about YOU, not me. I'm awesome. You should see my dick. It's huge! And you know what they say about guys with big dicks! Heh he heh.
No wait, big noses. I've got a big nose. And you know what they say about guys with big noses! Heh he heh.
That's right -- they've got big dicks!
Or was it feet? At any rate, one thing's for certain: I'm a black guy. And you know what they say about black guys!! Heh he heh.
Well okay, but I live next door to a black guy! Isn't it possible that some of his big dickedness could slip through the wall into my panties?
What do you mean? What sounds gay about that?
Speaking of witch, Mark hath drawn me in with this Foreigner bit. Especially
the "They never created music for themselves - it was ALWAYS intended to
sound good enough to played on the radio and make them money" thingamajig--
now wait just an hour, here, Mark. "Music for themselves" and "Songs that
sound good enough for radio"--you make that sound like it's a
contradiction! Now now now now, you know better than that. That rests on
the assumption that if you write an obvious pandering song with stupid
lyrics, you aren't doing your "own thing" or "keepin' it real dawg". I
think they just don't WANT to write anything less commercial. Maybe Lou
Gramm and the boys are stupid panderers by nature! That's what I think.
Hee hee hee but anyway, I must also call your bluff on the "it was ALWAYS
intended to sound good enough to played on the radio and make them money"
bit. Ever heard "Break it Up"? "Out of the Blue"? "Woman Oh
Woman"? "Seventeen"? "Blinded by Science"? "Tooth and Nail"? "Stranger
in my Own House?" Of course not!! Why? 'Cause they're all FILLER CRAP
TRACKS that could never in a million years get played on the radio!
Always? Psssh. If it was INTENDED to sound good and make them money, it
would SOUND good and make them money. But it does neither. Journey and Bad
Company? Same thing. Too much goddamn filler, and somehow they manage to
convince themselves that they've written something non-shitty. Because hey,
man, it comes from the heart!
Anyway, that's my theory, and I'm sticking to you! But Sonic Youth? MUCH
better band. I like them. Have they released anything good since
1988? 'Cause IF THEY HAVEN'T. . .
PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IS COMPLETELY ASININE. I WROTE IT ABOUT
TWO YEARS AGO, AND I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I WAS THINKING. LET ME STRESS IT HERE
AND NOW - LYRICS ARE AN IMPORTANT ASSET OF MUSIC. IF THERE WAS A POINT IN MY
LIFE WHEN I DIDN'T PAY ATTENTION TO THEM, IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS A LAZY
JACKASS. I COULD JUST DELETE THE PARAGRAPH, I SUPPOSE, BUT IT ATTRACTED SO
MUCH FUNNY HATEMAIL THAT I FIGURED I'D LEAVE IT. PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT I
STILL FEEL THIS WAY, THOUGH. THANK YOU. NOW HERE'S THE ASININE PARAGRAPH
I WARNED YOU ABOUT. Incidentally, perchance you've noticed that I don't
write much about lyrics;
that's 'cause I don't really listen to 'em. I'm a music guy, unless the words
are really funny (e.g. some Ween, some Dead Milkmen, some Tesco Vee's Hate
Police) or pumped up really loud in the mix (e.g. Pink Floyd '73 - '83). I
don't like poetry, and I don't much care what songwriters have to say. That's
how it goes. If so many of 'em didn't suck, maybe I wouldn't feel this way.
Anyway, I just wanted to add my comment about Sonic Youth's Sister
album.
See, Sister is not only the greatest Sonic Youth album to date,
but one of the greatest guitar albums ever -
up there with Steve Vai's Flex-able,
Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica,
Yes' Relayer!
and various Minutemen / Hendrix / John McLaughlin /
Van Halen / Black Flag / DK / Butthole Surfers / Zappa / Fahey
etc. etc. recordings.
Furthermore, it be one of the greatest musical records of all time, period.
It's their Revolver
(or Sgt Pepper or White Album or Abbey Road
depending on who you ask),
their Double Nickels on the Dime,
Zen Arcade,
On Fire,
Doolittle,
Kid A,
Bringing It All Back Home,
or Pet Sounds.
It's the fucking Citizen Kane of experimental guitar
(Polvo put out an entire career's worth of wonderful records based on this
album!)
It's what Damaged is to hardcore,
what Burnin' is to reggae.
Really.
The thing is, like all music that you will grow from,
you have to listen to Sister repeatedly to appreciate it.
The first time I heard it, back in February 1989,
I thought "What a shame" and put it away.
Later on I put it back on the turntable,
and again the guitar tones and noise were horrible,
but this time the beat to "Hotwire My Heart" kinda stuck.
And maybe some part of another song.
And so it went for the next coupla days,
until I realized the entire thing was awesome -
the symphonic writing, the abstract yet deliberate "noises",
the sheer unabashed IDEOSYNCRACY of it all.
So many nooks and crannies that hold so much flavor and personality!!!
Sonic Youth are able to take electric guitars, and recreate nature with
them!
Listen to the end of "Tough Gnarl", it ends with a typhoon!
Literally!
You can hear the breeze picking up,
turning into 200 MPH winds that destroy the weather instruments!
Or at the end of "Pipeline/Kill Time",
sunlight reflecting off and then penetrating water!
Or the nuclear destruction at the end of "Stereo Sanctity",
you hear the missiles raining down,
and the screaming souls of the victims rising from the rubble
(or are those the shrieks of radiation demons?) !
Within this record, time and again
Sonic Youth recreate the intangible parts of the human experience in
music and lyrics.
"Tough Gnarl" is an epic poem that somehow manages to put into
words
just why we listen to these records, and spend so much time
poring over liner notes, combing web pages,
and writing about debating them:
saints preserve us in hot young stuff
Dude, that's seriously some good writing!
They take that Patti Smith stream-of-consciousness thing to the extreme,
it's not just word textures, the lyrics paint pictures.
And that's multi-talent, cuz the music's good too!
In "Pipeline" when Lee Ranaldo sings "run me out a thin
wire",
you don't know exactly what he means but you UNDERSTAND.
And during that line listen to the guitar part playing just that concept!
"Pacific Coast Highway" does an incredible job
at sculpting feelings of toil and hatred in musical form,
like emotionally scraping your elbow on pavement.
Come on get in the car
This is not noise for the sake of noise, this is art.
(Yes, a sorry excuse for many a band, but in this case it's true!)
And you complain about the middle of all the songs being full of ringing
noise?
Flush out your ears!
The middle of "Pacific Coast Highway" isn't even noisy, it's
beautiful!
This indie rock take on Floyd's "Brain Damage" is one of the most
tranquil
blissed out listening experiences available on a sound recording.
And it's there for a reason - they're watching the sun go down.
A calm tranquil moment, and probably while you're staring out to sea,
she's taking out the knife or gun
getting ready to take your breath away.
Sure, there are a couple of songs I think are just "OK"
- "White Cross" isn't quite up to snuff,
the guitars sound a little too much like U2's The Edge for me,
and therefore is an anticlimax to the whole thing,
and "Beauty Lies" is a very good song
but would probably be more at home on EVOL.
And I'm not too read up on Philip K. Dick (other than Electronic
Sheep)
so I'm not sure how strong this holds up as a concept album.
Actually I think the idea of a lot of this being based on
someone else's science fiction novels kinda cheapens it for me
(although I wouldn't have a problem with it as just an influence,
that book did have its share of cool trippy thought provoking ideas,
like the whole Mercerism thing).
But the lyrics stand on their own, and as a whole,
the album is a flat-out classic.
And your quote about bands like the Rolling Stones
following up a best album with a double album totally applies to
Sister:
I took this record and stuck it up my ass,
and there it dissolved and entered my bloodstream,
like a morphine suppository but instead one that stimulates thought,
like that line in THX1138 -
"When I was your age, macro-economics came in a bottle this size!"
and to this day it remains a monument to the instrument of guitar
and the art of music.
Every day I pray to the lawd above,
and ask for more records to come out
and knock me flat on my ass like this one did.
God bless them.
So please, do yourself a favor and listen again, and again.
Eventually you will get it
(at least I hope so, otherwise this writing is semi in vain!),
it will make you a happy guy.
"Schizophrenia" is hands down the best S.Y. ever and worth the price of admission alone. That line: "Her light eyes were dancing/she is insane/her
brother says she just a bitch/with a golden chain" is one of those moments in which you want to throw away all of those shitty little lyrics you've written
in your journal because it sounds so effortless and so fucking brilliant. "Pipeline" is one of Lee's best songs and I can even forgive Kim for fucking up
the end of "Kotton Krown."
Lucky dog me, I got to see this tour in a club with a "call the Fire Marshall" attendance. I remember trying to "talk down" a friend who was struggling
with his first heavy LSD experience that started to hit while waiting in line for the club to open. When the doors allowed us in, my babysitting duties
were over and S.Y. proceeded to give me one of the best shows I've ever seen to date. Everything was punked up. Thurston played his guitar on the
steel ceiling beams. Steve was right on even as his glasses slipped off his head from sweat. Lee was free (jazz) and would look at the crowd whenever
somebody yelled "Hey Lee Renaldo!!". Someone threw a guy on stage which hit Kim's mics right as she was getting ready to start "Shadow Of A Doubt"
which hit her in the mouth which made her mad enough to not sing anything for the entire show which made many in the audience happy. Midway
through the set I turned my attention from the stage to see my friend, still tripping, standing on a chair in the middle of a sea of sweaty
twenty-somethings grinning from ear to ear. I'll bet it was one of the best shows that he remembers too.
Don't apologize for that former mentality, Mark. It's what separates us from
those who love Fiona Apple. Yyyyyuck.
Good album, though. I give it an eight.
"Sister" is one of my favorite SY albums. I think it has something to do with the tube amps they had just gotten for their guitars. Roaring, gutsy, loin-tastic ball smashing riff-o-ramas with a heart of gold. Even the quiet moments ("Beauty Lies in the Eye" and "Cotton Crown", the end of "Schizophrenia") have a dangerous, raw, alive guitar sound. Miles better than "Evol". And "White Kross" ends the album on a fantastic loud/fast vibe - they opened my first ever SY show with that song, and it blew me away. For a great live version, be sure to seek out the Dirty Boots EP.
sevens about right, thats a good review. i like your sonic youth
reviews, i agree your points about their editing skills! but i dont
know if its worth it to criticize those reviews now since you probably
made half of them 19 years ago and will have to read them to remember
what you said you hated or didnt hate.
That said, you're gonna find some fantastic guitar bits
on this album. The record-opener "Teenage Riot" (reportedly about Dinosaur
Jr.'s notoriously lazy lead man J. Mascis serving as president of the U.S.) is
awe-inspiring power pop from start to finish, "Silver Rocket" is a macho
rocker wrapped in intergalactic guitar chords that make it really stand out,
"'Cross The Breeze" is the fastest song they've ever done, "Total Trash" has a
hilarious "two guitars playing the same thing, but a little bit out of tune
with each other" bit in the middle, and the first two sections of the
"Trilogy" are amazing beyond words. Not just gorgeous or sad, but
unbelievably...something. Make up your own word. These two bits alone are
probably the reason that this album is considered to be such a classic. Wow,
I say. Wow. Too bad there are so many mediocre songs on here. And, uhh,
well, you know... repetitive guitar noise, as it were.
It's a double-album, by the way, and the album cover is soothing and purty.
Especially if you look at it while you're listening to the first two parts of
the Trilogy. The third part sounds like ZZ Top and, therefore, blows. But
ooooh, those first two parts! Hooooeeeee! And say! Did I mention that they
can actually sing now? Actually, they sang really well on
Sister, too, but I forgot to mention it.
Now to whatever the hell it was that got me to write --
Sonic Youth,
more specifically,the album Daydream Nation, which you
favourably reviewed (but which i would rate at a sparkling 10), more
specifically the song "Eric's Trip," a song which formed a trio of pieces on
the album of which you said, i believe, "went nowhere." Before I go
further, I'm gonna make a few more prefacin' type
comments-- I am going to appraoch this sort of criticism in a manner
analogous to a reader-response type reading of a poem or a book or any
literary object, a method which I trust won't be too strange; this is the
method which I feel allows me to describe best what
takes place in my consciousness when I'm exposed to works of human
expression. Not only that, but it's better than readin' some critic who
attempts to convince you (in vain) that he has consulted some fairy-tale
tablet of Universal Musical Laws in telling you the importance of an
album.
"Eric's Trip" admittedly bored me lots the first time I heard it. I
felt, too, it lacked progression--Thurston's vocals remained in the range
of half-utterance/half-shout, the melody of the song sounded to me rather
too obscure, the choruses and the rest of the song seemed to meld in a
cacophonous brew of spoken-word nonsense, tambourines, and weird guitar
play. Want a better indicator of how young I was when I heard this song?
Take into account that my favorite part of it was the "fucking the
future" part, merely because he cussed.
How has it become one of my most treasured songs on the album? Well,
it, like many works of poetry (of which I'll list none out of
consideration for your patience), required more than just one taking-in,
one exposure, one listen, before I could appreciate it. It, like many
other forms of human expression, required a conscious opening-of-self, a
sort of willingness on my part to work with the musical object and really
feel it. In listening, I didn't do all this because a critic said it
was the best song ever, or because I wanted to be able to show off after
uncovering the secret nugget of the song's beauty. I did it because that
is how I approach the enormous spectrum of things created by human beings.
So listening to it more, a few things began to attract me
immeasurably. First, Steve Shelley's jackhammering drums began to stick
out--something I absolutely cherish about some of my favorite sonic youth
songs. The drumming remains loyal to the song, changing only to flare into
a few tight rolls during certain sections. The drums pound in to me, they
do not relent, and as I will describe in a bit, they tenderize my
consciousness in preperation for the rest of what the song has to offer.
The lyrics. Let me say quickly that I read what you had to say about
lyrics, and that, for you, they exist on the periphery of the musical
experience. Cool. That's just taste, after all. I believe that, just as in
poetry the form *and* the written word invariably play off one another and
augment the reader's experience, lyrics and "music" in some songs are for
better or for worse married and should be both acknowledged, I think.
They are part of the musician's vision, (at least we hope) and to ignore
them as nonessential ballast deprives us of potential mines of fun,
excitement, terror, beauty. In "Eric's Trip," the lyrics were to me almost
transcendent--dont laugh.
Sure, I dont claim to have any sort of monopoly on their meaning--an acid
trip? a dream? who the hell knows? All I know is something *strange* and
*otherworldly* occurs each time I listen to the frightening solipsism of
"I cant see anything at all/ all i see is me/ that's clear enough thats
whats import/ to see me" or the schizophrenic alternation between silence
and noise/ inactivity and explosion in these lines: "sometimes i speak/
tonight theres nothing to say/ sometimes we freak / and laugh all day" or
the plain surreality of imagery in "see the jacknife inside of the dream/
the railroad runs through the record stores at night, coming in from the
deep freeze." Then there's the almost confessional section in which
the unidentified "Eric" is addressed, the words pregnant with need, as if
Thurston is doing everything to get this person to listen: "Eric/ a simple
word-- are you there in the cold country?? / your eyes so full, your
head so tight / can't you hear me??" What's going on here? one asks
himself. Who's Eric? What's wrong? Where's the cold country? Are these
guys wacked out on acid? That's the allure. That's the mystery, the
wonder, but more than that the resoluteness that is felt when I, and maybe
others like me, say this: whatever it is, I know it's something that sucks
me in *wholly*. The lyrics, no, the *song*, does not pause in its brutal
revelation of a screwed up world, whether a funky inner psychodrama or
someplace visited when we get abducted by aliens or *who knows what*--my
point is, i felt thurston lyrically with his undeviating chant was forcing
me to see some very, very odd things indeed, and shelley's implacable
drums kept me facing the crazy unknown of what thurston was talking about,
and the yowling (thats the only damn word i kin think of, alrighty?)
guitar was like the pained deathbed shriek of some undiscovered beast, at
other times the insistent whoosh of some wind that I picture ravaging the
dunes of some endless desert.
Thus, for me, the lyrics and "music" have united
beautifully--the soundscape (grin) impels me, forces me to keep up with
thuston's mystical (i am trying very hard to use this oft-misunderstood
word seriously!), frightening vision of a world that is not mine. It is
not my favorite song, but it is a damn good one. And it, to be sure,
certainly *goes somewhere*--takes me to some place that I honestly feel
only sonic youth at their creative apex could. All this about one song!!
I know, I'm nuts. Call all of this ramble
what you want. Hyperbole, over-reaction, nonsense. But the song to me is
loudly, gloriously frightening and uncompromising. It is Sonic Youth, and
it this line at the end of "Eric's Trip" I believe captures the whole of
their important work nicely:
"There's something moving over there--
to the right-- like nothing I've ever seen."
i feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders:someone else
actually doesn't like eric's trip.
oh yeah. sorry about all those really pissy emails i sent you. all 2 or 4
of them or something. i cant remember. but that's the point i cant remember
all that i said, because i wrote ALL of them under the effects of severe
sleep deprivation. ( same for this email...)anyway, sorry if i said
anything really retarded. but i still stand by my opinions on yr rating
scale and making the nature scene
Daydream Nation easily deserves a ten just for the plain and simple
fact that all that stuff you call "noise" is being made with guitars,
drums, and basses. This album, and Confusion is Sex, are probably some
of the music that most inspired me to pick up the guitar in the first
place. It opened so many doors and possiblities. It's like, "Jesus i
never knew you could do that with a guitar". Anyone who claims that
rock is heading the way of the grave obviously has been listening to too
much radio and not enough SY.
I cant see why so many ppl are dissing "eriks trip". That song is
fucking amazing. Sure, theyre not the best singers in the world, but i
dont think its important when taken in the context of the music they
play. Lee sounds really laid back, but it works perfectly with the
bizarre soundings and the trancelike chords. And "Kissability", aside
from the fact that Kims voice is very atonal, is a pretty damn catchy
little number. For some reason this song is just so emotional to me.
But thats what great music is supposed to do right? For no reason at
all it can change your mood or quicken your heartbeat before you even
know whats happening. Not many "rock" bands, no matter how avant garde,
can do this, and Sonic Youth does it seemingly without trying on DN, and
thats what its all about. What a great album.
That said, this is a good album. "Silver Rocket" is rockin' and tense in a
sub-Burma kinda way. "Eric's Trip" is awesome, signaling Renaldo as the oneor two of
emotion). "Trilogy" is the best thing they'll ever do. Lovely in a weird,
mesmerizing way.
Unfortunately Kim Gordon is a mediocre bass player and comes off like an
annoying no fun-feminist college brainwashee in "the Sprawl". This band's
most debilitating factor. No folks, they're not geniuses no matter how hip
they try to look and how many critics drool on them. Wake me up when these
ageing bohos call it a day.
oh, and DIRTY rules
They started off as a bunch of beatniks! Look at
that band photo - a nerdy girl, a boring guy, Anthony Michael Hall, and
Maynard Krebs. Expectin' hard-rockin' power pop, are ya? No, of course not.
Mostly bass-and-drum driven, with some hip bongos and whatnot. Some guitar
clang every now and again, but not nearly as important as it would become as
early as the next record. This ep doesn't exactly bop you over the head with
its galvanometer, but it's fine music, nonetheless. Nothing terribly
irritating about it. Mostly understated. They say it sounds like early PIL -
it's similar, but not at all a ripoff. Like, say, the Sex Pistols.
I love the arty stuff. I think that's part of what drives off the
mainstream people - plus the way they look makes it interesting. They don't
look like they would be so weird and bizarre, but they are.
Hmm . . . I'm afraid this is the only Sonic Youth I can get into. The
artsy textures (a bit like Can, huh?) are downright hypnotic, and
Richard Edson's percussion is amazing.
I finally found this bugger, and know what? It's not QUITE what I
expected, but it's good! The tracks are a little more laid-back and dreamy than
usual, but they have their merits. My favorite is "The Burning Spear", with
that damn power drill in the mix! 8/10.
Pretty good EP, but they'd only get better and better from here. "Burning
Spear" is my favorite song i think. This is supposedly the only songs they
used standard guitar tuning in too! 7/10.
Find the cassette tape if at all possible, cause side two is just side
one but backwards, and it's almost as good actually if you like that
sort of stuff.
Most people prefer not to acknowledge this one as "real" Sonic Youth. First off, it's an EP, which are usually considered peripheral releases in an LP-dominated market. Second, it's pretty far stylistically from anything else they've ever recorded. Nothing here is really loud, and the guitar tones are scratchy and textural with relatively little of the feedback that SY are known for. Is the Gang of Four smokin doobies? Plenty of the detuned guitars though! And at least one of their future trademarks is already in place: the moody, quiet Kim Gordon song ("I Dreamed I Dream"), which will be revisited at least once on most of their future albums. I like this one, but not a ton. With the exception of "I Dreamed I Dream", I actually prefer the takes presented (in shitty sound) on the Sonic Death live CD. I'll agree with a low 7 on this one. And damned if that doesn't look like Anthony Michael Hall on the cover! Thanks for clearing that up!
A pretty good first EP. I mean, no great shakes, but it's still pretty
good, and adds a little song structure to the whole Teenage
Jesus/Theoretical Girls/Branca thing. I probably like the first and last
songs the best, but it's all good in that "We really really like P.I.L. and
Can" sorta way. The new remaster sounds loads better than the old SST
version I have, and it's a lot longer too. The most notable thing about the
whole affair is remembering when I realized that Richard Edson was the
skeezy parking attendant in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. That BLEW MY MIND!
Having just bought the reissue of this, I'm almost already prepared to call this (the whole package) the best Sonic Youth you can buy -- well, split decision between this and Confusion, but this is great.
2. $10 for 63 minutes of great music
3. THIS IS THE BIG ONE: The entire concert from the Sonic Death record, WITHOUT Thurston's gay ass "experimental" editing process!!! I like this equally, maybe even more than, the EP itself. It's everything on the EP, done in Confusion style! Hooray!!!
4. Not that big of a deal, but I realized the CD has an extra, concealed back cover under the one covered up by the black CD case holder, that's the same as the 'real' one but without the ugly, embarrassingly goofy RIAA warning. So you can flip it over and act like it's an SST release or something I guess.
More music should be this idiosyncratic. Nobody
else sounded like this. The weird guitar tunings and ringing clamor should
have made Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo youth guitar heroes like the far
inferior Edge, but, unfortunately, few people heard this record, and even if
more had, they probably would have been a mite turned off by the dragging
murkiness of the project, compounded by the atrocious amelodic (did I make up
that word? Well, good for me!) vocals. Strictly guitar geek music, but,
being a guitar geek, I like it a lot. The tracks "Inhuman," "The World Looks
Red," and "Shaking Hell" especially do a good job of presenting the endless
limits to what you can do with a simple six-string. Such bizarre,
high-pitched, slightly disturbing but hypnotic noise! And splotched on top of
solid bass and decent (but, unfortunately, poorly-recorded) drums, it comes
across as aural blood running down the living room window of modern music.
Frightening and unnatural, but beautiful in spite of itself when the sun
shines through. Not welcoming at all, but inspired as all hell....breaks
loose by the misfits. And the title track preaches some weird anarchic
lifestyle, but it's, appropriately enough, confusing.
The first time I heard this album, it scared the shit out of me, seriously. It
was just too wierd and freaky. "She's In A Bad Mood" and the first half of
"Shaking Hell" were the only things I really liked on it. I didn't hate it, but
didn't really like it. Then about a month or 2 later, I listened to it
again, then again, and again. I started to like it a lot, and I started to
actually hear songs!! This is one of those albums that you're not going to
like at first, because you won't understand it, but eventually, you start to
understand it, and it will grow on you. This is not one of the places to
start with Sonic Youth. Start with Daydream Nation, Dirty,
Sister,
Goo, then
this. It is one of the most creative albums I have ever heard. 8 out of 10.
I agree with your review of Confusion is Sex, but i think it's inaccurate to
describe SY's music strictly as "guitar music". True, the guitar is the most
important instrument here. But it wouldnt be the same without Kim's pounding
bass and the squirrely drums. And how could you say that "Making the Nature
Scene" is the weakest song on this album? I love that song.
You say, "Nobody else sounded like this." Not quite true. Sonic Youth
took a lot of their sound from bands like Theoretical Girls and The
Static (both featuring Glen Branca on guitar), Red Transistor, and
Circle X, all of whom predated them. SY are not as original as everyone
would like to think. They were, however, more attuned to the pop milieu,
and had more stamina than the rest. Also, two words: Kim Gordon. Looking
back at the old records now, she's the one who stands out as the one
with a vision...
i'm amused that i totally agree that world looks red, inhuman, and shaking
hell are GREAT songs on this record. however, i think you should give
making the nature scene another chance
Confusion is Sex is probably the hardest album for me to get used
to--literally about 20 listens to get to really like it. I do love this
album, but it can't compare with what was to come..
I find confusion is sex almost completely unlistenable but a think that the title track and 'protect me you' are 2 of sonic youth's best songs. (and
the cover art rocks!!!!)
Regarding the originality of this album and SY in general, I'd recommend
getting two Atavistic CD releases: Mars' "78 +" and MX 80's "Out of
Control". Both pre-date SY, MX 80 in particular sound, at times, like
Daydream Nation-era SY, only almost 10 years earlier. Less abstract,
maybe, but a lot of similar bases ge touched. Plus they're fantastic
(they're still around). Mars sound a lot like much of the more freeform
stuff on Confusion is Sex.
This album is definitely a must-have for fans of music-meets-performance-theater, art rock, Something Different or SYs later works. You must tune in to the sound & vision of this one, but once it hits you, it will haunt you. It requires to be heard a few times, but when those otherworldly sounds and bleek lyrics start becoming familiar, you will be immersed in a dark world of rape, perversion, frustration, alienation, bad relationships and all the hurt in hell - and enjoy it. Hearing these songs in my head in a public place makes me feel disillusioned, desperate and dangerous. You can't express those raw feelings with all the wanky, bluesy rock guitar solos in the world. You'll get used to the lo-tek sound and can learn to love it just like the matching 'Handmade & Xeroxed' aesthetics of the cover. Still, I wish those drums on "Shaking Hell" could shake some more.
At first it had a great shock effect on me. That segue between freezer burn and the stooges cover made me jump every time. Then it sort of grew on me to the point where I thought I liked it almost as much as DN. Now I don't enjoy it quite as much due to the weaknesses tracks like Nature Scene and I found Lee Is Free got kind of boring after a few listens. Also, this album, regardless of what Prindle says, has nowhere near as much range as albums like DN. The guitar makes a really cool ringing throughout but it only really hits one mood. This is just my opinion though so you may personally like it more.
I'd be hard pressed to decide which, if any, Sonic Youth album deserves a "10", but I don't think it would be this one, great though it is. The sheer excitement of a band starting to find its voice (just starting, mind you, I don't think they'd found it yet) is very contagious, and if you don't mind listening to a lot of noise (and I mean "noise" in the best possible way), you're really gonna shake your fist when "Inhuman" comes on. That tune has one of the the assmunchingliest cool intros I've had the pleasure of revving up my chainsaw to.
Love this album, one of Sonic Y.'s best, though I like "Dirty" as well, so
who knows where my tastes go. Fun factoid: Thurston's playing bass on
"Inhuman," so that's Kim hacking away at one of the guitars. Apparently
Thurston plays bass on a couple of other songs on "Confusion Is Sex" as
well. And Richard Hell is the backup vocalist on "Making The Nature Scene."
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' drummer Jim Sclavunos plays as well as Bob
Bert.
Thurston - guitar/vocals
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - guitar
Kim - vocals
Lee - bass
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - 2-track guitar
Kim - bass
Lee - 2-track guitar
Part 2 - i wanna be yr dog:
Thurston - bass
Kim - vocals
Lee - guitar
Bob Bert - drums
Thurston - bass
Kim - vocals/guitar
Lee - guitar
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - bass/vocals
Kim - guitar
Lee - guitar/zither
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - guitar/vocals
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - vocals
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar
Jim Sclavunos - drums
Thurston - bass
Kim - vocals
Lee - guitar
Bob Bert - drums
Richard Hell - backup vocals
Lee - multitracked guitars
Thurston - multitracked guitars
Thurston - guitar/vocals
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar/drill
Richard Edson - drums
Thurston - guitar
Kim - bass/vocals
Lee - guitar/vocals
Richard Edson - drums
Thurston - guitar/vocals
Kim - bass
Lee - guitar
Bob Bert - drums
Thurston - guitar
Kim - bass/vocals
Lee - guitar
Bob Bert - drums
Thurston - guitar
Kim - bass/vocals
Lee - guitar
Bob Bert - drums
One foot foreward, one foot back. It's got MUCH cooler guitar wrangling,
and the added noise from the worse/better production is great, but they lost
a little bit of song structure. In this case, that's just fine with me,
though. It's almost as if they went back to a little more of that "pure" No
Wave sound, as if to prove that the tamer sound on the first EP wasn't
really what they were all about. I love some of the songs, and "Freezer
Burn", the track that (I think) leads into the "I Wanna Be Your Dog" cover
is great. Gives me the f'in' goosebumps. Oh and I have the version with
"Kill Yr Idols". It's OK, but I don't think it's any improvement on the
album, like a lot of people claim. Despite it's slightly lesser quality,
it's really nice to have tacked on the end.
DAMN. Confusion Is Sex DESTROYS Daydream Nation and Dirty. There is less melody obviously but when the lyrics are disturbing, the distortion is diturbing, and the overall mood is disturbing, who needs it really? The lyrics on this album and the atmosphere are spot on, whereas in Daydream Nation the music is great but the lyrics and singing get overshadowed, and in Dirty...let's just say that album is way over the top...
Just Incredibly Original and Freaky.
Alas, an album can't carry itself on neat guitar
tone alone (see R.E.M.'s Monster). Confusion Is Sex had some
pretty great melodies, but this is just a bunch of noise. And I like noise,
but I like rhythm more, and there ain't none here. It starts out promising,
but after about fifteen minutes of guitar clamor, it becomes clear that they
have no plans to take the style anywhere on his particular release. Noise
without structure or reason is painfully boring. Like Charles Grodin, for
example. Every once in awhile, there's an even lower-fi rendition of one of
the already lo-fi Confusion Is Sex ditties, but it's not much of a
respite. And the wacky McDonald's discussion is no more awe-inspiring than
the "music." Blah de dah. I liked it when I was seventeen, but I was flakier
then. But I'll give 'em this: they had some tremendous guitar tones. No
gettin' around that.
The other songs on Kill Yr. Idols are "Early American," a fantastic
song
sung by Kim that sounds like something she would have written if it was
3am in the morning and she didn't want to wake the whole house and was
in a very fragile naked mood. The other is "Shaking Hell (LIVE)" which
is good too, but you've already heard it haven't you!
"Kill Yr. Idols" is a fine, fine song, incidentally a pointed slam of
rock-crit Robert
Christgau. Lyrics in part: "I don't know why/You wanna impress
Christgau/Just let that shit die/Find out the new goal." Shortly after
the song's release Christgau was set on fire at CBGBs by an
overenthusiastic SY fan (I'm not making this up). Christgau thereby
concluded that SY was telling their fans to kill him, and he
subsequently slammed their records in the Village Voice for a number of
years (until they cleaned up and went major label). Hence the Forced
Exposure single SY released with a version of this song entitled "I
Killed Christgau With My Big Fucking Dick."
"Kill Yr Idols" was obviously aimed at rock critic Robert Christgau....but
I also think it alluded to DNA's guitarist/singer Arto Lindsay because if
you notice, Thurston is (purposefully?) singing like/mimmicking Mr.
Lindsay. I guess this would go unnoticed to many SY fans considering few
people have actually heard DNA. I think perhaps SY was refering to him as
the "idol". This could totally be bullshit....but I think it's interesting
none the less.
For some reason, I really like this one. Not for frequent listening, mind you, but it seems to do the trick during mid-afternoon naps (which I haven't done for 10 years, so it's been a while since I actually listened to this one). It's got a neat white-noise quality, with songs lurking somewhere beneath the surface, including most of the songs from the first 2 releases, if you can make them out. It doesn't flow like a normal live album, and that works to its advantage. It consists of two long tracks (40 minutes and 30 minutes) that are collages and snippets of live performances. If you listen to it as a sound collage rather than a live album, it's actually quite nice. In the same ballpark are Faust's "The Faust Tapes" and the second CD of Crass's "Christ the Album". I'd like to believe that SY put this album out with this intention in mind instead of just rushing out a shittily prepared product. It's all in how you look at it, see? For instance, if you play the tape backwards, you see us help Mr. King up and send him on his way...
Well let me tell you something, brother givenn SD 4/10 is like - geifinrn SD 5/10 just worse. What'cha gonna do when the 24-inch pythons run wild on you.
You're going down, brother. Anything less then 10/10 would be uncivilized. God created the Heavens, he created the earth! He created the guitar!
He created all the Hulkamaniacs! Then, he created a set of 24-inch pythons, brother! Sonic Death is just too sweet, brother. One of the
most underrated pieces of art out there brother. Dude you're going down. Train, say your prayers, take your vitamins, be true to youself
and you're country, listen to Sonic Death be a true American. Sonic Youth is runnin' wild like they never ran before, brother.
This is where the power lies, brother. When you're Sonic Youth, you're Sonic Youth for life, brother. Dude eh brother.
Remember what I said about the "Kill Yr Idols" EP? That goes here too.
It's cool, I like it, I almost never listen to it, and unless you really
like "Confusion", you'd be wasting your time tracking it down. Of course, I
really like "Confusion" and looked for this for years, and only just
recently found it. More of a collage than a collection of songs.
The McDonald's discussion with the Swans on the tourbus is
hiiiiiilarious...and that's about all I care to voluntarily remember about
this. the first side is such a piece of shit it's unbelievable. the second
side is better, partially because there are actual songs there.
"Forget it man, I'm not going to McDonald's, that stuff's fucking gross!"
Industrial machines as rhythm sections? Sounds
good to me! Sounds REAL good to me! Unfortunately, aside from "Brave Men
Run" and "Society Is A Hole," the melodies on here are weak to non-existent,
and there's only SEVEN total. The normal but beautiful "Intro" clues the
audience of dopers into the fact that this band might have some mainstream
tendencies welled up inside them, but the unjustly revered "Death Valley 69"
sinks under the overpowering load of Lydia Lunch's obnoxious guest vocals.
The coolest thing about it is the mechanical rhythm thing, especially in
"Society Is A Hole." Neat dark mood, but lacking the melodies of Confusion Is Sex. The new DGC cd reissue is enhanced by the inclusion of the spooky
"Halloween"/"Flower" single, plus a noise bit that samples Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, but the moronic poetry spew "Satan Is Boring" doesn't do a
thing for it. Pretentious = Boring and stupid. Plus, annoying vocals
persist.
I liked "Satan Is Boring," and I think "Death Valley 69" was a great track,
along with Lydia Lunch's vocals.
yeah i agree, it always bugged me why they even put the drummer's picture
on the album. i think he was the drug courier on this one.
This is by far Sonic Youth's worst album, and most people agree on that. But I
love "Death Valley 69" and you forgot to mention two other great songs, "I
love her all the time" and "i'm insane". Actually, the album Bad Moon is
pretty good. But the version i have is dragged down by the inclusion of the
Halloween EP, which is below average. "Satan Is Boring" and "Flower" are
unlistenable, though I do like "Halloween".
It's rather funny to read the ho-hum reactions to this record. At the
time it was released, this was the one that put SY over the top (at
least in the underground). I mean, people were just flipping out. Side
one is an amazing song-suite. Forget about number of songs, how long
they are, etc. Matter of fact, you should probably throw out the CD
case, put on the headphones, and "face the space." I enjoy Bob Bert's
understated, expressive drumming here much more than Steve "call me drum
machine" Shelley's work.
I'm not saying this just to be different but I honestly believe that this
album is by far Sonic Youth's greatest achievement of all time. This piece
of work, to me, experiments with new forms of classical music in the sense
that all the songs join and it works perfectly. The album is also divided
up into movements: Movement 1: Side A (Tracks 1-4), Movement 2: Side B
(Tracks 5-8). The other songs are just bonus tracks for CD. It seems a bit
pretentious to like an album just for its structure but the reason why this
is so important is because the structure and layout enhances the listening.
Incredible album!!!
Yeah, I'm actually stunned to see so many negative comments about Bad
Moon Rising. This is one slowly developing lovely bad dream of an
album. Good point about the "suites" on each side (although side one's
is a little more powerful). Great moments: the part where Bert and
Gordon just drop out and Thurston and Lee start doing sllloooowww
dive-bombs on guitar and you feel like you're standing at the bottom of
the Grand Canyon all of a sudden (at night); the part where they just
let a Stooges song play for a while (an homage to their live practice of
playing tapes over the P.A. while tuning in between songs) . . . and I
know it's a bonus track, but "Halloween" has some of the spookiest
two-guitar minor-chord action yet to be waxed.
i read over yr website again because i bought a whole bunch of sonic
youth albums and
wanted to see yr opinion on them. i agree w/ yr bad moon review and have
a question:
have you heard the version of death valley 69 on the
my-so-called-records 7 inch? it kicks
ass. i originally really liked dv69 until i heard the retarded version
on bad moon. i hate
lydia lunch's screechy vocals on it so much. the 7 inch sounded a lot
more creepy; more
like the rest of bad moon. that's all. except: you didn't like "I love
her all the time?"
Yeah, whatever...I should know not to get too worked up over people who overuse the word "yr" in their comments or give praise to Bob Bert's
"drumming." There's a reason why people started paying close attention to Sonic Youth after this album: because it's fucking brilliant. Nothing
sounded like this before it was released and then, all of a sudden, it was "kool" to fuck around with wild tunings afterwards. My God, what are you
people thinking?! We wouldn't even be talking about Sonic Youth if it weren't for B.M.R. Thanks for making me start smoking again...
It may take a long while for me to analyze every bit of this album, so I might as well share my comments. I basically agree... Would also mention that "I'm Insane" is a good tune - kinda like the rocker version of "Society Is A Hole".
My first Sonic Youth album, which I got when it was fairly new ('86 or so). It totally confused me (yes, Confusion is indeed next), and if I hadn't allowed my curiosity to dig deeper into the woozy waves of sound that make up all but the last song on this album (the abominable "Death Valley 69"), my Sonic Youth adventures might have ended right there, and I would probably not be writing this right now. This one's another oddball in the SY discography, as there are really no "songs" to speak of, just the echoing desolation and loneliness of Middle America. That said, I can't really single out any great songs, but I love the whole thing, even though it's not one I listen to often. It's kind of a "special" album to suit certain moods and certain moods only. Great individual moments include the heavily distorted recording way in the background of the end of "Society is a Hole" which I'm pretty sure is the Stooges' recording of "Not Right"; the eerie foghorn blasts that start off side two with "Ghost Bitch"; the relatively upbeat strumming instrumental intro for the first minute or so of "Brave Men Run"... and that crazy Lunchlady of the Lydia persuasion howling during "Death Valley 69" (ok, the song may not be "abominable" but it's sure out of place on this album). I'll give this album a good solid 8/10 on atmosphere alone.
Sonic Youth has always been one of my favorite bands, but I didn't hear this
one until I recently found it on vinyl. 'Justice is Might' is one of their
best songs - it's easily as hypnotic as 'Providence'. Am I the only one who
thinks that 'Death Valley 69' just feels out of place?
Easily their most underrated album. Maybe not their best, but they lost
some of the electric livewire tension in a haze of atmospherics. And that's
OK with me. The first side is great, and despite my dislike of Lydia Lunch,
I like "Death Valley '69". I'm with you, Mark, the whole mechanical rhythm
section thing sounds cool. Not much of a "song" album - shit, it's barely a
"melody" album, but for me, it gets by on atmostphere, rhythm, and some neat
guitar noise. It was their first true step away from the No Wave ghetto.
Many disagree, but I say this is the beginning of Classic SY.
This is Sonic Youth's second album (okay, technically it's their third, but
the first album was an EP, just admit it), and it's extremely interesting.
It isn't anywhere near flawless, but it is definitely the most atmospheric
Sonic Youth album I've ever heard, and often gets by very well on that
alone. This is true for a couple of reasons. All the tracks segue into each
other, and on the CD there's virtually no pause between the end of Side A
and the beginning of Side B. This is a technique that came about during the
psychedelic era, and, since the band uses the technique really well, it
doesn't get annoying, which could have happened easily (I'm thinking of
Jefferson Airplane's "After Bathing At Baxter's" as an example of annoying
nonstop segue...of course, that album had other problems too), and it
actually becomes quite neo-psychedelic when matched with the band's colorful
sounds and noise. I haven't smoked pot yet while listening, but something
tells me this would sound fantastic under the influence of the debbil's
weed.
A five-song compilation. The title track is an
okay rocker from Bad Moon Rising, and "Satan Is Boring" is crap, but "I
Dreamed I Dream" is an extremely moody and simple R.E.M.-esque two-bass-note
musing from the debut ep, "Brother James" from the Kill Yr Idols ep
rocks with clashing chords and some sort of anger, and Confusion Is Sex's "Inhuman"...oh my.
Lydia Lunch isn't annoying, she's super super sexy. Lydia and Thurston
singing together in "Death Valley '69" are having sonic intercourse. It's
uncanny.
Quote: 
The start of what you might call Modern Sonic
Youth or Sonic Age or Genericism or Mainstream Indie Rock or whatever. They
finally found a drummer they liked (nerdy little Steve Shelley), and set to
work exploring the dead-end realms of playing high clangy ringing noise in the
middle of every single song. On the up side, they were writing cool indie
melodies by this point; side one of this record features some of the greatest
music they'd written yet. The Hall-and-Oates-esque "Tom Violence," the
Eurythmics-like "Shadow Of A Doubt" with that one piano note repeating itself
over and over and over, the Beau Brummelsy "Star Power" showing, for the first
time, the sissy pop side of these arty post-punkers, "In The Kingdom #19," a
boring poem recited over a really groovin' Mike Watt guest bass line, and the
total rock action of "Green Light" really lift your spirits and expectations
before the dreck on side two dashes your hopes all over the side of the
condominium.
Just for the record, I can't stand the Velvet Underground but I think
"Expressway To Yr Skull" is awesome -- sure, it's slow and atmospheric,
but the loud noisy bits redeem it. Plus the infinite running time (on LP
anyway).
EVOL is some of their best stuff. i think it's becuz they didn't have any
money so all the heroin they bought didn't do any good cuz once they
signed with Geffen and got some cash they went hardcore into that shit.
no fool'n. i've got photos.
I have to agree with radionik and some of what scoutl said.
You know, somehow evol made me alive again. It's a beautiful record.
"Starpower" is so wonderful. "She knows how to make love to me." What a
delight. Listen to it often. Learn all the words. Introduce it to
your friends. Love it forever. The green light will guide you.
sorry, but "expressway.." is probably my all-time favorite sonic youth
song, and as a matter of fact I've sat through many a Velvet Underground
album without falling asleep, but I guess that was the point you were
making. Anyway-YOU BLASHPEMOUS HEATHEN- it's a great song (and was
incredible at the show YOU and I went to).
I don't know much about Sonic Youth, but I've heard EVOL, which I
couldn't really get into, and I LOVE their remake of "Superstar" by the
Carpenters. It's incredible. Just goes to show that even mediocre groups
(Carpenters) would sound great if they knew how to play their songs
right.
This was the first Sonic Youth album I heard. I checked it out of the library
when I was in fifth grade. I liked it, but knew they were capable of
more, and they are. "Tom Violence", "Expressway To Yer Skull" ,and "Bubbelgum"
are
the best, but the most of the album bores me. 5 out of 10
Not to get caught up in sonic youth worshiping technicalitys but, your
refrences to "side one" and "side two" are confusing juxtaposed with the
statement "Bubblegum" is just crap. Bubblegum appeared on the
"starpower" 12inch and was tacked onto various cd pressings of the
record [as was "master-dick" with the sister record]. The vinyl pressing
ends with the infinite locked groove drone of [the classic]
"expressway". and, Yes I can sit through an entire velvet underground
record.
Yeah, I love "Expressway to yr skull" for precisely the same reasons
that I love sitting through entire Velvet Underground LPs (the first 3
VU LPs anyway).
Ok, so EVOL isnt the best SY album. So what? They were
experimenting, which is what you have to do to make original music, and
not all of the experiments are as successful as others. Personally,
this album conjures up images and thoughts that are quite different than
any other album. Period. I think that alone makes this album worth
getting. It creates moods that are so strong, they're almost palpable.
I think it's some of the instrumental stuff that ppl call "unlistenable"
that is some of their best work. The B-side is almost trancelike- its
not a bad thing- i think it was intended to be that way. And by the
way, "Bubblegum" seemed to me to be a joke song of sorts. Thats why it
was put on last, almost as an afterthought, sorta a way of undoing the
whole album's death undertone by saying: "dont take us TOO seriously,
now." Good album, and shame on those SY fans who dont recognize that.
Having visited Marks site many, many times for over a
year now, it is this album that has prompted me to
post my first comments, so here they are:
I feel sorry for many of you....
EVOL is a classic SY album. Completely heady and atmospheric, it
sounds like it was recorded with an 80s hangover in a neon lit fog. In fact,
this record is the fog...comforting, frightening, mysterious, and
comsuming. It has the kraut-rock cinescape of Bad Moon Rising, the
structured-pop dynacism of Sister and Daydream Nation, and an
excellent avant-garde compotional element unique to this album (only to
resurface in A Thousand Leaves, not to mention the SYR series).
It's basically the entire bag of Sonic Youth's tricks, a compilation album
in a structural sense. "Expressway to Yr Skull" basically sums up Sonic
Youth (vinyl locked-groove version of course). "Shadow of a Doubt" is
probably one the darkest, mood-evoking, utterly beautiful songs ever
written (see the video Burning Fields of Sonic Love for evidence of
such). "Death to Our Friends" is an instumental (a damn good one at that,
like watching a butterfly), an idea which hasn't seen the light of day
since "Lee is Free" on Confusion Is Sex.
The Velvet's influence is obvious, w/ Lee's "In the Kingdom #19" being very
similar to "The Gift" in concept. "Secret Girls" is the other avant-jaunt on
this album ( both are amazing songs mind you). "Star Power" followed by
"Green Light" is basically all the feelings I have about love rolled into a
pop 1-2 combo. Although it's not the most cohesive SY album, I think it's
by far the most diverse and experimental, therefore making it a rewarding
listen everytime.
EVOL was the very first sy album i bought and after 2 listens i couldn't
stand it and lost my faith in their music. However, afterabout a month I gave it another
go and suddenly became hooked. True side 2 is lacking in ........well
pretty much everything but side one with tracks like Tom Violence and Starpower
contained great melodies and simple catchy guitar work. Shadow Of A
doubt is the most relaxing and soothing song I've ever heard.
Pack of Camel Lights...Hard Pack please....That's better...Let's start with Steve Shelly: Sonic Youth now has a drummer that can actually keep
time. This is a good thing, kids. Lee Renaldo works in an amazing poetic "In The Kingdom #19" that I actually read in some interp class at
college and got an "A." I would like to personally thank Mr. Renaldo for bringing my G.P.A. up to a whopping 2.8 that semester. "Madonna, Sean,
and Me" could very well be the motherfucking 80's anthem, for Christsakes. It's so easy to ride the highbrow when you were like, 8, when this
was released. For those of you who lived this decade, you should fucking get the idea. Go get a Billboard mag from this year and see what we
had to endure on the radio at the time. This was/is solace/beauty/anger all in one nice release from your stoner friends at SST. I've now been
reduced to sounding like my father. Thanks a lot...
EVOL è semplicemente il capolavoro dei Sonic Youth...Ed "Expressway To Yr Skull (Madonna,
Sean & Me)" è il loro pezzo migliore, uno sconvolgente viaggio dal caos al silenzio, una
terrificante fantasmagoria di paesaggi immaginari che si aprono sui miei ricordi, un bruciante
invito al disastro di se stessi...Sono convinto che questo brano rappresenti, in sintesi, il
significato dei Sonic Youth all' interno della storia del rock, e non solo, perchè qui c'è tutto il
significato dell' arte, la sua essenza come tentativo di "dare forma al caos", direbbe Nietzsche...
EVOL è la strada verso la mia giovinezza incatenata al suo sguardo disarmante ed
"Expressway..." è la risposta a tutte le domande a cui non riesco a dare una risposta...E' l' amore
che si staglia sullo sfondo dell' anima violentata dalla mediocrità che aleggia dentro di noi
quando non riusciamo ad avere occhi per l' essenziale...
EVOL è l' inferno che conserva la bellezza selvaggia di un suo bacio furtivo...
"My violence is a dream, a real dream"
9/10
I agree with the 7 and the review. Some songs that drag on the second side,
but mostly some songs i really love. Im mostly pointing at Kim's songs, which
are "Shadow Of A Doubt", and "Starpower". Also highlights are "Green Light",
"Expressway To Yr Skull", and "Tom Violence". "Bubblegum" is just a
frivelious cover and pretty much aptly titled (also a bonus track on the
reissued version anyway) so ill excuse it.
This review just sickens me! A 7, how about a 10! All the songs on this record are simply amazing; from "Tom Violence" to the magnum opus that is "Madonna Sean and Me." The arty avant-garde feel is just flowing all over this record. Every one of the songs on this record is classic, Evol comes very close to being as good as Day Dream Nation. By the way The Velvet Underground are simply amazing, and I've stayed awake to many a listening to their records. Art is neither boring nor "crap."
Just had to say that comment about those people who can listen to a velvet
underground album all the way through without slipping into a coma made me
laugh out loud...not once, but twice. Indeed.
I've always felt that EVOL was lacking something, but I couldn't tell what. I can't fault any of the individual songs, because for the most part, they're great early examples of how SY can take non-traditional musical elements and make them into catchy songs. "Tom Violence" is beautiful (a nice preview of the majesty of "Schizophrenia" from the Sister album), "Shadow of a Doubt" is one of Kim's prettiest songs, and "Marilyn Moore" takes the floating ambiguity of Bad Moon Rising and tightens it up considerably. "Expressway to Your Skull" was my favorite SY song for several years, but its superficially progressive adventurousness hasn't aged well on me.
Where the hell did this come from? I guess once you add some grounding
(i.e. Steve's metronome thump), you can really hear what kind of chaos is
whipping around these people's amps. Yeah, you could argue that that was the
case on the first EP with Edson in the band, but that was before the other
three figured out what they did best. I mean, this doesn't sound too much
like the last one either. Clearer production, which I guess is better. And
they've finally started to do what made them great. See, there's noisy
free-form bands, and there's structured pop bands, and once SY started to
shoehorn their noise and weirdness into the three-minute pop song, it not
only made them more (gulp) fun to listen to, but it also made pop-heads like
me realize just how weird and pretty all this noise could be. And yeah, I
may love pop songs, but "Bubblegum" sucks.
Check this out - so I'm making my way through my recently purchased Entire Foreigner Discography, enjoying all the classic hits ("Feels Like The First Time," "Cold As Ice," "Hot Blooded," "Blue Morning Blue Day," "Double Vision," "Dirty White Boy," "Head Games," "Rev On The Red Line," "Urgent," "Juke Box Hero," "I've Been Waiting For A Girl Like You," "I Wanna Know What Love Is," "That Was Yesterday," "Say You Will" and "I Don't Want To Live Without You") and sitting admirably through the much less interesting non-hits (although "Tramontane" and "Do What You Like" are particularly good, I must admit), when suddenly the most incredible thing happened.
Don't blame me for sening this e-mail at 2 am on a Saturday night--last
night was the "big '80's party" over at Sid Rich college. And like after
every other bombastic generic Rice fuck-party, I'm jealous, dizzy, hungover,
heartbroken as all HELL, and I never, ever want to drink alcohol again. But
next weekend I'll probably do it all over again. And, chances are, about
85%, that I'll either get heartbroken again, or really really lucky. . . and
then. . . heartbroken. We call it doublebinge. Orwellian, dontcha think??
Common logico-philosophical construct 'round these parts, y'all. Yee-HAW,
etc., wuzzl
Although, as stated above, this wasn't released
until 1995, it was recorded in 1986 for a silly little Chris Penn moving
picture. The best label for this mostly instrumental collection of vibes
is, as my special girlfriend put it, "the perfect background music for
Generation X." It sounds
depressed, depressing, vibrant, confused, bored and stoned, all while not doing
a whole hell of a lot, musically speaking. It's great if you just let it play
while you clean the toilet or something, but I definitely wouldn't recommend
sitting down and devoting all your attention to it, because you'll be, as my
mother would say, "bored shitless." Who else can I quote? My brother said
the word "poop" earlier!!!!?
I loved it. Without any vocals to get in the way, the songs take you
through a soundscape as diverse as Sonic Youth itself - slowing down
picking up experimenting with lots of different styles.
It's a nice listen. I like it.
I actually love listening to music while cleaning toilets; in fact, it's
easily my favorite part of doing housework. And I love to listen to
stuff like "Expressway to yr skull" and "Sister Ray" while I do it! I'd
listen to Made in USA too, but I agree it wouldn't be the greatest or
anything. The song titles are fun to read, though ("Mackin' for
Doober"?).
I know it's a throw-off. I know it's for completists. I understand that if you own "Evol" (and you should) there is no reason for you to purchase this as
it's mostly bits and pieces of Evol without any vocals. As for the songtitles, I think that they reallly didn't get around to naming them until the last
minute ('95) as one song "OJ's Glove Or What" would suggest. I liked it too, but would agree with Mark's rating based on their entire output, which
means that's its better than Dirty.
Ehh, it's pretty. It's moody. It's great to put on in the record store I
work at as "make the customers stay nice and sedate" music. But other than
that, not much use to me. I guess I put it on as background music every so
often, and it's nice to see Sonic Youth trying to sharpen their craft on
concise pieces (they should do another soundtrack after their last few
albums, might tone down the excess a little). RIP Chris Penn, and pick up
this disc if you see it cheap and like these guys' late-80s output.
Extremely accessible and catchy post-punk guitar
melodies wrapped around more crappy repetitive ringing noise. Why don't they
get bored playing that same garbage over and over again? Makes every song
awfully predictable. Good melodies, though. Lee Ranaldo's "Pipeline /
Killtime" would benefit from some stronger production, but "Stereo Sanctity,"
"White Cross," and "Catholic Block" (featuring a strangely off bass
line that makes the song about forty times better than it would be with a
proper bass line) rock handily! Rock? Sonic Youth playing rock? Weird, eh?
Good melodies. Like lo-fi drug-driven Foreigner. And the slow ones,
"Schizophrenia" and "Beauty Lies In The Eye," are beautiful. This guitar
tone, when used correctly, is a magnificent creature. Unfortunately, they
waste it on stupid boring repetitive ringing noise in the middle of every
song. Hate to be Mr. Whiny, but if you're gonna do that, you'd might as well
just be playing wanky solos; it's just as dull. The crunchy, thumping
"Pacific Coast Highway" is pretty weird. You should like it. But I could do
without the middle of every song. Perhaps I've said that enough by now.
I love their lyrics. They are poetic and work with the music to create an
atmosphere. If you can't guess, I love a lot of what SY has done. This
album is a fav - I had a hell of a time deciding which tracks to put on a
"favorites of Sonic Youth" tape. I also love the long drawn out guitars. They
use the feedback as an instrument and it adds to the mood and feelings
the songs project.
The best Sonic Youth album along with Confusion and EVOL...all
that
stuff you call noise is the music of Sonic Youth. It is amazing, one of
the best albums of all time, stirring up such emotions that could only
be found on few other releases, like Dino Jr.'s You're living all over me
or any Fugazi, Descendents or Minor Threat recording.
This is one of my favorite albums ever. thanks for letting me talk to you.
i'm bored
I want to know why you've made this web site if you dislike this band so
much.
I'd also like to comment on your comment, about Sonic youth playing rock
and
how that was weird. Friend, Sonic Youth is a Rock n' Roll band plain and
simple. If you don't understand that, I don't see how you're in any
position
to comment on this bands quality and worth. If you're really into music
maybe
you see how the methods that Sonic Youth use can be used in "the right way"
but I'm telling you that Sonic Youth has used them in "the right way".
They
are the musicians, not you, they understand, the tunings, the tone, all
that
other shit, a hell of a lot more than you do cause they're the ones that
have
adopted the methods and the styles and are using them. After all, they have
been playing together since 1982, that's quite a while if you ask me. Plus
all
the side projects etc...the Youth know what they are doing. They are one of
the most respected bands out there. In fact one of the only ones left who
hold
any shred of genuine Rock n' Roll in them. They pionered an entire movement
of
underground music, you can't argue with that. And what's more is that they
have been overlooked and not gotten the credit for they did, which in my
opinion is better but they still haven't got the credit. Maybe it's just
cause
I'm a big fan of this band, but I honestly believe that they are among
music's
best. Up there with Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. They know what
they're doing. I think you appreciate this but I was just wondering why you
knock them so hard?
Incorrect. Sister is hands-down their greatest album. Simply the best
offering they have ever put out. A definite 10.
Sorry but your grade is wayyyy off. And giving Goo a perfect score is
absurd.
What were ya thinkin'?
Prindle, you are a cool guy and all, but...you've got to get your shit
together as far as this Sonic Youth page. I have no idea how Sister gets a
seven. You said its the same stuff over and over again. But then after that
you said that this album introduced a new "rocking" version of SY. Make up yo'
mind, foo!!! I enjoy this album alot, because it's alot more direct and
emotional than their previous releases. Gets a 9 from me, one point deducted
for one too many soft, middle-of-song guitar lulls.
how come you always give the SY records relatively good ratings (7's and
8's) but then diss the living hell out of them?????
I know this is the "accessable" Sonic Youth album, but it took me 10 listens
to fall in love, and another ten before I realized 9 out of the 11 songs on
this are brilliant, the other two, good. Maybe you[Mark] are in the same
boat. Give some more listens and see.
kinda fed up with SY's '90s offerings, i searched at Borders and
found Sister. I played it for days. "Schizophrenia" is great, even the
so-called "crappy ringing". Foreigner? i think not! "catholic block"
rocks hard, while the trio at 4,5,6 -- "stereo sanctity", "pipeline" and
"tuff gnarl" -- is one of the greatest of such trios i've ever heard.
"hot wire my heart" sounds kind of lame and out of place, but it rocks.
not just because this is, heaven forbid, "sonic youth playing rock",
because it isn't. my dad listens to rock, and he would never ever listen
to "master-dik". rating: 10
I completely agreed with yr. comments on slayers regin in blood. Ive
gotta say yr. so completely of base when it comes to sonic youths
sister. yep, it's a masterpeice through and through.
For the first time in a long time, mr marky, i dont think i really agree
with you. I'm not going to beat you into the ground with a hate letter
or any such crap, but... Sister seems like a brilliant album to me-
probably a 9/10 if im in a good mood. It's just amazing the way the
band members are attuned to each other's instruments and ideas. Just
listen to any of the songs where it degenerates into a noisefest.
Listen closely though, what seems to be bored repitition is really far
more complex and engaging, if you give it the proper listening at a loud
volume. RIffs break down and the drums dominate, then the guitars start
making these otherworldy shredding noises. A great example of this on
one of their more "rock" sounding songs is the such half of "Pipeline".
This is their first "rock" album in the sense of song structure.
However, there are dozens upon dozens of little musical melodies and
themes within each of these songs. It sounds like the noisy
experimentation of Confusion Is Sex came to fruitation under the thin
guise of punk rock guitar tones and fuzzy small amps. I would be hard
pressed to think of another SY album that even comes close to the sound
of this album. Sure, Daydream Nation is pure noise pop bliss, but it
just doesnt have the same raw, jagged sound that Sister has. There is a
sense of immeadiacy and energy that comes rippling out the speakers when
you put this album as well as the high pitched hypnotic noise drones and
experimentations that were so memorable in CIS. In addition i think you
made a good point about the great sound of their guitar tones on this
recording. I don't think you give it as much credit as it deserves for
this. Acheiving the right guitar tone for a song is no easy feat, and
they manage to do it on every one of these diverse songs.
Often overshadowed by its follow-up, Daydream Nation, the Sonic Youth's Sister
is most remarkable for the manner in which it combines
quasi-accessible pop songcraft with the band's trademark experimental noise.
The Sonic Youth were easily one of the most innovative and
influential bands of the 80's, sort of a modern-day Velvet Underground, and
this album is the best reason for that legacy. Even after Daydream
Nation, Sister remains the band's crowning achievement, and the ultimate
indie-rock album of all time.
one fo the best godddamn rock albums ever! never fails. hear new shit
everytime i listen to it, and i've been listening to it religiously forever.
i don't like my new cd version with masterdik tacked onto the end though. i
like it better ending where it was meant to end. by the way, have you heard
grab that tiger, or whatever it's called? it's a bootleg from this time.
it's unbelievabley insane!! it's everything on this album about 80 million
times faster and louder. lee forgets the words to pipeline, it's funny. but
you should pick it up. makes me pissed i didn't get to see them back
then.
Brilliant! Nothin' i could say here thats any different from what Prindle said, (bout the
awesome rock songs, beautiful guitar tone, accessable, great melodies, etc.) except i
really think that that "crappy repetitive ringing noise" sounds good on this record.
Normally its really boring and irritating, but i think it flows with the quality of the record
on here. All these songs are awesome. "Pipeline/Killtime" is alright, but the rest are
totally great. And plus, if you get the CD version, you get the bonus track "Master-dik"
which is some weird/hilarious song that sounds like it was just ad-libbed. Definatly my
favorite Sonic Youth record. Its not perfect, but id give it a 10 anyways.
Great album, really!
Better than Confusion Is Sex...Most evocative and devastating...My favourite songs are
"Schizophrenia", "Tuff Gnarl" and "Pacific Coast Highway". Its sound is very "grunge"!
8/10
I have been enjoying your reviews greatly - even when I don't agree,
they remain very entertaining.
the saving grace is a sonic pig pile
amazing grazing strange and raging
flies are flaring through your brains
spastic flailing literally raising my roof
an adrenal mental man-tool box explodes in music creates utopia
you gnarl out on my nerves you weird and crush the cranking raunch
flesh dirt forcefield lost and found let's burn your broken heart
set our sight on sights not yet set let's scorch your wavo wig
let's poke your eyes out
lets go for a ride somewhere
I won't hurt you
as much as you hurt me
let me take you there
before the sun goes down
come on give me your love
comon baby all you have
I wanna take your breathe away
> if you've just completed the greatest album of your career,
> follow it up with a double-album.
And here's where Sonic Youth really start to become essential. After two brilliant albums, they throw out Sister which manages to trump both Bad
Moon Rising and Evol while sounding different from its predecessor. There's actual songs on this one, but I strongly disagree with the idea that
Sister is "accessible." As another poster pointed out, accessible is when one of your parents would actually consider buying it and there ain't no way
I see pops jamming to "Catholic Block." Funny thing is, old Dad is the same age as Neil Young, and Uncle Neil cited "White Cross" as the inspiration for
getting his head out of Ronald Reagan's ass and back into the barn for another feedback fuck fest with Crazy Horse.
This is just as essential as Daydream Nation and is a bit more consistent, that's if you don't include the silly reissue with master-dik on the end of it. It's not the most varied record ever by a long shot and I understand your complaint about the middle of each song but the strange guitar effects really do take you to whole other places. All in all this is a much better record than Confusion, which grew on me but I know just find incredibly annoying. Any fan of experimental guitar music should dig this one though, and I will rate it at a sparkling 10 (because I ignore that awful awful bonus track at the end and always turn it off before that plays). Get it anyway and ignore it too! BYE
Christ, Mark, you don't have to APOLOGIZE for not listening to lyrics. Sure,
they're artistically relevant and part of the artist's "soul expression,"
but so what? Here's how I regard lyrics in popular music: Their purpose is
best fulfilled in settings AWAY from the actual music listening. If you want
to analyze the lyrics, then analyze them separately. Discuss them
intellectually as a literary discourse. But when the music's on, it's the
music that matters. Sonic Youth's comments on pop culture, organized
religion, politics, arena rock, street life, relationships, and child
molesters, as poetic and Lou Reed-ish as they are, kinda get buried in their
wash of warm fuzzy catchy guitar sound. Same thing for Dark Side of the
Moon. Great lyrics, but no one listens to the album so they can hear Roger
Waters pouring his dark, twisted lyrical soul out. They usually listen to
the music because they love THE MUSIC. Lyrics, from a musical standpoint
(not an abstract artistic one) are just one instrument among many in the
mix. Of course, all of that's only true if you listen to music with your,
er, right brain, instead of your left brain. Lots of people I know--hell,
almost everyone, damned physics majors, prefer to use their left brain
instead. Therefore, the main attraction in the music is the words. Words,
words, words. Damned words. Freaking words. I couldn't care less about
words, to be honest--at least, no more than I care about the drums, the bass,
or the guitar. Sounds harsh, but it's true. Don't worry, though--Bob Dylan
still rules. Luckily for him, he still plays wonderful music. That's
something most of HIS other fans couldn't care less about.
"Like lo-fi drug-driven Foreigner"
Wow, Mark. You crack me up. You seem to have a Foreigner fixation too (perhaps more so than DRI). I bet you're really sincere about Foreigner too. More power to you. I wish I could love it when "Feels Like the First Time" comes through my TV speakers during that fucking car commercial that they played every 5 minutes in 2004. On the other hand, I can't help but be enamored with such a pretty love song as "I Want to Know What Love Is". And "Juke Box Hero" covers the same insightful lyrical territory as "Shooting Star" by Bad Company, but without the sad-ass ending. So I love some of their stuff, hate half of their stuff, and am indifferent to the rest.
this is my favorite sonic youth record! its recorded in the same mood
as daydream nation and a bunch of their other albums too cause
thurston and gang had that one period where all their albums were
basically the same. thats ok though, because sister sums that period
up pretty well without being a decade long like daydream nation. which
brings me to some questions for YOU ( you ) about that review of yours
on the Mark Prindle Website (www.markprindle.com -- click on sonic
youth on front page). like what the deal is with you not minding
pipeline/kill time even though it just goes off into a bunch of dumb
trashy noise at the end, and why do you like beauty lies in the eye
even though its just the same pretty guitar tone and adorable vocals
for 2 minutes without doing anything?? actually thats only two
questions, i cant think of any others. and i was just kidding if i
told you to answer them mark, music is subjective, you can't answer
those. fag!
My 10. I like it more than "Daydream Nation" because it's got a rougher
sound, it's got "Schizophrenia", it's got a Crime cover, and most
importantly, becuase it's a single album, not a double. This band needs
limits. And only being give 45 minutes to work in kept things punchy. I
love the creamy dreamy production on "Daydream", but this feels a little
warmer, and a little fuzzier. I could go on about this one for a while, but
I won't. It's just a fucking great record. And the best place to start a
Sonic Youth collection.
Any record with a good Ramones cover deserves a
6, even if it's as stupid and unnecessary as this one. The liner notes
are hilarious; a Ben Weasel Maximum Rock And Roll diatribe that refers
to Sonic Youth as the Yes of the '90s (as opposed, one assumes, to the
actual Yes of the '90s, who presumably were more like Painted Willie).
Some of the live rantings on side two are funny as well; for once, Thurston
sounds embarrassed and self-deprecating instead of completely in love with
himself. "Ticket To Ride" alone is probably worth the price of the record.
Well, maybe not, but the Ramones cover is fantastic - possibly better than the
original. Side one, on the other hand, is mostly a waste of time. It's a
semi-rap song, but since Thurston doesn't go out of his way to actually "rap,"
it's more like one of their trademark boring poems set to a clunky beat.
Still, it has its moments - the "I know!" part where Thurston starts singing
along with what I think is a Kiss sample is surprising and witty, and the John
Cougar Mellencamp ending is a dang hoot, in a hip, ironic, postmodern way.
Could be better, but still pretty fun. And too short to get really boring.
A fine stop gap with as Prindle points out some hilarious liners. Also dig the Big Black sticker that came with the initial pressings warning us that this
e.p. wasn't "as good as Atomizer...So don't get your hopes up Cheese." Probably the most requested S.Y. effort that I used to tape for people who'd ask:
"Can you make me a copy of that Sonic Youth song where they call Gene Simmons an ugly motherfucker?" The stage intros for non-existent jazz players
like George Benson is a laugh too. My hopes aren't up. It's not as good as "Atomizer." I like cheese. And I like this effort as an ego deflator which was
starting to happen when Kim started to put sparkling stars on her jeans during this time. I'm not making that up either. She was wearing them when she
got hit in the mouth with the microphone.
Too long to avoid getting really boring. And not
a cover of an entire Beatles album, as rumored, but a sort of mood-oriented
joke tribute to Madonna released under the name Ciccone Youth. Some nice
noises and lots of silly '80s programmed drums, but pretty pointless. Didn't
require much thought or effort, so it gets a little boring, even though they
try to keep you interested by throwing in rock versions of "Burnin' Up" (by
Mike Watt) and "Into The Groove," plus a sort of dancey rendition of "Making
The Nature Scene," the worst song on Confusion Is Sex. There's also
some more bad poetry, some John Cage-esque silence, and a funny Robert Palmer
cover recorded at an amusement park. It's okay, but don't bother unless if
you've got the others already. There's not too much interesting guitar work.
Ehhhhhh....
This is the best sonic youth side project
Do you know anything about great music
What the hell are you talking about? making the nature scene is a great
song! you know, sometimes the words to a song are sort of important to the
meaning. jesus h christ, why do you even bother to buy records if you
aren't going to really listen to them
they are doing hip hop, social criticism and avant-exparamentalism....it's
amazing....listen to it again.....sonic youth are pop in every sense of the
word.
Remember what I said about the S.Y. ego? Well here it shows its sparkly star jean wearing head. What started out as a cute little single with buddy Mike
Watt has turned into a full-length jerk off which was probably a helluva lot more fun to make than to listen to. Instead of this being a lesson in social
criticism or avant-experimentalism, I see it as a way for their new record company (at that time), Blast First, to help fund Daydream Nation. As good as
Daydream is, this might not have been a bad idea after all.
Just fucking horrible. This was a love letter in disguise as an experimental album that the band sent to themselves. A bad Robert Palmer karaoke cover? Kim Gordon making a phone call to someone who isn't home? Who the fuck cares? Of course with every rock critic getting in line at the time to pick the band's noses and eat the offending detrius like it was mana from heaven probably inflated their egos a touch. Make no mistake, EVOL was cool, SISTER was cool, DAYDREAM NATION was great, but this is just poo-poo.
I never saw the point of this release either. I say just skip it. Not horrible, just pointless. Even the (hopefully) comically-inclined Madonna and Robert Palmer covers are just kinda "ehhhhh..." It's unfortunate that this release is often billed as a "collaboration with Mike Watt of fIREHOSE!" because that might lead a potential fan into the erroneous assumption that Watt is a dork. Nothing could be further from the truth - do not be misled.
I'm not going to defend this to my death, but I'm not going to slam it,
either. It's fun, a breath of fresh air after the whole
EVOL/Sister/Daydream excursion. I don't even really notice that either Mike
Watt or J Mascis are even on there. It's one of the more listened-to SY
albums in my girlfriend's car, though, 'cause my girlfriend likes the echoey
dacey beats. Go figure. If she doesn't complain about a Sonic Youth album,
I guess I'm happy. Even this one.
Very good. Their best album since Confusion
Is Sex, but not nearly as flawless as critics make it out to be. Yes, some
of the songs ("Teenage Riot," "Total Trash," "'Cross The Breeze") swirl, glow,
and vibrate with power, originality, and beauty, but others ("Rain King,"
"Eric's Trip," "Eliminator Jr.") start nowhere, go nowhere, and make the thing
a dang chore to sit through. Plus, again, every song has boring guitar noise
in the middle of it! That's simply the sign of a stupid band - repeating the
same mistake over and over and over again - at what point is it supposed to
become interesting?
You're about 75% right when it comes to describing Daydream
Nation. If you're looking for flat out amazing, melodic
guitar work, "Candle" is by no means a filler track.
Also, I think Daydream Nation is such an album that that
inner junk noise is needed to establish a mood. Sorry, maybe
I've had one too many rum or brew sprawled listening sessions
with this CD, but it's visual as hell. In "Trilogy," when Moore
says "Kids dressed up for basketball just beat me in my head,"
the noise adds to this dark feeling, like you're in that run-down
apartment complex. Like classical musicians such as Bartok,
some parts of the music are chaotic for the purpose of establishing
moods. Just totally give in to the album and treat it as a sort of
concept album and I'm sure those missing two red dots will
appear on your review.
Firstly, I'd like to commend you on the efforts you've gone to to
write about Sonic Youth's albums, and in doing so, perform that activity
which I think is central to almost any kind of criticism of the fruits of
human creativity--namely, through writing, to come to grips with how this
shit affects us all. I'd also to like to preface my comments by saying that in music, as with
many questions of aesthetics, it's so damn hard to amass a
squeakyclean, suitable set of objective standards, and we usually have to
give ourselves up to utter subjectivity with it all (i know, a thorough
truism to some) --with that in mind, it should be obvious why I'm not
about to argue for this side or that, or try to persuade anyone, cuz . . .
well, to be frank, that's boring as shit, and I hate it when that
happens to me.
To get nit-picky, Lee Ranaldo is actually the one
singing on "Eric's Trip," not Thurston.
an easy 10
"Eric's Trip" would have to be my favourite song of this album. I can't
believe you think it goes nowhere!
I didn't mean to sound like i was knocking you in my previous letter, if I
did
I just wanted to apologize, I'm reading through the rest of your crtiques
of
the albums, and I must say you've got some interesting points about this
shit.
Especially about Daydream Nation. I agree, those two first parts of the
"trilogy", simply gorgeous. And I must say, "Providence" is a nice tune, which
the
band even admitted was a fluke tune and stuck it all the album because of
its
eerieness. whether you agree or not, it's up to you.
Uhhhh...okay, I'm disagreeing with the eight rating on
Daydream Nation. It's
by far their best album. How can you not like "Erics trip"? And how could you
forget to mention the best song on the album, "Hey Joni"? Also I'd like to say
something about how everyone here is talking about how Sonic Youth are these
big druggie stoners and their music is stoner music. I have read in a number
of articles that said the most Thurston has ever done is a little bit of pot
and he tried acid a few times, and that Lee used to smoke weed but doesn't
anymore. Thurston said that he was never into the drug thing, that he never
thought about poisoning himself that way. And now, none of the members do any
drugs, including smoking. Just wanted to point that out.
dear mistrr prindle:
Maybe my favorite record of all time, but am I the only one who loves
Eliminator Jr?
Even the most hard-core SY fans hate it. Sure, it's a little over the top at
fist, but boy does it get intense.
first SY album i ever heard, best SY album i ever
heard. "Teenage Riot" kicks the ass of any alternative song ever.
"Silver Rocket" has great lyrics. am i the only one who digs "The
Sprawl"? "Eric's Trip", "Hey Joni" and "Cross the Breeze" are total
mindfucking rockers. "Total Trash" is just crazy. And the first two
parts of the trilogy are perhaps the most satisfying put to record. now
i don't know a whole lot about their (or anyone's) guitar playing, the
value of the noise, or their supposed stoner tendencies, but i do know
this is a great album: 10!
I relize I'm emailing you every two minutes as I go from sonic youth
review to sonic youth review. but, I just read the daydream nation
review. Sir, yr an idiot.
Cmon guys, its Prindle's opinion right? He is not telling you what
to think about the album, it's his take on the damn thing. Alright
enuff defending him.
If anyone doubted NYC could produce a more plodding, art/drug-addled band
than the Velvets, this band is out to spoil that notion! Christ, are these
dull scenesters ever overrated. But hey, they're dispassionate, wear
sunglasses, remind you they're an art band every 2 minutes, and are from
Manhattan, so it must be "good" music.... right?? Right, guys??
This is partly in response to Chris Collins's idiotic, inane, laughable post
above. As I get older and listen to more and more music, Sonic Youth is
slowly but surely becoming my favorite band. I can think of no other band
that's been more influential over the last twenty years, and no other band as
idiosyncratic. How can Chris say that there's no emotion in the band? Just
cause they're from New York? Shit, dude, you must have your head up your ass
(or else listening to too much dipshit late-period Black Flag, maybe?).
They're certainly not a drug band, whatever you may hear in various rumors.
They're simply brilliant musicians, probably twenty steps ahead of any other
band to come out recently...okay, there.
While I agree with most people reviewing this one, I don't
think that it's the best SY album of all time or even of the 1980's. However, there are a
few aspects that people have missed so far in their synopses.
Eliminator Jr. doesn't seem to hold up to the sheer power and profunditity of the
first two parts of the trilogy, especially after the lyric
"day dreaming days in a daydream nation" goes by. But you should notice that Sonic Youth
are interesting in that often Kim sings from a guy's story
often and Thurston often sings for a girl. Eliminator Jr. is one of those cases. Look at
the lyrics to Eliminator and you'll find that Kim is speaking the
role of the kids who beat up the Thurston protagonist in the Hyperstation section.
This fact is what gives the three parts of the Trilogy the unity
that makes it deserving of a Trilogy as opposed to just three songs.
This album is where SY gets sonic unity. The earlier albums all
had a smattering of songs in which each sounded different as the band was
experimenting around more. Daydream nation loses some of the raw
eclecticness of its predecessors, but packs a tighter punch with its unity. I
think some songs on this album have something lacking on them,
though. The Sprawl seems to be a song whose idea didn't work yet and only
would in the later version Washing Machine. Rain King is almost
unlistenable. But Hey Joni, Cross the Breeze, and of course Teenage Riot are
just staggering. Total Trash is an odd one because it has such
a typical song structure (typical meaning it looks like all the other bands) and it's
the last song on the album you'd expect to have a long
instrumental section, especially when experienced reading the lyrics along with it, but it
does have a long noise section. There's something more to that one...
Hey Christopher Way--I know you want to impress everyone
with your dissertation, but you are a dumbass--Lee sings on "Eric's Trip" NOT
Thurston. goodness, if you're going to write a fucking doctoral
thesis, at least get your information straight--this is sad...
A great, excessive, devastating masterpiece...
One of my favourite album allo over the time...
I like its anger!
daydream nation has to be the most experimental ambitios idioscecratic great
realese ever i love it. and i recommend every one to buy this mas