I had their Sonic Nurse facemask during covid. It was a kool thing.
Still have mine (and the t-shirt!)
Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
71–80 of 82 posts
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they had huge stature in your scene, it’s funny how different experiences can be. My interest in SY was piqued in 2000 because they had recorded an EP with song titles in Esperanto, something I dabbled in then. In spite of having a large circle of friends interested in indie music, and being active on some music forums, no one listened to SY or was even very aware of them. My conclusion at the time was that their…
They were definitely in the old guard by 2000 or so, just in that they had already had a career and half by then. They toured with Nirvana! But that doesn't mean their later albums aren't also great and squarely in the canon. Sonic Nurse, in particular, is one of their best imo.
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Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn, Wolf Eyes?? That's a name I haven't heard in a minute. Man, miss the days of the sounds of Black Dice, Sightings, Load Records, and the likes
The Load Records/Three One Gee/Troubleman era was incredible. Blogs and forums were ubiquitous, but the average person's attention had not yet been strip mined by * platform companies. Pitchfork was just getting started, too, and (cruicially) Spotify wasn't even an idea yet, so independent artists could reliably make money the old fashioned way (CD/album sales) but had access to a much larger community of potential l…
So true. Got me reminiscing on show papers and Todd P lol
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sonic Youth was a large part of my high school sound track. I had some class mates who were also into indie music, I lent my copy of Washing Machine to one of them, when she returned it to me she looked at me as if I was insane (or at least my taste in music). Evol/Sister/Daydream Nation were my favorites though.
>> Evol/Sister/Daydream Nation were my favorites though Same here but I would add in Bad Moon Rising which is certainly appropriate for this time of year.
Their self titled similarly has some great 'spooky' tracks. I think I dream I dream fits well along tracks like 'brave men run'
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of the worst lyrics in the biz for sure
The older I get, and the more my knowledge of poetry has expanded, the more turned off I am by the doggerel that most popular-music lyrics are. My rock listening is increasingly limited to shoegaze, a genre where the vocals get so submerged in the mix, you can’t even make out the words and nothing hinders you from enjoying the pure sound.
I hate to give indie rock recos, but you may really like the album "Perfect from now on" by the band Built to Spill.
Here's lyrically one of my favourites from the album: https://genius.com/Built-to-spill-randy-described-eternity-l...
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#76My earliest memory of what has become modern, streaming video apps was Google Video (I think that's what it was called). It was before they bought youtube. I very clearly remember searching for "Sonic Youth" on it and getting maybe less than a dozen results, but one of them was this indie documentary/tour-video called "1993: The year punk broke," which is about Nirvana and SY touring together through europe. Its a re…
A guy I knew in high school got that movie on VHS (around 1993/1994-ish). I remember watching at his house after school once, but then later we had a falling out because he was in the cool alt-kid crowd but I wasn't allowed to dress in the "uniform" so he decided I was a poseur.
Ahh, high school. Grew up in the semi-boonies so it was when I first got introduced to loads of cool music and movies pre-widespread internet access, but kids were still dipshits.
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The older I get, and the more my knowledge of poetry has expanded, the more turned off I am by the doggerel that most popular-music lyrics are. My rock listening is increasingly limited to shoegaze, a genre where the vocals get so submerged in the mix, you can’t even make out the words and nothing hinders you from enjoying the pure sound.
I hate to give indie rock recos, but you may really like the album "Perfect from now on" by the band Built to Spill. Here's lyrically one of my favourites from the album: https://genius.com/Built-to-spill-randy-described-eternity-l...
I really appreciate your recommending me something. Often people might just bristle that I said anything negative about popular music (even if it’s purely a matter of my personal taste) and not even try to help me find something I might like.
That said, in your song, as remarkable as the first verse is (and it’s a great tune), the second verse is too close to pop tropes for me. FWIW, my favourite popular-music lyricist is Scott Walker, who I feel is fully a match for the 20th-century poets I enjoy, e.g. [0] [1]. Would love to find other similar lyricists.
[0] https://genius.com/Scott-walker-sunn-o-herod-2014-lyrics
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#78I've mostly fell out of listening to Sonic Youth, but it was the first band to ever open my eyes to the idea of 'weird' music. I think a lot of who I am today began with that first experience, when I first listened to Evol. While I don't listen to them much anymore, I still put on Washing Machine from time to time. I'd argue that is their best work.
Agreed. I bought Washing Machine on the day it was released, during my secondary school lunch break. I remember the NME review claiming The Diamond Sea as the best thing SY had ever done. I agreed with that when I got it home, and still do. It was the pinnacle of their work really, which went rapidly downhill afterwards. Pitchfork's 0.0 rating of NYC Ghosts & Flowers was sadly wholly appropriate. But the records Evol…
They had most of their (unique) equipment stolen a year before NYC Ghosts & Flowers was released[0], so they used whatever they had in their studio and put out an experimental album. Not my favourite record (Washing Machine and Daydream Nation for me), but I don't think it's that bad. Their later releases were also pretty good and the "really experimental" SYR stuff is quite interesting as well IMO.
[0] - http://www.sonicyouth.com/history/equipment/stolen.html
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#79The mentions of Jim O'Rourke took me back to a meeting with him I've never forgotten. Thought others would enjoy hearing.
Our paths used to cross in Chicago through a mutual friend when Jim was in his early 20s. Through the mutual friend, I had heard a story that Jim had purchased a fax machine--something reserved for big corporation at the time--and was sending his scores around the world.
One night all of us ended up at the Old Town Ale House on North Avenue in Chicago, a real old school funky mix kind of a place. Jim sat next to me at one of the two tables by the windows. He pulled a photo out of his wallet, the way people share photos of kids. This picture, though, was of an old record producer he loved. Then Jim laid out a precise vision of an album he hoped to make some day. The vision he shared became Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Wilco did not even exist as Wilco at the time of this get together. This is one of my first direct exposures to a person with a distant dream becoming a reality.
Many years later I was flipping through the Sunday Chicago Tribune. The edition had a full page story on Jim when he decided to move from Chicago to New York.
A number of years after that, one Sunday I decided to walk to a local gas station to surprise my wife with the Sunday New York Times. What article happened to be inside? A full page piece on Jim moving from New York to Japan.
Re: Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to give indie rock recos, but you may really like the album "Perfect from now on" by the band Built to Spill. Here's lyrically one of my favourites from the album: https://genius.com/Built-to-spill-randy-described-eternity-l...
I really appreciate your recommending me something. Often people might just bristle that I said anything negative about popular music (even if it’s purely a matter of my personal taste) and not even try to help me find something I might like. That said, in your song, as remarkable as the first verse is (and it’s a great tune), the second verse is too close to pop tropes for me. FWIW, my favourite popular-music lyrici…
Wow those are incredible lyrics. Thank you for the recommendation. I'll be checking him out
I will say if 'pop' music has failed you, and you're largely into instrumental music, I can't recommend Dead can Dance enough. Specifically Serpent's egg if you never listened to them. They're largely 'instrumental'(the singer made up her own language). The only song with defining lyrics on the album I also think are super beautiful: