I’ve been revisiting all their albums lately. Man, they were an incredible band. Thirty years and nothing but great albums. I’ve been listening to Rather Ripped and EVOL a lot lately. For some reason I’ve been playing on repeat certain Kim tracks too like “What a Waste”, “Shadow of a Doubt”, and “Sweet Shine”.
Anyone here ever get to see them live? It saddens me that I never did. At least they’re all doing music still. I’m glad that Kim’s dropping a new album soon. Thurston’s last one was good albeit nothing new.
This probably sounds annoying to a hardcore fan but I like Daydream Nation and can’t get into anything else. Goo and Sister both turned me off immediately.
Ryan Moore
I read the Kim Gordon book and now the magic is gone
Nathaniel Green
That’s understandable. Daydream Nation is my favorite and will always be my favorite. Their 80s material is nearly on all the same level, but Daydream Nation really did capture something special.
I’ve actually been reading it lately and I’m a little past a third into it. So far, she hasn’t talked about Sonic Youth really besides a few mentions of Thurston. What ruined the “magic” for you? :o
Jace Smith
Goo and Dirty are basically just Daydream Nation 2 and Daydream Nation 3.
They tried so hard to copy the formula of that album on the next two.
Lincoln Smith
>albeit nothing new rock n roll consciousness I think qualifies as new the stuff hes been doing for the last year - the hour long compositions qualify as new his return to his branca roots, is new - both as a return and as is added in this particular return. didn't see them many times. last show I saw I caught on my minidisc. must have been the tour for rather ripped. wish id gotten my ass over the fucking river to see them do daydream nation live.
Adam Rodriguez
*and with what is added yadda yadda
Benjamin Wright
can't imagine liking Daydream and not at least liking Sister (their best album)
Christopher Martinez
>Anyone here ever get to see them live? i saw them at bonnaroo in 2006. unfortunately i wasn't familiar with them at the time so i didn't really know the songs. cool show though, stephen malkmus came on and played a couple songs with then (the jicks were the previous act at the tent), and lee and thurston kept swapping out and used a different guitar on almost every song
Ian Rivera
in my top 3 bands ever. read the kim gordon autobiography now onto that other book 20th century something. all their early 80s stuff and clanging guitar albus right up to EVOL are so special. that 80s nyc loft scene music and branca worship is brilliant
Ryder Morgan
Listening to Chelsea Light Moving right now for the first time, Thurston is a God
I saw Lee Ranaldo doing an acoustic show almost ten years ago, and it was kinda boring desu. I also saw Chelsea Moving Light a few years later, and it was nice, Thurston and his band had a really good energy live.
Zachary Barnes
I know its part of their sound but i just wish they did more standard tuning songs, its a nightmare learning their songs by ear
Alexander Perez
You don't have to bother decoding their stuff by ear, a fan already did all the work and it's on a hidden part of their official website. sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tabs.html sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tune.html Don't try the F#F#F#F#EB tuning if you don't have light strings on your guitar.
Zachary Myers
Bad Moon Rising is the patrician's choice.
Hunter Sullivan
>hardcore fan >like only one album and have only listened to 3/23 of their albums in total
Honest to God, I love them but, they weren't the same band after Daydream Nation in terms of quality of output after that run of EVOL, Sister and Daydream Nation which imo is the ultimate run in indie rock so it is understandable.
Also currently sweating out Lee songs atm, bless that mang.
Kayden Cruz
I prefer the 80s work
Colton Thomas
I don't know what the general consensus is on Rather Ripped but around my area, people didn't like it all too much. I fucking loved it, Pink Steam is one of my favorite songs in their entire discography.
Owen Powell
If you randomly shuffle Daydream Nation and Goo to a first time listener he won't be able to tell which songs are in one album and which songs are in another
Saw them a half dozen times from '85-'89, opened a show for them on the EVOL tour in '86, Lee was really cool, we talked guitars/feedback, etc, I had a couple of old Gibson hollowbodies that produced some wicked howls. Only band that could hold a candle to them at the time live was the Butthole Surfers, especially during their two drummers phase, different aesthetic of course, but similar effects in concert, sensory overload.
Nicholas Adams
bad moon rising season is upon us
Brayden Rivera
Mote is lee's best track for sure.
Interested to hear what magic is gone for you
RE later projects I think Kim has the most interesting ones, Thurston's guitar ensemble stuff is cool, Im excited for his new album out in like 10 days, and Lee's solo stuff post SY has been boring to me, I like From Here to Infinity though
Camden Long
Goo was my first SY album and still a sentimental favorite. It's difficult for me to rank or rate the albums though my favorite songs are I Dreamed I Dream, Society is a Hole, Cross the Breeze, Dispapearer and Saucer-like.
Brayden Barnes
I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU WANNA IMPRESS CHRISTGAU AH LET THAT SHIT DIE
Jaxson Adams
The first 7 songs are kind of a precursor to dark ambient guitar music. It's just so autumnal and dark and weird. Kind of like being lost in a strange dream. Not really a nightmare though. I only wish Death Valley 69 had been left off and replaced with Halloween. It's much more in keeping with the feeling of the first 7 songs.
Ian Parker
I wasn't too offended by it. It didn't damage anything for me and made me more sympathetic towards her than I was before.
I recall trying Goo first, not being that interested, then really liking Daydream Nation, then every other album was so much better. It's like I had to listen to DN first a few times.
Dominic Jenkins
DON'T TAKE THE CARD!
Dylan Roberts
That's odd, because Goo is a bit more streamlined than DN. But not quite as much as Dirty was.
Joshua Hughes
death valley is better as a Thurston/lee duet like on the gila monster video
im guessing you aren't 18.
Asher Morales
>im guessing you aren't 18 Yepper, 55 and counting. Also the one that dropped that Pizzicato 5 song that you liked in the drum thread the other day. Cheers!
Leo Torres
cheers, knowledgeable bro!
William Howard
Based oldhead scenester, did you ever see Swans?
Ryan Watson
Band was supposed to open for SWANS, but they showed up and had some issue with the sound equipment (after my friend who was promoting the show jumped thru all kinds of hoops to secure the stuff they demanded in their rider) and decided not to play. They didn't get paid their full amount, but still walked away with a decent chunk of non-refundable $, so bully for them I guess. We ended up playing a free show for the folks who did show up and had fun regardless (pic related), so never saw them. The best/funnest bands that we played with were probably Scratch Acid, Meat Puppets, Replacements, NOTA.
Saw Einsturzende Neubauten a couple of times in mid 80's, once with Foetus as the opener. Killing Joke is still the loudest club show I ever went to, by like a power of 3. They showed up with enough equipment to play an arena show and the place was a tiny shoebox that held maybe 125-150 people, they said 'fuck it' and played anyway, Jaz knocked a bunch of tiles out the drop ceiling just for fun.
Austin Ortiz
Rather Ripped is great. I’d say it’d be on the same level of Murray Street and Sonic Nurse if it weren’t for “Do You Believe In Rapture?” and “Or”.
Brayden Rogers
Holy shit please tell us a story about the Replacements. Their chapter in Our Band Could Be Your Life had me doubling over.
Nathan Hughes
Damn, that's impressive. Is David Yow as insane as he seems in interviews? Because he comes off as an absolute psycho
Jordan Nelson
They were good buds with the dj at the club where I worked, he was their main coke connection whenever they came to town. I was at the show that became their "official bootleg" cassette "The Shit Hits The Fans". An ice storm hit that night and there were maybe two or three dozen people there and the band could barely stand up before they even made it to the stage. They farted their way thru a couple of their own songs, falling apart each time about halfway thru and then people started hollering out cover songs for them to play and they would attempt each one, until they'd lose interest or it would completely disintegrate. Of course they were progressively more fucked up as the night wore on and it only made it funnier. Another time, our band had been banned from another local club because of a beef with some bitches who ran the place (one of whom was Wayne Coyne's gf at the time and self-appointed queen of the scene), but we went downtown to hangout with the band before the show. We were helping Westerberg up to the front door and then told him we'd been banned, and he marched us in and pulled the old "we're not gonna play unless our friends get in" ploy, so we got into the show for free much to the chagrin of the uptight crew. Pretty sure my friend Roscoe bailed Bob the guitarist out of jail a time or two, and sweet-talked the cops more than once to keep him from being hauled off again. Once we were hanging out backstage before a show and a dude showed with a local fanzine that he'd done with an article about the band, Bob opened it to a pic off himself and promptly stuck it down the back of his pants and wiped his butt with it.
Leo Jones
Yow is fuckin' hilarious, when we opened for them the first time, we decided to play one song for the hour long set. Of course that drove most of the people out, but at one point about a half hour into it, I looked out at the floor and there's all four of Scratch Acid sitting cross legged all by themselves, swaying back and forth to the music. They hopped up on stage as soon as we were done and immediately asked us to open as many shows for them as our schedule would allow. We went with them up to The Outhouse in Lawrence, Yow was out back in the van mixing up some brownie mix that he stuffed into his pajama bottoms and then later whipped out during the show and flung it at the crowd, who all scattered thinking he was literally flinging poo at them.
Cooper Johnson
>not liking Or
Christopher Martin
THERE NEVER REALLY IS A GOOD TIME
Owen Jenkins
Envious as fuck. You ever seen/hung out with Big Black or Jane's Addiction in the 80s?
We started off as Steel Porn Rhino (a few years later some technofag from Dallas blatantly ripped off that name) and then we changed singers and went by GIFT (also the German word for poison, one of the guys was from Germany so why not). Probably lasted about a year total, but gigged a lot in that short amount of time, never recorded anything professionally, a few tapes of practices and gigs exist packed away somewhere I'm sure.
Diamond Sea is a close second for me but Hits of Sunshine and Hoarfrost are two of my favorite songs of all time
Dominic Reyes
listen to EVOL nigger.
Aiden Gonzalez
it's bound to happen sooner or later....
1. Daydream Nation 2. EVOL 3. Sister 4. Dirty 5. Washing Machine 6. A Thousand Leaves 7. Sonic Nurse 8. Rather Ripped 9. Murray Street 10. Bad Moon Rising 11. Goo 12. Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star 13. Confusion Is Sex 14. The Eternal 15. s/t 16. NYC Ghost and Flowers
just my personal ranking. great band. even the bottom of the list is no lower than a 6/10
Jaxson King
>bad moon rising and confusion is sex that low
Luis Watson
I appreciate it, thanks very much.
Andrew Nguyen
I'll post the better ranking (obviously - mine)
1. Daydream Nation 2. Bad Moon Rising 3. Confusion is Sex 4. EVOL 5. Sister 6. S/t 7. Dirty 8. Washing Machine -shit albums commence from here- 9. Goo Everything else made after Goo, excluding Dirty and Washing Machine
Kevin Howard
lol don't you gave some nardwar to jerk off to?
David Perry
A Thousand Leaves and Murray Street are good you silly goose
Colton Bailey
honestly can't believe anyone hasn't told you to listen to washing machine yet. definitely their best album of the 90s and arguably their 2nd best overall
