Sonic Youth

Rather Ripped is a weird anomaly in their catalogue. And i haven't really ever got to proper grips with it. Sister and daydream nation, for me, is peak sonic youth, with evol close behind. But I really do need to explore late SY period. Especially the Jim O'rouke era...

Guarantee every watmm on this thread will be playing SY sometime soon : )

Think I'll be spinning Murray Street and Washing Machine this weekend ; )

  On 7/27/2018 at 10:10 PM, beerwolf said:

Guarantee every watmm on this thread will be playing SY sometime soon : )

 

Think I'll be spinning Murray Street and Washing Machine this weekend ; )

I think I lost my Murray Street CD at some point. 

But yeah, been on a dirty/weird guitar rock kick the last month anyway so this fits obviously.

Hits Of Sunshine reminded me of cloudline (chronologically would be the other way around obviously but just saying)

  On 7/27/2018 at 10:10 PM, beerwolf said:

Guarantee every watmm on this thread will be playing SY sometime soon : )

 

Think I'll be spinning Murray Street and Washing Machine this weekend ; )

I just put Murray Street on my phone this morning lol

murray st. and sonic nurse are the lushest SY albums

Rather Ripped is their only album where the vocal melodies are really the focal point, rather than the guitar interplay.  It also features guitar doubles more prominently than any of their other releases (where the guitars are usually doing very distinct separate things).  I kind of like how the instruments are all a bit more muted and the vocals/lyrics are the focus.  You could pick up an acoustic guitar and play any one of those songs and it would still hold together.  Whereas most of their material is dependant on all the parts for it to really work.  So yeah, definitely their pop songwriter album.  I think it's great for all the above reasons.  Kim really blossomed as a songwriter on Sonic Nurse, RR and Eternal.  I'll be diving back into that one tomorrow.  I remember it being awesome, but I can only picture the opening track (anti-war is anti-orgasm/uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh...).

  On 7/27/2018 at 6:47 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

 

  On 7/26/2018 at 6:36 AM, Candiru said:

 

Unusually normal, but great song by them. The first of them I heard. It was in an old 411VM skate video and it paired with Arto Saari. Cool shit. 

 

sounds a lot like dino jr from 1:30 onwards, and 2:20 sounds like a very specific dino song in fact, but i can't tell which one. never noticed this before lol.

 

The verse in Raisans, maybe?

A thousand leaves doesn’t get enough love

Just get the whole Goo film really, if you haven't seen it yet.

  On 7/29/2018 at 1:19 AM, zaphod said:

A thousand leaves doesn’t get enough love

I agree this! For me their last excellent album:

(and it does not mean that next ones are bad ^^)

  On 7/27/2018 at 6:35 PM, beerwolf said:

(some of the) lyrics to Saucer Like, just extraordinary imo

 

Swirling whirling through the city of ages

You sink a bit whenever angels fly

Do you have a feeling for their fuzzy faces?

Are you close enough to see into their eyes?

 

I'm having a wonderful vision of the city today

Buildings all lined up neat on straight sun lit blocks

Avenue canyons stretch forever

Handcut panes grooved like a record

Flat bridge

Peer, boat, docks

I'm slipping round the bottom edge [line echoes]

 

Do you trip and breeze

Down city streets

Just a little free

With your head in the trees

One of my favourite SY tracks period.  Especially the breakdown for the last verse.

The problem with Rather Ripped is that the absence of O'Rourke is blatant, and as a result, the whole thing sounds like a downgrade compared to Murray Street and Sonic Nurse.

They fared better on The Eternal though, because of Ibold.

that's very lopezian, but i just could never really get into them because i couldn't reconcile their great, guitar based, sonic innovations with that groan inducing NY indie rock "we're so cool and art" hipster vibe that gravitates around them all of the time.

if only one could listen to just the music without caring about their vibe or perceived image. one day perhaps

^ especially when some outsider could easily characterize the WATMM featured artists as "pretentious overly idolized knob twiddling twats"

Outsider?

hypothetically I mean, like say, someone who wasn't familiar with IDM then came across this forum

I know, just wondering whether there's anyone in here who doesn't feel that way about some of the featured artists.

I haven't listened to Dirty in a while, and only a handful of times honestly. Currently playing and it's more angry and dark than I guess I ever realized. Not their best but it's got a good vibe, going to have to revisit it more often.

  On 2/9/2019 at 7:46 PM, auxien said:

I haven't listened to Dirty in a while, and only a handful of times honestly. Currently playing and it's more angry and dark than I guess I ever realized. Not their best but it's got a good vibe, going to have to revisit it more often.

Yeah ... It's held up surprisingly well ... "surprisingly" because at the time it came out all of us alternative kids felt they were selling out by making a "grunge" album.