Post by rayge on Dec 20, 2019 15:52:39 GMT
The key's in the name. Not the Youth bit – that ship, an ironyclad, sailed decades ago – but Sonic. It isn't about music, it's about sounds, or more accurately noises, especially the ones you can get out of musical instruments if you rough them up a bit. Some people get excited about their weird unusual guitar tunings and the use of various culinary implements to torture their instruments, but I'm not really interested in how they get those sounds - in fact, after umpteen albums and a whole lot of ear-bashing I still haven't got a clue which of the two guitarists - Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (not to mention Kim Gordon, who often off-loaded the bass for guitar on record and on stage in the last 15 years or so of their career) – is playing what.
No, the reason I love this band is because they pulled off a mean feat that no other band I know of has managed; they produced two or three (relatively) great youthful albums, and then, nearly 20 years later, at the end of their career, did it again. The only rock or noise band I can think of to have kept their *ahem* mojo intact anything like that long are Yo La Tengo, and none of their early albums are remotely as good as SY's.
For me, as usual, it all started with a single, specifically this one from 1985:
.
The album that came from was their second, Bad Moon Rising, but it was their third and fourth, released on SST, that sealed the deal. On their previous two albums, No Wave noise and Moore's background with Glenn Branca had been paramount – guest vocalist Lydia Lunch sounded right at home – but first Evol (1986) and then, more so, Sister (1987), harnessed the noise, the punk attitude, the headbanging and the band's new drummer, Steve Shelley, to some actual songs, riffs and tunes; what would become a characteristic ringing guitar tone appeared on some tracks.
From Evol
Starpower was a killer single, too
And from Sister, here's Catholic Block
and a couple more, although the whole album is a joy
The next album, Daydream Nation, was acclaimed as a masterpiece, but, although it had the wonderfully dynamic Teenage Riot as its lead track, nothing else from that album ever really stuck with me: although I bought every damn release from there through into the 21st century, and enjoyed them in some way and another, it wasn't until they brought the great, and in my opinion hugely under-rated Jim O'Rourke into the band on guitar, bass and keyboards that they hit that sweet spot again. Murray Street (2002) and Sonic Nurse (2004) were the equal of Sister and Evol, and the more radio-friendly and even rocky Rather Ripped (2006), and the band's presumed last album (following the breakdown of Kim and Thurston's marriage, the band are on 'indefinite hiatus'), The Eternal (2009), were only just behind.
The instrumental passages on this Murray Street track are the essence of SY for me
from the same album, the band take the piss out of themselves in fine style
And from Sonic Nurse, the first and last track, and in between a sort of ballad:
the song actually emerges at the two minute mark
I also quite like the records they released on their own label, SYR, and have some things to say about the main Geffen period, but this band is a hard enough sell to this board without me chuntering on about things I'm lukewarm about, so I'm going to cut my losses and hope that any other fans – Jeff? dayodead? – can fill in the gaps for me.
No, the reason I love this band is because they pulled off a mean feat that no other band I know of has managed; they produced two or three (relatively) great youthful albums, and then, nearly 20 years later, at the end of their career, did it again. The only rock or noise band I can think of to have kept their *ahem* mojo intact anything like that long are Yo La Tengo, and none of their early albums are remotely as good as SY's.
For me, as usual, it all started with a single, specifically this one from 1985:
.
The album that came from was their second, Bad Moon Rising, but it was their third and fourth, released on SST, that sealed the deal. On their previous two albums, No Wave noise and Moore's background with Glenn Branca had been paramount – guest vocalist Lydia Lunch sounded right at home – but first Evol (1986) and then, more so, Sister (1987), harnessed the noise, the punk attitude, the headbanging and the band's new drummer, Steve Shelley, to some actual songs, riffs and tunes; what would become a characteristic ringing guitar tone appeared on some tracks.
From Evol
Starpower was a killer single, too
And from Sister, here's Catholic Block
and a couple more, although the whole album is a joy
The next album, Daydream Nation, was acclaimed as a masterpiece, but, although it had the wonderfully dynamic Teenage Riot as its lead track, nothing else from that album ever really stuck with me: although I bought every damn release from there through into the 21st century, and enjoyed them in some way and another, it wasn't until they brought the great, and in my opinion hugely under-rated Jim O'Rourke into the band on guitar, bass and keyboards that they hit that sweet spot again. Murray Street (2002) and Sonic Nurse (2004) were the equal of Sister and Evol, and the more radio-friendly and even rocky Rather Ripped (2006), and the band's presumed last album (following the breakdown of Kim and Thurston's marriage, the band are on 'indefinite hiatus'), The Eternal (2009), were only just behind.
The instrumental passages on this Murray Street track are the essence of SY for me
from the same album, the band take the piss out of themselves in fine style
And from Sonic Nurse, the first and last track, and in between a sort of ballad:
the song actually emerges at the two minute mark
I also quite like the records they released on their own label, SYR, and have some things to say about the main Geffen period, but this band is a hard enough sell to this board without me chuntering on about things I'm lukewarm about, so I'm going to cut my losses and hope that any other fans – Jeff? dayodead? – can fill in the gaps for me.
