ot: the majesty of sonic youth's 'washing machine'

[norman neville]

the cd's been rattling around in my desk for a while. coming from nowhere in their middle period--that frankly felt like later period at the time--it's an astounding document, a distillation of sonic youth's greatness. i was all for daydream nation, and i remember marvelling at the three punk rock double albums of the 80's, dn, zen arcade, and double nickels, though none of them had much to do with punk but everything to do with flaying the last of the slimy puss off the putrid carcass of almost a century of american popular music. goo was the reader's digest version of daydream nation, and after that it seemed that sy would slowly burn off in a mist of dissonance and feedback. then washing machine drops into the puddle and suddenly they're up and running for another couple of decades. yee ha.

[paczki]

The last one I really liked was Confusion is Sex. Saw them play in a basement in Chicago when that came out. Kim napped on a couch on stage during the long jams. It was quite a show.

[dookie]

1) daydream nation

2) sister

3) washing machine

honorable mention: the whitey album. the madonna cover is genius.

[goonster]

it's an astounding document, a distillation of sonic youth's greatness.


I do not share your enthusiasm, but I'll have to give it another shot.

Daydream Nation, then Sister for me. I saw them only after Dirty, but it was still a pretty good show.

[davids]

There's not a lot we see eye-to-eye on, but I'm with you on this.

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/72/06/42/48/0072064248252_500X500.jpg

It's the SY album I play the most. The song "Washing Machine" really does it for me. Those tonalities, those guitars. I could plotz.

p.s. On a totally different wavelength, I pulled this out tonight:

http://charmed.seenon.com/img/product/cats/00015721-156400.jpg

So complex, so enigmatic. And the combo of "Go On Ahead" and "Headache" would be heartbreaking if she wasn't so d@mned clear-eyed. This record is a steel fist in a velvet glove, atmo. Completely under-appreciated...

[norman neville]

I do not share your enthusiasm, but I'll have to give it another shot.

Daydream Nation, then Sister for me. I saw them only after Dirty, but it was still a pretty good show.

for me, it's not just the record, but when it came out. washing machine was totally unexpected. i pretty much put early sy as everything until daydream nation, each record a serial killer leaving expectations bloody in a cellar. then dn with goo as a gloss. the stuff after goo sounded like the end, a slow end, but the end nonetheless of the epic sy, where rock and noise actually exist in the same vast unexplored universe. when washing machine came out, i couldn't believe how good it was, how much it resonated with me. holy crap, they're not done! now there's a middle period and damn good one: dn to nyc g&f. the third decade looks pretty good, too, but washing machine was the treat i never saw coming.

[3chordwonder]

Washing Machine is great, but I'll always be one of the heretic tasteless masses who love them most for Daydream Nation, Goo and Dirty - the latter maybe being the pinnacle... one of my top ten records.

Put it down to my misspent youth as a Ritchie Blackmore worshipping classic rock/metalhead...

[norman neville]

There's not a lot we see eye-to-eye on, but I'm with you on this.

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/72/06/42/48/0072064248252_500X500.jpg

It's the SY album I play the most. The song "Washing Machine" really does it for me. Those tonalities, those guitars. I could plotz.

p.s. On a totally different wavelength, I pulled this out tonight:

http://charmed.seenon.com/img/product/cats/00015721-156400.jpg

So complex, so enigmatic. And the combo of "Go On Ahead" and "Headache" would be heartbreaking if she wasn't so d@mned clear-eyed. This record is a steel fist in a velvet glove, atmo. Completely under-appreciated...

ah, liz. everybody's college girlfriend. if not in reality, then in dreams.

i dig polyester bride off that disc for some odd reason.

[cadence231]

oh god.

[ti_boi]

I got to see Sonic Youth at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn one summer ..... the Yeah, yeah, yeahs opened for them....I made my way up to about 10 rows back and was blown away by both bands....I loved Sonic Youth....they were unbelievable...we have some good friends that are pals with the drummer back in his Kalamazoo days...artists/designers very cool people.

I am encouraged with how powerful and freeflowing the Sonic Youth show was....so much energy and a tuneful dissonance....it was great to see peeps in my age group still rocking the kids!

As for Liz Phair...she was a pretty regular site in Wicker Park in the late nineties. Kind of a tiny gal...no one you would really notice if you bumped into her on the street...or waiting for take-out. She is 'OK'...I like 'Supernova' and covered it recently with a female vocalist for a 'parents who rock' show in Montclair, NJ. It was fun to play live.


P.S. Thurston Moore just did the music for a 'porn' disk by noted photographer....Richard Kern....true story. It's called 'Action'....

[Mikej]

As heard on the SANTA CRUZ video at THE TURF - triple pool R.I.P.

[Russell]

I agree. First saw them during their "Evol" tour at a place in DC that was basically a concrete cube. Stage was about 6 inches off the ground. Thurston and Lee kept their funky guitars in cardboard boxes. Bud was warm and $1. One of the best shows I've ever seen.

ps - Check out Thurston Moore's latest "Trees Outside the Academy" it is very good.

[paczki]

i remember marvelling at the three punk rock double albums of the 80's, dn, zen arcade, and double nickels

I also think Zen Arcade is overrated. I saw them play when it was coming out in a lunchroom at an all ages show at a middle school in Concord (really!) and they were fantastic, but the best stuff was "8 Miles High" and "Diane".
I'm listening to Double Nickels right now and that one lives up to the hype. Just downloaded the amazing video of them jamming on "Little Man" with Charlie Haden the great jazz bassist.

[norman neville]

I also think Zen Arcade is overrated. I saw them play when it was coming out in a lunchroom at an all ages show at a middle school in Concord (really!) and they were fantastic, but the best stuff was "8 Miles High" and "Diane".
I'm listening to Double Nickels right now and that one lives up to the hype. Just downloaded the amazing video of them jamming on "Little Man" with Charlie Haden the great jazz bassist.

zen arcade destroyed hardcore by showing what was underneath as well as what was possible. suddenly a few of the goons that were paying attention had their horizons expanded and followed the huskers out of that sandbox; the land speed record didn't seem so important anymore. to me, zen arcade was as much an 'our band could be your life' statement as double nickels, if perhaps not quite as sunny a life, d boon's accident notwithstanding. bob mould turned about to be a seminal american songwriter; it was all there on the first take on zen arcade.

[davids]

If we're talking seminal mid-80s rock there's two you can't leave off the list:

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l227/jaengles/Replacements-LetItBe.jpg

and

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000I9KU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

atmo.

Let It Be still explodes for me - It's as fresh and raw as the first time I heard it. Buncha lovable morons suddenly showing you they're friggin geniuses...

And Meat Puppets II is simple magic. It's a synthesis of things I barely knew existed. Or maybe just methamphetamine and LSD.

Still two of the best records ever.

[paczki]

If we're talking seminal mid-80s rock there's two you can't leave off the list:

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l227/jaengles/Replacements-LetItBe.jpg

and

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000I9KU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

atmo.

Let It Be still explodes for me - It's as fresh and raw as the first time I heard it. Buncha lovable morons suddenly showing you they're friggin geniuses...

And Meat Puppets II is simple magic. It's a synthesis of things I barely knew existed. Or maybe just methamphetamine and LSD.

Still two of the best records ever.

Those are great records. Some things from the 80s still sound fresh, like Let it Be, and lots of other records don't. It would have been hard to predict at the time. After they fired Bob Stinson and their drummer they started to suck, they went from guys who played hardcore versions of Yes' Roundabout at concerts (or the first 15 seconds of I will Follow because that's all they knew) to "singer songwriters". Ugghh.
My favorite record from the era is still the Fall's Hex Enduction Hour. Now that's some scary noise.

[davids]

I was lucky enough to see a truly memorable 'Mats show at the Channel. It alternated between meandering stretches (including a 30 second version of the theme from Green Acres) and moments so powerful that it felt like the band was literally punching holes through the air.

A few years later I saw them open for Tom Petty. The magic was gone by then.



p.s. When I sent Dario a little Care Package/Thank You gift early this summer, "Washing Machine" was in it. I hope he likes it.

[Alexi]

Junior high music fest

http://www.punknews.org/images/covers/rites_of_spring-end_on_end.jpg
http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B000000M03.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://ken.ipl31.net/images/minorthreat-cv.jpg
http://depts.washington.edu/kexp/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/vfemmes_album.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/2d/200px-Stop_Making_Sense.jpg
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00006JLX4.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.toxicshock.tv/musicreviews/artwork/black_sabbath_1970_self_titled.jpg
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003TAL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

seeing sonic youth was always hit or miss for me, some times they were amazing, sometimes they sucked. Thurston did tell me "stay in school" when I met him at a Bridge Water State show in 1994(ish). Which reminds me I made a shirt that said "in 1994 Sonic Youth was my favorite band" t-shirt for school a few years ago

[round]

I was lucky enough to see a truly memorable 'Mats show at the Channel. It alternated between meandering stretches (including a 30 second version of the theme from Green Acres) and moments so powerful that it felt like the band was literally punching holes through the air.

A few years later I saw them open for Tom Petty. The magic was gone by then.



p.s. When I sent Dario a little Care Package/Thank You gift early this summer, "Washing Machine" was in it. I hope he likes it.
Ohhh , yes i like it ......and the cd is playing now !!!!

[mosca]

Ohhh , yes i like it ......and the cd is playing now !!!!
A theme for a future paint scheme maybe? Hmmmmm... :)

[mosca]

Someone posted a whole show on yootoob here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKBnSPm3VMo). Fitting that it's in Germany - I think of Washing Machine as their "Krautrock" album, in a sense. And I'm quite partial to NYC Ghosts & Flowers myself - seemed like the first record where they really got comfortable with themselves, in a good way. Underrated among their catalog imho.

[davids]

Ohhh , yes i like it ......and the cd is playing now !!!!
Buono, grande!

[taz-t]

zen arcade destroyed hardcore by showing what was underneath as well as what was possible. suddenly a few of the goons that were paying attention had their horizons expanded and followed the huskers out of that sandbox; the land speed record didn't seem so important anymore. to me, zen arcade was as much an 'our band could be your life' statement as double nickels, if perhaps not quite as sunny a life, d boon's accident notwithstanding. bob mould turned about to be a seminal american songwriter; it was all there on the first take on zen arcade.

okay - you've redeemed yourself for that EC rant

- taz

[paczki]

okay - you've redeemed yourself for that EC rant

- taz

Really? The records just full of filler. Hare Krishna? Bring back hardcore.