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I hate Sonic Youth

• Message 1. 

  Posted by HaroldCoatHanger (U14165749) on Tuesday, 15th December 2009

  God I'm being negative again, but it looks like I'm the only one and I've got flu so anyway..
  I've seen them about a million times and I've no idea why, its just the way their guitars are all just 'slightly' out of tune, its so childish, it must be such a conscious act and after and all these years seems so silly for 50 year old men who must have really good sense of pitch by now.
  OK I feel better now
  thankyou

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Swell_Map (U14129256) on Tuesday, 15th December 2009

  I dodn't think Daydream Nation was a particularly inspiring choice for featured album but I'd much rather hear that than yet another dreary prog rock album from the 1970s

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by LJJsPlectrum (U14169939) on Friday, 18th December 2009

  Hah - hope the flu is better Harold and I'm assuming yout tongue is firmly in your cheek re comments on tuning
  
  Each to their own but I think Sonic Youth have one of the most consistently interesting back catalogues in music and have never been afraid to push the envelope into experimental territories - including playing most material in alternate tunings which they've been doing since their earliest post-Branca days. I agree that Daydream Nation was perhaps the safe choice and better FZ material may have been one of the extended improv pieces from their own SYR label or Lee Renaldo's Text of Light project. They have always been a great champion and catalyst/collaborator of other artists across music video and art as well - Nirvana, Spike Jones, Christian Wolff, Brigitte Fontaine, Raymond Pettibon, Mike Kelley, Todd Haynes, Harmony Korine and recently John Paul Jones to name a few. Oh and Jason (My Name is Earl) Lee got an early break in one of their vids as well!
  
  Hail the Youth!

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by The_Purple_Gooroo (U14143748) on Sunday, 20th December 2009

  I like some of their stuff, but I've never been realy into them. I remember in the early 90s, it was de rigeur for the hip cognoscenti to own at least one SY album. I was too busy listening to Soft Machine and Caravan at the time - so SY passed me by.
  
  I tried to give their music a fair shot back then, but it just seemed sloppy and un-melodic (I suppose that was the point) to me. I can appreciate them more now, having expanded my taste, but I'd probably only contain my collection to a few records.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by jasonaparkes (U3653332) on Sunday, 25th July 2010

  Like any act, some people may just never appreciate - I don't really get Zappa. SY's epic career is a bit like The Fall's and I can see how people may not necessarily dig.
  
  The ones I like the best are the post 9/11 'Murray Street' (any of the records featuring Jim O'Rourke are great), 'Sister', 'Evol', and 'Bad Moon Rising.' Surely Ciccone Youth's The Whitey Album was made for the FZ?
  
  I think the Wooden Wand LP produced by SY's Lee Ranaldo and featuring drummer Steve Shelley has been played. This was on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label. The good Prof picked it, I think...
  
  Ranaldo did play with Glenn Branca prior to SY and his 'From Here to Infinity' is up there with GB and 'Metal Machine Music.' The SYR stuff seems ideal for the FZ too...Moore's stuff on the soundtrack to Heavy is dandy too
  
  I think an earlier SY LP would fit. The odd eponymous collection sounds more like The Slits/The Cure and the run from 'Confusion is Sex' to 'Sister' has much great.
  
  Fave tracks?, I'd go for the following:
  
  *The Diamond Sea
  *Expressway to Yr Skull
  *Schizophrenia (though you have to listen back to back with Catholic Block)
  *Flower
  *Halloween
  *Inhuman
  *Death Valley '69
  *Society is a Hole
  *Tom Violence
  *Kotton Krown
  *The Sprawl
  *Mote
  *Theresa's Sound World
  *Doctor's Orders (the version on the Bull/Heather single)
  *Starfield Road
  *Hits of Sunshine
  *Nevermind...
  *The Empty Page
  *Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream
  *Incinerate
  *Touch Me I'm Sick
  *Anti-Orgasm
  *PCH
  *Malibu Gas Station etc
  
  I think Murray Street should be an LP of the week. I'd pick The Empty Page, Rain on Tin, and Sympathy for the Strawberry from that one....

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