Wish POLLfillment: Sonic Youth's Dirty

tell like it is

still got a lot of love for this album

I'M JUST HERE FOR DICTATION
AND NOT YOUR SUMMER VACATION

Much love rest too much

I read one of the Soulwax-guys had the intro of "100%" as his phone´s ringtone. Not everyone around him liked that and he quickly changed it.

That sounds like a great idea actually

i think it was the opening bit of (delayed?) guitar at the beginning of shoot that MTV used for one of their commercials.. can't recall which commercial, but it was aired frequently

fuck, i'm bout to put on SILVER SESSION. there's great energy in this music. probably would've voted for theresa's soundworld, though not sure.. may have voted on it.

JC is sounding beautiful this morning.

The entrance of the second guitar at around 0.22 on "Theresa" is my single favourite part of this album

JC is the best

it's 8.30 AM and i'm putting this on

the secondary guitar right at the beginning of JC sounds like some wild distorted horn.. i get a sort of a tv crime story image from it.

"and all you men are slime"

lol

I believe this is the last album where Steve Shelley 'goes nuts'.

yeah. i blame his post-dirty suckiness on overemployement (two dollar guitar, cat power, raincoats, christina rosenvinge et al) plus he started putting on some weight, always a bad sign for rock drummers

that is the stupidest thing i've ever heard

haha why?

and btw thurston and lee got also super duper lazy with their chops, they almost sound like semi-virtuosos on dirty

because his playing, though it absolutely changed and got less bombastic after the early '90s, did not get "sucky," and the idea that playing in multiple bands (or gaining weight) would suddenly just wear a drummer out and make them incapable of rocking out satisfactorily is an incredible facile simpleheaded "theory."

I could be wrong, but my theory is that Shelley was still copying Bert and Sclavunos (both extremely good and original, though not conventionally talented, drummers) for a while, but at some point he just went over to what he does best, which is buh-buh-cha-buh-buh-cha. Basically a krautrock drummer in an art rock band, and that's why SY went downhill so badly. It's like they started off working with interesting received Branca+interesting drumming and as those influences slowly wear off the band goes to hell and all that's left is echoes of Kim Fowley and early-90's teenage feminist catchphrases.

went down what the fuck hill

some dude otm. i dont see any deterioration with Shelley's drumming after Dirty

see hear whatever

they still played a fair amount of pre-93 music right up through SY's last tours and there was certainly no sense that Steve was struggling to play the old fast stuff. .

Just playing The Eternal now to make sure I'm not insane. Every single drum track is buh-buh-cha, buh-buh-cha. I'm willing to bet that 90% of what he did was buh-buh-cha, buh-buh-cha. Shelley was an incredibly uncreative drummer, in a band that really needed a creative one.

why?

Quite the opposite: with their tunings and those singer-lyricists I want a super-steady drummer.

dude is pretty great at buh-buh-cha, buh-buh-cha, underrated drummer skill

Probably not coincidental that Bert is the only one of the group who was in a great band *after* SY.

Kind of imagining how easily Shelley would have ruined Halloween, for example.

his drumming on Murray Street leaves me cold, his grooves feel well-rote at this point. especially with 'rain on tin', one of the more interesting tracks, his drumming is accommodating (serves the music, whatever), but i find it pretty dull. 'disconnection notice' is a basically rehash of the self obsessed and sexxee groove (not steve's fault), and the noise break of 'dude ranch nurse' remarkably recreates the "instrumental break" of becuz.. compare the drumming, it's uncanny.

I almost wrote something up around this, but nah. I would be repeating like 20 statements made on dozens of SY threads. Simple breakdown: I am glad that I am not bored by late-period Sonic Youth.

Alfred otm: Shelley's rock-solid presence has been greatest asset p much since forever. Also, surely whoever said Bert was the only one in a classic band post-SY surely meant Sclavunos, who ended up in the Bad Seeds (assertion is total bullshit as far as I can tell, and highly debatable besides)

When I think of Shelley I think of almost Keith Moon sorts of fills, like, wtf is this super-steady take on him? Esp. on Goo and Dirty, he's all rolls and fills. The first thing that pops in my head, in fact, is Kool Thing, and that is total Moon.

think they're saying that post-dirty, shelley became less explosive on record, which is probably true, but whether that's a bad thing might be up to personal taste.

I just put on Dirty Boots, and I guess it's Keith Moon if Keith Moon played buh-buh-cha, buh-buh-cha all the time. Don't want to be pedantic, but the difference between Shelley and the guys who came before is pretty huge. The only song I can really think of where Shelley was essential is Free City Rhymes, as I doubt any of the other drummers could have handled the rhythm there. It's too bad they didn't do more along those lines, if they were stuck with a metronome...

When I think of Shelley I think of almost Keith Moon sorts of fills, like, wtf is this super-steady take on him? Esp. on Goo and Dirty, he's all rolls and fills. The first thing that pops in my head, in fact, is Kool Thing, and that is total Moon.

― Josh in Chicago

Agree! I'm talking about after Dirty.

One interesting thing about early SY vs. Branca and Chatham is the looseness of the drums. Chatham especially is like listening to the Feelies, and the Branca stuff is stiff as hell as well. SY really hit on something by de-emphasizing the rhythm-keeping aspect of drums early on (after the first ep, which they clearly reacted against) but then they lost it once Shelley was firmly on board.

I kinda stopped paying close attention to the band after Dirty, maybe because the guitars and songs didn't catch my ear, so I suppose I'm not surprised Shelley toned it down along with the gang. Shelley went more Neu, but maybe he needed to get all jam-band on them.

when this came out i bought it immediately and it was my first sonic youth album.

― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 31 July 2015 16:49 (3 days ago) Permalink

THIS

fuck, i'm bout to put on SILVER SESSION.

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Sunday, August 2, 2015 10:40 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

everyone should do this all the time

I love "Silver Session"

think they're saying that post-dirty, shelley became less explosive on record, which is probably true, but whether that's a bad thing might be up to personal taste.

― tylerw, Monday, August 3, 2015 10:49 AM (3 hours ago)

he's got good feeling on EJSTNS, some nimble, powerful fills. there's a weight to his presence, possibly the recording/mix. i really like the dry, muted quality of the whole recording.. sort of a muted humidity (again, talked to death on other sy threads)

yeah his change in playing in the Jet Set/Washing Machine era seems very much reactive to the whole shifting mood and approach of the band. Kim switched from bass to guitar, they briefly considered changing the name of the band, there was a hiatus for baby Coco and a lot of side projects, and a general comfort with the 'elder statesmen' role. i wouldn't mind if they'd done some more fast and loud stuff in 94/95 but it might've made them seem kinda desperate at that point.

the jetsun dolma record (moore/surgal/winant) fucking rules. getting a bit off topic

went down what the fuck hill

― j., Monday, August 3, 2015 4:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

preach

while sonic youth plays a house party filled with extras
And Mike Watt!

talking with students about their music likes on the first day of class, i mentioned i was listening to sonic youth and one student sez

I have never listened to sonic youth by choice but my dad always forced us to listen to it in car rides.

dad dream nation

If I was a dad I would do this.