sonic youth splinter projects

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Saw Kim Gordon with Jim O Rourke on Friday night. Very wild and intense. They totally dispensed with traditional notions of melody and screeched and squawked their improvised mayhem while Ikue Mori calmly did laptop noise and a Dj spun sound effects records. (Actually the guy on the decks was the start of the show, but I';m digressing). It was awesomely exciting, but not all the audience was into it. There was heckling like I've never heard at a gig - well not since Sonic Youth played the South Bank last year and their renditions of Cage, Wolff, et al provoked some similarly extreme reactions. A bit ridiculous, to say the least. I mean, how can you shout 'Absolute wank! Play Teenage Riot!' during something as majestic as that piece for percussion by John Cage? Anyway, my question is: Sonic Youth extra-curricular - what do you reckon? Thumbs up for going down that difficult improv route or thumbs down for making incomprehensible caterwauling?

― Daniel, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I meant the DJ was the 'star of the show' of course.

― Daniel, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thumbs up - Two Dollar Guitar basically, Steve playing drums for one of his old Michigan buddies, but it's pretty damn good depressing, intermittenly humorous stuff. I was in love with the Burned And Buried album for a few years there, although the more recent Weak Beats And Lame-Ass Rhymes is probably better. i'd go more into it because for a while i think i did like them better than SY but i'm just popping in, i'll fill up this thread later.

― al, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

when you totally dispense with the only toehold in your unfriendly glacier of noise i.e. "traditional notions of melody", heckling isn't "ridiculous" it's being openly courted it seems to me.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

was bob bert in bewitched? they were ok

― gareth, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But Tracer people must have had some idea from their tickets or from reading the press of what they were letting themselves in for. Admittedly the primitive, guitars as percussion noise wall of last Friday was pretty extreme. But Sonic Youth fans know that there are some pretty mental noise-outs in their oeuvre and it's not that surprising that solo projects are going to take a turn for the abstract.

― Daniel, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

SY are a band on a major label: they are seen as a rock act and I'm sure a lot of their fans don't know where they are coming from. Therefore if you don't know abt Cage and haven't got an informed opinion (or interest in it) how can you really expect anything but heckling?

― Julio Desouza, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

waaaal, no tickets, no press, it was at a now-defunct bar called The Cooler and it was like 5 bucks so I'm not complaining per se but I find myself dangerously close to the old "leave it in the practice room, boys" type thing that I know puts me on the losing end of the argument from the get-go because SY always was/is about showing you their messy thought processes in real-time, but STILL.... it was a "jam" and i generally prefer songs, i think, is what it comes down to. walls of screeching feedback work better when it's not the 2nd hour of said feedback that you're listening to.... i love that stuff as a song strategy but not for the whole schmeer, unless they're willing to slow down and make it beautiful every once in awhile. AHA i have just realized what it was that annoyed me so: they had NO dynamics. "Are You Experienced" is brilliant because its raging psych fury keeps getting pulled back periodically, like a wave pulling back from the beach.... Thurston et al were flooding us and to enjoy it I would have to be a scuba-man or something other than human, I think.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I personally really like the newest sonic youth stuff; all the SYR series are great. I can see how some fans of Daydream nation etc. would get mad at them for not playing those songs, but I would rather hear them improvise with O' Rourke or DJ Olive.

― A Nairn, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My opinions on these projects are mostly in this similar thread. My question is "Heckling, what's the big deal?" Are people really that bothered by it? My favourite show I've ever played was at a redneck bar where people heckled bitterly. It's a lot more fun than indifference, people casually chatting while you're playing. You're probably doing something wrong as an experimental musician if you don't get heckled, fuck.

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 1 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was also at the RFH on Friday. The heckling was pretty bad, worse than anything i've seen in Glasgow. Personally it gave me a bit of a sore head. Chicks On Speed were top though.

― Leigh, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven years pass...

most appropriate thread 4 kim/thurston divorce discussion
http://pitchfork.com/news/54207-thurston-moore-speaks-on-kim-gordon-split/

“I’m in a really romantic place with Eva; we’ve kinda been a couple for close to six years. A lot of those years nobody was very aware of it except us."

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 04:18 (twelve years ago)

~~how romantic~~

― he always came across as a great guy in Kerrang! in the 90s (some dude), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 04:28 (twelve years ago)

ugh

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 5 March 2014 05:49 (twelve years ago)

When I read this fast I thought the thread title was:
sonic youth sphincter projects

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 07:40 (twelve years ago)

what a tool

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 08:51 (twelve years ago)

Their daughter is in art school now. I'd love to see what work she does.

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 08:52 (twelve years ago)

not bc of this thread, an unrelated thought, sorry~

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 08:52 (twelve years ago)

there's pretty extensive divorce discussion in this thread
Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

― Mike Dixn, Wednesday, 5 March 2014 12:20 (twelve years ago)

who would have thought that Thurston will talk in cliches

― nostormo, Wednesday, 5 March 2014 21:51 (twelve years ago)

seven years pass...

This month all proceeds go to Fund Texas Choice.

https://www.stereogum.com/2169304/kim-gordon-grass-jeans/music/

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 2 December 2021 17:37 (four years ago)

three years pass...

Early New York Silver by Lee Ranaldo and Michael Vallera has been in regular rotation for a few weeks; two tracks totaling ~35 minutes (vinyl only, meh) i began losing interest in LR's output soon after Fuck Shit Up (2000, which i loved) .. ENYS is pretty nice, it sorta harks back to the GATE Live In Boston, NYC 1994 disc. dug up my copy of Amarillo Ramp (ace) the other night, it took me back to summer 1998. Barefoot in the Head and Piece for Jetsun Dolma are both among my favorites, re: Thurston.

it became apparent sometime around the Dirty Windows CD & booklet release that LR was recycling bits of earlier tracks for his new material, and my enthusiasm waned. still kinda hyped by Kim's recent output, though the pink Collective CD is mastered so bass heavy that it's unplayable.

― Lowell N. Behold'n, Wednesday, 23 April 2025 04:22 (one year ago)

Didn't get into LR stuff, but really enjoyed Kim's The Collective.

― Ste, Wednesday, 23 April 2025 07:54 (one year ago)

This is the most I’ve enjoyed LR in a WHILE.

― Clever Message Board User Name (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 23 April 2025 12:06 (one year ago)

I also love the new LR. If you've not heard it, check out Ambient Loop for Vancouver.

― Blood On The Knobs, Wednesday, 23 April 2025 13:25 (one year ago)

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