body/head -vs- chelsea light moving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrXFTbqRZjE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnL1-9ilYuo

hey its 2012 and i like both these things! wonders never cease. wonders never cease.

i start a sonic youth-related thread in 2012 and nobody has ONE opinion on this stuff? where am i?

anyway, i have listened to the CLM song THREE times which is two more times than i listened to Goo when it came out. Still think they should have called this group The Thurstones though.

where all the indie rockers go? my fave thurston track since 1988! wait, when did daydream nation come out?

hey how about that sonic youth... sheesh fine i'm going i'm going...

Really liked the first song on the Ranaldo album.

This is it. Alan Licht on guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn9_89cqAqI

i like this one too

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2012/07/10/chelsea-light-moving-present-groovy-linda/

i keep forgetting to check all this stuff out

live show here. the sample is sounding pretty radical.

oops here: http://www.nyctaper.com/2012/10/chelsea-light-moving-september-12-2012-285-kent-flacmp3streaming/

LOL so I'm reading the US minimalism section of Taruskin's Music of the Late Twentieth Century and he mentions how in lean young times Steve Reich and Philip Glass had a moving company together called Chelsea Light Moving and I'm all 'huh neat! That would actually make a pretty good band name' and lo and behold Thurston et al already thought that thought! I guess I've been pretty oblivious of recent SY news.

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Chelsea-Light-Movingtif.jpg
album is out march 5

Ricbard Landry also worked at the o.g. Chelsea Light Moving.

I saw this band a few months back and it sounded kinda like... Nirvana, to me? Haven't heard the recordings.
I also haven't really heard Body/Head, but the Body/Gate/Head LP that came out on uh, Feeding Tube? is nice and pleasant guitar droning if a bit unremarkable.

http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/chelsea_light_moving/chelsea_light_moving_empires_of_time.mp3
yeah, i'm not craaaazy about this one...

i mean, it hits a few of those SY sweet spots, but the "we are the third eye of rock n roll" lyrics are a little eh.

thruston has pretty much never been a great lyricist imo.

THRUSTON

THRUSTON MOORCOCKE

hey JCL, if you are not doing anything tomorrow night, Helen's band is playing at Secret Project Robot, you should come!

i still lol about seeing him in the mid 90s doing some kind of experimental solo gig where Thurston was scratching his strings really softly with a quarter and the dude up front yells: "BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN OF NOIIIIIIIISSSSSSEEEEE, BABY!"

(topical, band features member of Chelsea Light Moving.) xp to self

They are coming to Virginia in a couple of months, and I am excited to see them in a small room 5 minutes from my house, but I definitely fluctuate between thinking that it is a refreshingly "rock" sound they are putting out and "shouldn't they be trying harder/be better than this". I am a big fan of SY though, so I am gonna go with low expectations and hope that they are exceeded. I mean shit, I sound like an ass, I am sure it will at the least be a fun show, if not transcendant, and maybe that is what all the folks in the band are going for.

i still lol about seeing him in the mid 90s doing some kind of experimental solo gig where Thurston was scratching his strings really softly with a quarter and the dude up front yells: "BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN OF NOIIIIIIIISSSSSSEEEEE, BABY!"

― tylerw, Tuesday, January 15, 2013 12:53 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

HAHAHA for some reason this makes me think of the mega-dud singer dude on that Holger Czukay album Radio Wave Surfer

Chelsea Light Moving album streaming at NPR (though sequence appears to be out of whack)

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/17/172096457/first-listen-chelsea-light-moving-chelsea-light-moving

i like it but i wish the vocals were more fucked up/not so up front. i can hear his "lyrics" too clearly. but the guitar jams are cool.

if this album had come out after daydream nation i would have been excited. but that's just me being mean again. its sounds fine. and i listened to it! can't say that about a lot of recent thurston stuff. or lee stuff. or sy stuff. or the drummer dude's stuff. or kim stuff. i wish them all well though! i like john moloney and samara a bunch. they are awesome.

love this album. a whole lot of fun.

i'm guessing the band name is a brakhage trib, but it does make me think of a small removal van

it should!

LOL so I'm reading the US minimalism section of Taruskin's Music of the Late Twentieth Century and he mentions how in lean young times Steve Reich and Philip Glass had a moving company together called Chelsea Light Moving and I'm all 'huh neat! That would actually make a pretty good band name' and lo and behold Thurston et al already thought that thought! I guess I've been pretty oblivious of recent SY news.

― the dyspeptic Hirax (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, January 15, 2013 5:27 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

d'oh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWjKLiexGI4

Like that song, and the audio for the video is great (considering it is "live in a basement"). Pretty pro-sounding, but yeah, has me excited to see them on Monday night.

digging this record so far! maybe moreso than the lee solo joint. which i liked.

i thought he was saying "the third reich of rock and roll" like the residents album.

"sleeping where i fall" is vintage sonic youth

yep that's my fast favorite too after a few spins

CLM album is kinda bumming me out. the song skot posted at the beginning of this thread is by far the best.

I wasn't too big on this after my first listen, but its really growing on me. About the only thing I'd get rid of is "Mohawk", Thurston really doesn't pull off the spoken word thing like Lee can. And I agree about the lyrics getting too much of the spotlight, but the guitar jamz are pretty good. "Sleeping Where I Fall", "Alighted", "Groovy & Linda" and especially "Burroughs" are all really good.

"Alighted" live was really good, it's the song with the most staying power for me so far.

this is great but thurston idk

coming apart really delivers what thurston's last few records lack... actual rawness and textural variety. Thurston and Lee have solidified into riff zones, where their signature 'weird sounds' are more ornamental, adorning lame "pop" structured songs, rather than being used as building blocks. CLM improved on the last two thurston recs, but dude is hackneyed as ever.

My statement recently, which I still stand behind: Thurston & Lee have made good to really good records (but yeah pretty trad and not particularly inspired) since "the event". Kim (and Bill!) has made a singular and great record.

Finally heard that Body/Head record last night, kind of blew me away.

maria played a long song from the new lee renaldo album on her radio show and it sounded nice to me. he sounded so comfortable singing. and the guitars sounded cool.

i think all of these solo youth albums are good! but yeah, body/head miiiiight be the winner.

the licht/ranaldo twin guitar action on lee's record is very tasty

haven't listened to the body/head yet, but i just started a gig at the local record shop and was jamming the ranaldo all weekend. i think it's real good; a laid-back guitar-burner.

I need to hear the new Lee; been swamped with other stuff.

Body/Head started strong, over time it's lost something though. Its powerful - but. Like I love noise but this is getting increasing brutal to hear.

Now the body/head/gate album? I can roll with that anytime

new Lee > Body/Head > Chelsea imo. Lee getting custody of Steve is kind of a clincher for me, though.

'Thurston Moore Band' playing in London tonight, featuring Deb Google, Steve Shelley and James Sedwards. A lot better than CLM, imo. First couple of songs were pretty long and Sonic Nurse-y. Album out in October.

cool! yeah CLM hasn't really stuck with me that much tbh. saw thurston play some of these songs solo a few weeks back and it all sounded good.

lol Deb Google

Ah bollocks, I typed that manually and everything. Fucking android phone. They played 2 sets, which were the same 5 songs. I'm not complaining.

album is VERY murray street/sonic nurse, and pretty good

Oh man, that is good news. Murray St. and Sonic Nurse both explored much better territory for Thurston than the Chelsea Light Moving material (imo).

Yeah, definitely exciting news to hear more of that type of material, though I think I liked CLM more than most here.

did he moved to London?

http://thequietus.com/articles/15445-thurston-moore-stoke-newington-sonic-youth

can we dream of a collaboration with Kevin Shields?

Thurston Moore, Lee Renaldo, Steve Shelley and Kim Gordon should form a supergroup.

yeah.

I mean, he has Shelley in his band alreay. bring Renaldo and recreate sonic youth again (fuck Kim)

no kim = not sonic youth

no kim = not sonic youth

― i was a downy lad, and twee (stevie), Friday, August 15, 2014 3:08 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so call it another name. whatever

Sonic Youth, feat. Kim Gordon.

Kim Gordon's Armada, featuring Thurston Moore

new band sounds like Sonic Nurse and Murray Street already anyway.
so it's not Sonic Youth. but it's Sonic Youth.

Bring Renaldo and stop playing games!

fwiw the chrome hoof guy playing lee to thurston's thurston on the best day is excellent.

Not into the "fuck Kim" sentiment at all, and it would be a pretty bummer move for Thurston to do a record/tour with Lee and Steve at any point in the near future. He pulled a dick move. Despite this I am fine with him doing his thing and playing music, but to get 3/4s of the band back together right now would be lame regardless of how good the music would or would not be. Considering Body/Head is the best thing any of them have done since the breakup I am not so convinced that a Lee/Thurston reunion would bear much fruit right now though.

Kim and Lee should form like Sonic Youth II or something like that

Lee's latest Dust album was great! I like all three of the most recent side project a lot, but I'd probably rank 'em:

body/head > lee & the dust > clm

body count vs chelsea light moving

maybe they can just go old school classic rock style and thurston/steve leading one "Sonic Youth" around the country, while kim/lee lead another

Hah, maybe. I like Lee's records fine, and don't dislike anything any of them have done, but would rank them in the same order. In a few more years I am fine with any of them collaborating keep in mind, I just think it would be a bad move for a while.

am guessing - apart from the fact he is a great drummer - thurst has hired steve not least to give him a regular wage? as he's the yoof probs not being offered solo album deals?

That seems a little condescending tbh

Those sweet sweet solo Thurston Moore gig paychecks

yu cnt hv snc yth wtht sgnr ov my fv sy sng...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ZXzAtnmfQ

OTMFM

just spitballing. the rest of the band live in london, but steve is, i guess, still in the US? again, like i said, he's also a great drummer.

and yes brother james rules

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10464312_481955435282178_6656355165409461085_n.jpg

First time I got to see "Brother James" live my head exploded. I mean shit, the Kim hit list is long and mighty, but fuck yeah "Brother James" is singularly awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPw1_ULjZLw

death valley 69 EP i bought in 1985 (with brother james on it) was a BIG deal to me. just fucked me up in all the right ways. the acid helped too.

I still need to get a copy of that... I recently got the 7" of DV 69, did not realize that both sides are earlier versions!

this thread seems full of blank spaces, but...

the Body/Head album “The Switch” is eerie and amorphous and is really great imo. I never got around to listening to SYR 6, 7, 8, 9 (although this recording has echoes in what I’ve heard from the earlier SYR stuff), but I was so disappointed by Sonic Youth’s two post-O’Rourke albums that I thought I had lost interest in them, and any future projects related to them, forever. This reminds me of the aspects of their music I always loved, and why for 20 years I thought that they were the best band ever

Body/Head is the best post-SY band/proj for me and it isn't even close

agreed, and The Switch is my favorite of theirs so far

Oh, thanks. I'm loving this so far.

Although it was released in summer, it felt really right for the cold, grey winter day.

yeah, this is good, I'd only listened to the first album before this and didn't really like it much

i've enjoyed the thurston / lee post-SY solo stuff i've heard, but it usually makes me just want to listen to SY. body/head definitely is more interesting / involving. need to dig in more with the new one.

Body/Head is like the first Sonic Youth anything I really fucks with after the SST era

I dug the set I play Thurston (and his band) play last month — felt like an hour-long version of “Elegy for All the Dead Rock Stars.”

(Should’ve read over that before hitting “post.”)

The Switch is no joke. I wrote about it back in July:

https://www.spin.com/2018/07/body-head-the-switch-review/

thanks, Raymond! I enjoyed reading that

Ha, we have opposite seasonal responses to this album!:

Consciously or unconsciously, Body/Head’s latest is indisputably an album for or about summertime, a No Wave mirror held up to our present, perspiring moment.