― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
(OK maybe I should get the lyrics sheet from some web page and 'study' it)
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
Well, read the Times article I linked to. That's where I got the idea from.
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 18:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
ie they're not wrong to say, there's a lot of foax out there who aren't in sync with the mainstream, but they somewhat sentimentalise the cohesion of thsse foax, and the objective correlative in their actual play doesn't work (i think bcz it actually excludes THEM: they were applauding observers pretending to be participants AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT... what's interesting is how quickly they refashioned themsleves back into being activists and enablers)
(ie what they stumbled on was reverence and awe and hope and wishful thinking)
they (correctly) transvalue the affectlessness, as the idealistic disillusionment it largely is — a good deal more accurately than most of the subsequent slacker blather — but then i think mis-cue the link as a sedimented 60s laidbackness (via lee's dead fandom), which they then fondly — but in retrospect also clumsily and confusedly and unconvincingly — mimic, as a sign of allegiance
on DDN SY said "yay the kids" and the kids have conistently said yay back, but actually i think this mutual admiration loop exactly excludes what SY are good at (which there's more of in sister and in goo)
a film which iconified the "no values" affectless generation pretty early = river's edge (1986)
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 19:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't think is a confusion so much as an aspiration - a daydream, if you will. "Teenage Riot" is poised on the cusp of where teenage alienation turns into action. There is an aching for action, but at the same time, a hesitation and doubt that the action will ever take place: "It better work out/I hope it works out my way" - notice the undercurrent of desperation - "it better work out". The song is not an announcement of imminent revolution, as we would have had in '68 - it is a revery on the state of perpetual revolution that is adolescence: "So who's to take the blame for the stormy weather/You're never gonna stop all the teenage leather and booze".
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 20:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
the thread that got me way into River's Edge
― symbol of the paramount chaos (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 13 June 2011 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
Randomly came across this webpage: https://americansongwriter.com/2015/10/lyric-of-the-week-sonic-youth-teenage-riot/
(the 2nd “comment” is kinda funny)
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Saturday, 15 December 2018 19:51 (five years ago) link
seems like it's paywalled and I can't see the comments either. Judging from the intro though it would be a good candidate for the terrible music writing thread
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Sunday, 16 December 2018 03:49 (five years ago) link
Weird, you’re right — it wasn’t like that earlier today. The writing is fine, when you get past the intro... it’s basically a long discussion/analysis of the song’s lyrics. And the second comment is Thurston himself (posting via Facebook) — plugging a book, correcting “booze” to “cooze,” and posting the song’s complete lyrics.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Sunday, 16 December 2018 04:11 (five years ago) link
Anyway, I didn’t know the song was a pseudo-fantasy about J. Mascis running for President in the 1988 election.
― underqualified backing vocalist (morrisp), Sunday, 16 December 2018 04:44 (five years ago) link