which sonic youth?

jim is such a boring challenging opinion please. voting kim obviously, this is clearly the only correct answer.

kim is the only one who 'gets' sonic youth

Edson -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ5jchmvkFQ

https://vdsqrecords005.bandcamp.com/album/vdsq-solo-acoustic-vol-5-12-string-meditations-for-jack-rose

lee

^v good solo acoustic 12-string album by Thurston
xp

i can't stand thurston moore

Lee and Jim, voted Lee

jim!

― reggie (qualmsley)

which one?

Bob Bert

Oh I thought this was gonna be 80s vs 90s vs 00s. Which would be really difficult!

i cannot decide this

I feel a little better about the "Jim" answers now that I imagine them being votes for Sclavunos.

steve

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JHRTxSY_EwQ

The episode of Homicide with Richard Edson and Bruno Kirby is a great SY deep cut.

Steve

What do you guys think of his drumming? I've seen the criticism made that he relies on the same groove for almost everything. (This would also not be an unfair cop wrt Thurston's playing; maybe why global hates him?)

it’s such a good groove tho

Kim wins for longevity.

Thurston.

My favourite songs are generally Thurston's so Thurston

don't rate any of them tbh!

I think Steve's drumming is deceptively simple and actually super intentional, tasteful, and in the pocket. There's clearly a reason they all keep hiring him for their solo projects when they could go with anyone.

I hate these kinds of polls in the same way that I hate the Cheers poll. Be real, a vote for anyone but Thurston is a vote for Cliff Claven over Sam Malone.

here is my evidence for steve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev4n7Bkn5QA

^^^ my fav SY song of all time

good call on rain on tin. steve is really great on that.

I know this is a very basic thing to say but SY didn’t really gel until Steve joined. His drumming style is basically a fourth guitar voice that meshes perfectly with the other three. One of my favourite drummers, kin to Klaus Dinger and I didn’t see anybody giving Klaus shit for having one dominant groove mode.

Lee is free.

this looks good, haven't listened yet (via Raymond C)

https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-los-angeles-1998

i was there! i remember thinking it was a boring show actually — but I was 19 and didn't know shit. the tape is awesome.

anyway, this is a band that is wayyyyyyyy more than the sum of its parts.

^^^ otm

My favourite songs are generally Thurston's so Thurston

His solo work is generally most consistent with what I like in Sonic Youth.

Psychic Hearts the song

that track really is fantastic, his finest moment in some ways, more lyrically direct than a lot of SY tunes

Kim is good. Lee is good. Steve is good. Thurston's kinda too much. Jim probably shouldn't count.

So Bob Bert it is.

xp to Psychic Hearts

Kinda the ultimate punk rock love song. In the grander, universal sense of the word love. One of the very few SY related tracks that gets me emotional.

Lee does all my favorite songs

i can't really stand Thurston Moore either, at least his personality, what happened with Kim, his embarrassing behavior in the Year Punk Broke....but he is still responsible for most of the Sonic Youth highpoints if you look at their entire career.

Some prime irritating Thurston in The Year Punk Broke, but some saving moments too.

*going at a bowl of soup*

“I need this elixir of... skinhead violence"

Lee saved them from becoming too much of the Thurston and Kim show and helped them become a much more rounded, venerable group as a whole (dodgy beat poet stuff aside)

Plus, his tunes and guitars etc

Amazing setlist on this one. Don't know if I'll shell out for any of these when there are plenty of good live shows on Youtube but a p good listen: https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-brooklyn-2011

(also via Raymond)

I saw that 98 tour in Toronto with the same setlist. I think they were very consistent with the setlist on that tour. I've heard "boring" from other people but I really enjoyed them all the three times I saw them.

(That 2011 Brooklyn show is probably one I'm most likely to shell out for if I do tbc! i'm already reconsidering, listening to it on good speakers now.)

Disappearer popped up on my playlist tonight, it was good

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i'm voting for steve shelley because hey, let's face it: drummers are cool.

also the one time i got to see them was on 4 july when they were touring rather ripped and all throughout the set, steve and lee had some sort of side banter going completely off mic and steve just kept bursting out laughing every time lee walked over, leaned in, and said something. it was very endearing.

this is a band that is wayyyyyyyy more than the sum of its parts

100% truth. That said, I'm voting Kim for the vocal on "Shadow of a Doubt," though I could just as easily vote Thurston for preaching the free jazz gospel to indie rock dorks in the 90s.

Noted, Brad. Thank you. I’ll agree with the ‘first introduction’ theory, too. My first was Goo and I bought every subsequent album on its release date. My fandom is not without its reservations but they’re forever lodged in my teenage heart as sign posts from which to explore. I would love to revisit the discography unclouded by sentimentality.

thousand leaves is pretty much the ultimate collision of sonic youth: hip arch noise collagists + sonic youth: four people who've spent a lot of time stoned listening to different performances of "dark star"

finally someone nails why I'm not that into A Thousand Leaves for the most part

it’s AMAZING THOUGH

finally someone nails why I'm into A Thousand Leaves for the most part

I’d wager that Lee is the only member who rates the Dead (and smokes pot).

i would've agreed with this before i did the discography run. idk, it just finally hit me

trying with DN is an every few years ritual with me

like i said, i'm not disagreeing. it feels like it *ought* to click

I’d wager that Lee is the only member who rates the Dead (and smokes pot).

― Yelploaf, Wednesday, July 1, 2020 12:24 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

well thurston’s really good at giving me the impression he’s a deadhead anyway cf. “wildflower soul,” “rain on tin,” “dripping dream”

thurston is also a huge deadhead. i remember reading a long article about the dead in Arthur that he wrote.

not sure about the others.

Daydream Nation was my first SY and had a huge impact on me but EVOL has been my favourite for a long time now.

I should revisit A Thousand Leaves - when I first bought it I thought it sounded amazing on this one particular EQ preset on the stereo I'd just got but that died about a week later and somehow I was never able to recapture the listening experience.

daydream nation is my favorite by far... I just don’t get that same warm buzzy vibe and urgency from the others idk. probably cuz I heard it first.

As a dilettante who only got into them way late, I think Rather Ripped is sick. :)

rather ripped is sick! i hated putting it so low

the kim songs are especially good(, they said about every sonic youth album ever)

thread proved its point when Kim didn't win

"thurston is also a huge deadhead. i remember reading a long article about the dead in Arthur that he wrote."

Not in Arthur. We ran more than one piece for the (um) Dead-curious, Thurston wasn't in any of them.

haha, my mistake! i'd say i swear i remember reading it, but i trust you :)

in that case, i withdraw my proof of thurston's deadheadism. but i do agree with the points upthread that he demonstrates their influence musically, at least

EVOL was my first Sonic Youth and I still think it is one of their best, it will always be special to me. Kim was key

I like that Brad rates the later SY albums

re Daydream Nation, the back-and-forth reverie of "you're it, no you're it" and then the blast of guitars is one of the best moments ever

ever since I had my revelation about Lee he will always be the lowest of the sonic youths, still cool tho

BMR was my first and still my fave, so yeah

i've been listening to Sonic Nurse pretty heavily the last few days, giving it solid listens for the first time in quite a while. absolutely in love with the main guitar progression in "Dude Ranch Nurse" (e.g. during "let the action begin, again"). it's such a simple line, but it sounds so good, a little shambolic but natural and human, like feeling your way down a staircase with a hangover.

I WAS AT THIS SHOW FUCK YEAH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xGU_cNGbs

sick show!!

it was like a god damn hurricane

saw them every year after that up through Goo, but this was the pinnacle

Such a July band. I think both times I saw them were in July.

If Leaves and Goo were swapped I could basically be made to agree with that ranking. When I say I love Sonic Youth, '02-'04 SY is generally at the forefront of my mind.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/sonic-youth-album-guide-a-look-back-on-all-16-studio-albums/

^ this guy's 'pop' / 'punk' / 'experimental' concepts are crude tools but he writes a lot

Such a July band. I think both times I saw them were in July.

I saw their last show before all their OG gear got stolen on July 2, 1999:

She Is Not Alone
Schizophrenia
Bull in the Heather
Starfield Road
Eric's Trip
French Tickler
The Ineffable Me
Karen Koltrane
Free City Rhymes
Renegade Princess
Sugar Kane
Teenage Riot
Shadow of a Doubt
Tom Violence
Brother James

they have so many fuckin songs, how do they remember them all

Whenever they forget, they can just slide into a feedback drone for a few minutes until they’re ready to bring it back

A Thousand Leaves got me into Daydream Nation, and I still love 3/4ths of it ("Hoarfrost" is my favorite Ranaldo song ever). As much shit as I give him now, Christgau's unbending enthusiasm for ATL helped me "get it" in 1998-1999.

My ranking: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/10/05/ranking-sonic-youth/

xxxp Thurston had a lot of trouble remembering lyrics, some very funny stuff abt this in Goodbye 20th Century