Comments on: The Over/Under: Sonic Youth

By: chad berry

chad berry — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:40:04 +0000

overrated-underrated: they’re all good. not one iota/mote (yes i’m dorky and sly) dog biscuit in they’re entire catalog. too many punk rock diehards, indie purist and pseudo hipsters who care too much about what sucks and what’s cool are really…dumb.

favorite sonic songs and albums:
songs:
1:schizophrenia
2:radical adults lick godhead style(yes! i love it. read joyce or pynchon; cute stream of conscious witty mouth fodder. that’s all it is. and a killer song.)
3:halloween
4:…..i love them all from here…just do

favorite albums:
1:EVOL!!!
2:murry street!(yes! i think it’s one of their most underrated albums and just an underrated album in general in the grand big picture scheme. sy have epochs in their music for over 30 years…murry street is one of them. the album (although sy is sy they had a different style that has continued with every album since but not as good. love murry street.)
3:sister
4:…again, litany, like above with songs

i will write this though: purr-now hold on i love that song but every conversation i’m in tuned with, forums even myspace “music plays” it’s either the most popular song or 2nd favorite off of dirty. there are plethora of songs better than purr on dirty even though i love purr, so therefor i guess…purr’s their most overrated song and that’s about it as far as the overrated/underrated thing goes…and i love purr!

By: Eric Waggoner

Eric Waggoner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:10:58 +0000

@hack — Not exactly. In a March 4 1996 article, _Newsweek_ writer Karen Schoemer was making a point about how the Grammy awards seemed to reflect the industry’s rewarding of inferior talent, and ignorance of what was actually interesting and engaging in popular music. Schoemer’s article offered an alternative list of praiseworthy acts and songs; she pegged “The Diamond Sea” as “Best Deconstructed Pop Song,” and suggested that “TDS” was “the real record of the year… An unabashed statement in an era of fluff.” A spot-on assessment, in my estimation, but not quite the high-profile endorsement implied in your comment.

By: hack

hack — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:33:57 +0000

yeah…Diamond Sea tottttalllly didn’t get enought credit…
It was only awarded song of the year from Newsweek magazine the year it was released.

By: downtownspendthrift

downtownspendthrift — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:22:02 +0000

The records can’t compare to the live SY experience where you can bank on a change of consciousness via the music’s discordant intervals, multi-layered fuzz tones and rhythmic power (and the players’ anti-charisma charisma). Put the band on a stage with a set list built from every stratum of its repertoire that builds momentum from the opening number through the last encore, where the volume level turns your sternum into a third ear drum, where your vision is blurred by the furious tremolo picking of Renaldo and Moore, where Kim’s no-bullshit boogie personifies a collision of art-rock and punk and you will gladly abandon yourself to the group’s most “over-rated” song as it stamps your brain with its singular fingerprint of sound, attitude and artistic guts.

By: Eric Waggoner

Eric Waggoner — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:36:52 +0000

@L. — You gather correctly. Sticking with the song-oriented material was a conscious decision, albeit one which blocks out most of the band’s (to me) excellent avant-noise catalog.

Thanks for the props, and how swell to see so many fans of “The Diamond Sea” piping up.

By: Dingo

Dingo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:41:18 +0000

Yeah! Diamond Sea!

By: L

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:23 +0000

And why’d anyone own every available SY and think a lot of their stuff is boring!!??!! And what’s that of freeing Thurston or Kim even more to sing??? The “new” member (although they’ve had a fifth one for over ten years… except around the time of Rather Ripped) just frees Kim to play a third guitar (and maybe dance). But enough with that nonsense… Back to the main article, what’s great with SY is: the over-rated can easily become the under-rated, depending yr point of entry and which angle of their general awesomeness you favour. I gather the impossibly long and twisted alternate discography wasn’t taken into account for this.

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:16:31 +0000

I still can’t believe they opened for Neil Young almost 20 years ago. Probably the Goo tour. Social Distortion was on the bill also. Was Neil trying to prove he was hip? He doesn’t have to prove anything. He was ripping out sonic guitar while Thurston was still swimming around in his teenage daddys nut sack! Good show though. Lots of people in shock of SY. Quite fun to watch the reactions!!!

By: gerald

gerald — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:42:00 +0000

Good post! In 2009 you can definitely add SPARKLEHORSE to the list of indie/alt icons who’ve done the guest singer album with astonishing success. I hope Sonic Youth does this before they all become old-timers.

Under-rated = “Compilation Blues”

By: Corey duBrowa

Corey duBrowa — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:53:56 +0000

I totally agree with you re: Diamond Sea — it’s the summary of their entire shtick, the template for all of their jam-length fingerpainting. My favorite SY song by about a million miles, which even includes “Theresa’s Sound World,” which could be number six on your “most underrated” list? (it would be in my top five for sure)