SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Bad Moon Rising (1985).
A
nother Sonic Youth record, another record label. Bad Moon Rising is a pretty big leap from Confusion is Sex, in that there are actual songs. Well, that’s not fair, what I mean is that the songs have structure like proper songs do. In fact, “Death Valley ’69” (with vocals by Lydia Lunch) is quite catchy!
Indeed, the band doesn’t shy away from catchy at all. The opening track, “Intro” is a pretty one-minute guitar piece. And it’s followed by “Brave Men Run (In My Family)” a catchy (!) song sung by Kim. The third track “Society is a Hole” returns to the stark tracks of yore, with Thurston’s despairing vocals, but it introduces guitar harmonics, a key SY staple in songs to come.
And if you like ” I Love Her All the Time,” and who doesn’t, check out this footage from a 1991 concert (complete with Thurston using drumsticks on his guitar).
Despite these signs of lightening up, there are some pretty heavy sounds on this disc. “I’m Insane” and “Justice is Might” sounds kind of like you might think they would based on their titles.
The band has definitely gotten control over the noise they want to make; it doesn’t seem to be enveloping them, (like it envelopes the listener), it’s more at their beck and call. We’re not quite to the levels that prime SY will sound, but it’s pretty darn close.
And songs from the attached Flower EP are okay, but “Flower” is especially good. It has a cool “Love the power of women” spoken piece from Kim that foreshadows some of her really fantastic songs to come.
And just to be difficult, they end the disc with the one-minute “Echo Canyon” which is just as it sounds,an echoic noisefest.
[READ: July 16, 2009] Slaughterhouse Five.
What is worse? Reading a book and not remembering a single thing about it, or not reading a book but convincing yourself that you have? I am stuck with this dilemma as I realize that one of the two options applies to me and Slaughterhouse Five.
I was certain that I read Slaughterhouse Five. In fact, I was certain that I knew exactly when I read it (my junior year of college on Super Bowl Sunday, when I blew off the Super Bowl party to read the book). I realize now that it must have been some other book (but what could it have been?) as I had no recollection of Slaughterhouse Five. At all. Even though the cover of my mass market paperback (which I can’t find online anywhere) was completely familiar and there’s even a dog eared page or two. Huh.
The first thing I want to say about the book is, having read all of the novels that Vonnegut wrote before S5 was a real boon to reading it because so many of the characters from the other books appear in this one! More on that in a moment.
The book is also about the air attack that obliterated Dresden, Germany.
Amazingly, and this is common knowledge after you read the book, Vonnegut was in Dresden at the time of the air attack. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Sonic Death: Early Sonic 1981-1983 (1984).
This document shows just how scary a Sonic Youth show could have been back in their early days. Well, not scary so much as noisy! They mention that they’ve been touring with the Swans, so you can imagine how intense these shows must have been.
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Confusion is Sex (1983).
On the Sonic Death album, a collection of live recordings from 1981-83, Thurston mentions that they are touring with the Swans, a New York City doom and gloom band of thunderous proportions. [This was before the Swans put out their first album, an incredibly slow, bass heavy bombastic disc of nihilism. I can only imagine how raw they were BEFORE that one.] Anyhow, that explains somewhat why this disc sounds like it does…if they were a part of a scene with the Swans, then their music would naturally be all about notes, not necessarily music.
I can’t help but hear his voice when I read his words, which makes it sound even funnier.
SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Retrospective 3 (2009).
This disc filled a hole that the public had been really clamoring for: a collection of the most popular songs by Rush from the 1990s until today. [cue crickets chirping]. Okay so this period isn’t exactly the best selling Rush era, and many people probably didn’t even know that they were still around (they weren’t for a while, but then they came back with an amazing vengeance).
Normally I like to review a band’s albums chronologically. But because in 
SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Candy Apple Grey (1986).
This disc seems to be universally panned as the worst Hüsker Dü disc (meaning it only gets 4 stars instead of 5) and yet I disagree. Perhaps it’s because it was the second disc of theirs that I had heard and so it has always been more familiar, or maybe it’s because I think the sounds is fuller.
Yes, that’s right. I’ve made it to the big time.
SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Flip Your Wig (1985).
Here’s where Hüsker Dü dropped most of the pretense that they didn’t write the catchiest songs ever. And, if this had been released in the mid 90s it would have been an enormous hit. Or for that matter, if this had been released on Warner Brothers as it was meant to be instead of SST, Hüsker Dü would probably be a more familiar name (and of course no one would love them as much).
SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-New Day Rising (1985).
After Zen Arcade, who would have guessed that Hüsker Dü would finally release a regular album…not live, not an EP, not a double record, just a standard platter of 40 minutes of music.
SOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).
I’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years. And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue. Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc. The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.
I Just Read About That... 