SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Murray Street (2002).
After NYC Ghosts and Flowers, I put off getting this disc. I was getting a little bored by the meandering, somewhat glacial pace of the last two discs, and figured that was the trend they’d be continuing (especially since there are only seven songs on here!).
And yet when my friend Lar told me I absolutely had to pick it up, I consented, as he’s rarely wrong. And he was not wrong here either. Murray Street continues in a vein similar to the last few discs, but it includes what the others were missing: amazing melodies!
It opens with “The Empty Page,” a reasonably upbeat sounding song with some wild choruses. “Disconnection Notice” is one of their slower pieces, also cooly catchy, which doesn’t meander as it gets to where it’s going.
“Karen Revisited” is an eleven minute piece from Lee. It begins, typically, as a beautiful Lee song. However, the last six or so minutes are taken up with a deconstructing noise mess. (There’s cheering at the end of the song leading me to suspect it was recorded live). I don’t so much mind the noisy end part, but it’s so disparate from the first part that I wish they were two separate songs.
“Radical Adult Lick Godhead Style” is an absurd free form piece of lyrical nonsense which rocks tightly. “Plastic Sun” stands out for being sung by Kim, by being very dissonant, and by being only two minutes long.
The album closer, “Sympathy for the Strawberry” is another long, slow, expansive piece, and yet the melody grabs you right from the start and won’t let you go. Fantastic.
This reigning in of styles forecasts good things ahead on their next few discs as well.
[READ: September 13, 2009] “The Dreaming Jaw, The Salivating Ear”
This short story is quite short and quite surreal. And I am amazed at how much time I spent with it.
As it opens, there is a weird an unsettling scene about a man who has killed someone in his blog. I felt that the story was trying to be deliberately surreal by having this person get killed online, and yet that doesn’t seem to be the case. The story remains weird and deliberately confusing until you get about 2/3 of the way through. Then it all becomes clear and warrants a second read through. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000).
In the midst of all of the experimentation with the SYR discs. Sonic Youth released this “proper” release.
of 1996, when the book was published, she had barely played any pro tournaments.
Mental Floss
Next comes the ubiquitous letters. This also contains the occasional feature of Readers and Their Famous Friends, which shows pictures of readers celebrities (pretty much the only celebrities they ever talk about). This is followed by the letter from the editor. Neely Harris (I have yet to determine if Neely is a boy or a girl and I’m not going to look it up either, somehow it’s more fun trying to imagine) is very funny and always sets a good tone for the magazine. 
SOUNDTRACK: GARBAGE-Garbage (1995).
I was thinking about how IJ reminds me so specifically of a place and time (I instantly think of the apartment I was in when I started reading it). And there are also some discs that I was crazy about at the time too.
It is incredible serendipity that I did the JOI filmography during this week as this week’s readings actually count on knowing a bit about it. And since I had just reevaluated it, I was aware of a thing or two during Hal’s viewing scene.
Week 10 starts off seeming like a lot of nothing is happening. There’s a few post-Event scenarios. Until we get to November 14th, and a whole lot goes on. A whole lot! 
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 4: Goodbye 20th Century (1999). 
This SYR recording consists of Sonic Youth’s interpretations of 20th century composers’ works. Some of the composers are obscure, but a few are more or less household names: John Cage, Yoko Ono, maybe Steve Reich. I knew a few of these composers from Kronos Quartet, but for the most part the pieces are all new to me. Since I don’t know the original pieces I have no idea how faithful they are.
It took me going to Seattle to learn about 
ten. For reasons known only to my head, I was convinced that Sasha was a black woman. Little did I realize that he is not. And that he was in a band that I have a CD of called Ui. He is an excellent resource for all things music, whether I like the artist he’s talking about or not. Some entries are 
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH: A Thousand Leaves (1998).
This CD actually ties to the book because the crossed out title on the CD is “mille feuille” and the first song is called “Contre le Sexism.”
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Washing Machine (1995).
After the short blasts and diverse collection fo songs on Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star, Washing Machine sounds like almost a different band. For although there are a few shorter pieces here, they also give us the 9 minute title track and the, brace yourself, almost 20 minute “The Diamond Sea.”
SOUNDTRACK: VOIVOD-Nothingface (1989).
In light of Marathe and the Antitois, and Quebec separatists everywhere, I figured I’d mention my favorite CD by a rocking Quebecker band. When Voivod started they were a rumbling thrash band. They put out an album with the wonderful title of RRRÖÖÖAAARRR. They were very fast, very loud, and their singer had a really peculiar delivery style. I later learned that this was because he’s a Quebecker and French is his first language. Since he sings in English, his stresses and emphases are off-kilter, (and the guitarist seems to play to this particular feature, so the music is off-kilter as well) making for a very surreal experience.
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Made in USA (1986 released in 1995).
The liner notes explain a lot of what was behind this disc. The then largely unknown Sonic Youth was asked to score a cool indie film, which later became a less cool more mainstream film and ultimately went straight to video.
I Just Read About That... 