sonic youth | battery park, nyc july 4th 2008

sadly i have yet to experience the true 'youth live experience - that atp show where they crapped out 50mins of drones doesn't count. i had a ticket to see them last year here in atl but in the end couldn't go. so until that happens i'll lap up documents like this. this was the buy early exclusive thingy from last year. the sound quality is great and the band of course rocks.

lp released by matador in 2009.

get.

sonic youth / beck / jay reatard | splits

okay time to get back into the action...

and i'm declaring today sonic youth today, first of many this year what with the approaching release of "the eternal" and their summer tour (coming to atl 13 july!).

i don't normally post complete rips of new stuff, but given that these records were only available on this year's record store day they should officially be out of print, which makes them fair game as far as this blog is concerned.

don't think these need any further explanation. note "no garage" ended with a locked groove so i just faded it out...

2 x 7" released by matador in 2009.

::: sonic youth - pay no mind
::: beck - green light
::: sonic youth - no garage
::: jay reatard - hang them all

zzzipppped.

and here's the first track matador have released from the new album in case you haven't heard it yet:

::: sonic youth - sacred trickster

thurston moore w/ tom surgal | not me

a masterclass in minimalist guitar/drums improvisation.

10" released by fourth dimension in 1998.

not me, you.

various | ohm+: the early gurus of electronic music

an essential guide to the birth of electronic music. brian eno puts it pretty well in the introduction in the accompanying booklet:

“many of the ideas in this collection have now been so completely assimilated into popular listening that it may sometimes be hard to remember how surprising it all was on first outing. some of it still sounds pretty exotic. these cds are important as part of the story of how we got to where we are now–the cultural conversation so far–and as a still fruitful repertoire of future possibilities.”

there's also a dvd out there, but i've never seen it.

released by ellipsis arts in 2005.

cd 1

1. clara rockmore - tchaikovsky: valse sentimentale
2. olivier messiaen - oraison performed by ensemble d’ondes de montréal
3. pierre schaeffer - etude aux chemins de fer
4. john cage - williams mix
5. herbert eimert / robert beyer - klangstudie ii
6. otto luening - low speed
7. hugh le caine - dripsody
8. louis and bebe barron - main title from forbidden planet
9. oskar sala - concertando rubato
10. edgard varèse - poem électronique
11. richard maxfield - sine music
12. tod dockstader - apocalypse part ii
13. karlheinz stockhausen - kontakte
14. vladimir ussachevsky - wireless fantasy
15. milton babbitt - philomel
16. mev - spacecraft

cd 2

1. raymond scott - cindy electronium
2. steve reich - pendulum music (i) performed by sonic youth
3. pauline oliveros - bye bye butterfly
4. joji yuasa - projection esemplastic for white noise
5. morton subotnick - silver apples of the moon part 1
6. david tudor - rainforest version i
7. terry riley - poppy nogood
8. holger czukay - boat-woman-song
9. luc ferarri - music promenade
10. francois bayle - rosace 3
11. jean-claude risset - mutations
12. iannis xenakis - hibiki-hana-ma
13. la monte young - drift study 31 i 69 12:17:30 - 12:49:58 pm nyc

cd 3

1. charles dodge - he destroyed her image
2. paul lansky - her song
3. laurie spiegel - appalachian grove 1
4. bernard parmegiani - en phase / hors phase
5. david behrman - on the other ocean
6. john chowning - stria
7. maryanne amacher - living sound patent pending
8. robert ashley - automatic writing
9. alvin curran - canti illuminati
10. alvin lucier - music on a long thin wire
11. klaus schulze - melange
12. jon hassell - before and after charm (la notte)
13. brian eno - unfamiliar winds (leeks hills)

nummerwang 1
nummerwang 2
nummerwang 3

lee ranaldo | east jesus

so i got back from the beach then went to the uk for a few days. but now i'm back, so everyone say yay.

but i'm knackered having spent 20 hours traveling yesterday. so i'll cut to the chase and say here's an interesting solo album from sonic youth guitarist lee ranaldo.not too common, not too obscure... my favourite on here is the bridge, the way he mimics the sound of car tires going over the metal slats with his guitar. neat.

i'm tired of being tired.

pavement reforming?

someone's just told me that pavement are reforming to curate all tomorrow's parties next year. can this be true? or are they simply getting confused because mark ibold will be playing bass for sonic youth at this year's nightmare before christmas event (which has nearly sold out, unsurprising considering what an amazing line up it has... and i haven't bought my tickets)?

please please let it be true...

sonic youth | eyeliner

rumour has it the new sonic youth album is a return to form, that form being squalling guitar noise oozing with both art cool and youthful energy.

i've been a sonic youth fan ever since i first heard "evol", whenever that was. but lately i've been a long-suffering fan. in a word, their last few albums have been rubbish - for the most part instantly forgettable indulgent rock bores. and then there was that performance at all tomorrow's parties - the one where they basically played just one song for several days and the room was littered with grown men crying, their dreams of indie rock herodom in pieces about their feet.

so i've been considering turning in my membership card, hanging up my dirty boots, and listening to the birds in the sky and the cars on the road, or something.

but this week they released a 7" single featuring the last two songs recorded at the murray street studio. and i love it. both songs are kind of pointless and rambling but in a really good way, like the band remembered that playing music can and should be fun and that songs should be played loud in teenager's bedrooms, not hung up on the walls of the guggenheim.

the album's currently streaming at their website but so far i haven't got round to listening. i'll wait for the "real world" experience on 13 june.

sonic youth - eyeliner

p.s. er hello by the way, this my first post. gosh.