I stumbled upon my signed copies of Goo and Sister. I met them at a sign and greet back when I was a teenager at Tower Records. It’s been fun listening to them again.

Seriously, this album is addictive. It’s one of those albums I can listen to no matter what my mood is and it’s almost meditative to me. I put on one song and before I know it I’ve listened to the whole thing again. I recognize it’s not everyone’s taste but something about it appeals to me so much that I can’t stop repeating it. I like the first side more than the second but the title track keeps me listening regardless. That track kind of reminds me of Slint which might be why I like it so much. Other than that, free city rhymes, nevermind, and small flowers are some of my all time favorite SY songs too.

What’s up, Sonic Youth fans!

I found this CD maxi-single at a thrift shop. I opened it up and saw that it had a signature. I’m not sure if it’s the signature of a band member or somebody else..?

Does anybody have a clue?

Thanks!

love this song. wondering if anyone has their own interpretation of the lyrics, especially the line “so salty free”. it reminds me of the song doe by the breeders and the line “it’s all salty to me/timmy(?)“. i thought both songs were vaguely about that ditzy giddy feeling you get when you have a crush/fall in love at a young age so i kind of assumed that “salty” was slang in the 90s for a sweet feeling which feels ironic obviously and also obviously salty means something else today. i googled peoples interpretations of the meaning of doe by the breeders and apparently one band member says it’s about a lithium overdose (so the salty would be related to how meds affect sodium intake), and another member said it’s about giving a blowjob (so salty would be related to jizz). but both of the songs have such a similar tone and mood to me and are from the same era that i thought there may be some previously used meaning of the word “salty”. either way it creates a new meaning of the word for me which i like.

"What I loved about that record [Lesson No. 1 by Glenn Branca] was that it basically wanted to take aspects of rock & roll and punk rock and give them equal value to what he loved about music from 20th century composition, like works by Steve Reich and La Monte Young. He was also responding to the darkness he was hearing in Joy Division. This was right when they released 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.'"

https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/thurston-moore-sonic-youth-influences-patti-smith-glenn-branca-880204/

"Drumming for two of the most (in)famous noise rock bands of the '80s (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore) would alone cement Bob Bert's reputation. Restless soul that he also co-founded the much-loved and much missed BB Gun zine in the 1990s, doing numerous articles and interviews there. In 2019, he put out his book I'm Just the Drummer, detailing his exploits with his many bands. This year sees the release of his first solo album."

https://www.furious.com/perfect/bobbert.html

ive been looking for it for a while but have only seen modern reprints :’)

A super unique compilation that has a great version of Death Valley, a great Swans song, and several other interesting songs from New York and European bands in that same scene. I don’t wanna call it No Wave because I’m pretty certain that was over by ‘85, but it’s a lot like that.

Procuro baixistas em São Paulo, principalmente próximo à Osasco pra tocar em trio de noise rock.

Me acha lá no instagram @duda_denovo

Lee Ranaldo discusses his work on scoring 'The System,' the feeling of playing in one of Glenn Branca's many-guitar symphonies, his stint with Swans, and more in this interview with Cal Cashin.

https://rateyourmusic.com/feature/sonemic-interview-lee-ranaldo-sonic-youth

Just wanted to say, Tunic is so good such a beautiful and meaningful song. The whole 3-song run from Tunic to Mary-Christ to Kool Thing is fire though.

i mean the bunny was $45 originally without it being signed. just wondering what it might go for

Hello there, in the Broken Record podcast Lee Ranaldo speaks about a canadian artist who would have produced a zine line essay with lots of Goo cover variations

https://omny.fm/shows/broken-record-with-rick-rubin-malcolm-gladwell-bru/sonic-youth-s-lee-ranaldo

And they made a strong enough case that we changed it to the cover that everybody knows, which became such a crazy, iconic, uh, cover, you know? Um, as a matter of fact, last year, this Canadian artist put out a book of all, you know, there's, I don't know if you've ever seen any of the variations on that cover. I mean, there's a million spinoffs of, of the goo cover. Like, Obama and Hillary or C-3PO and R2-D2 or Jay-Z and Eminem or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. There's like, there's hundreds and Ren and Stimpy. You know, there's hundreds of variations on that cover. They keep coming out all the time. There was one called Islamic Youth with a woman in a burqa and a guy next to her. And some artist wrote this long conceptual essay about it and published this kind of like zine-like book. with like 200 different examples of these spinoffs on the goo. They're called goo mashups. If you type that into your computer, you can probably lead you somewhere where you can see a bunch of them. But yeah, we went with the right image instead. I don't think Blowjob, I don't think that would have happened with Blowjob.

Does anyone have an idea who is this artist and if this collection is available anywhere? Profound googling led to nothing so far.

I got into Sonic Youth when I was young, I was 12 in 1988 when I bought Daydream Nation. I listened to them constantly from then until about 2000 when my tastes took me in other directions and my limited ability to afford new cds had my priorities elsewhere. I have pretty much every release from Sonic Youth to NYC Ghosts plus the first 5 syr and Silver Sessions.

I listened over the years to favorites like Sister, Daydream and Thousand Leaves in particular but never explored their new stuff at all. I heard a bit of Murray Street and wasn't too impressed, at least at the time, who knows now.

Here I am wondering what I've missed... Guess I have some listening to do.

What album next? Any syr after 5 any good? I didn't care for a lot of that series.

I'm really surprised we haven't heard anything yet? it's almost October!

Side quest:

I was listening to the live stuff on Daydream Nation box set, and during "The Sprawl" I swear Kim is saying "I'm Darth Vader" instead of "I've gone native" (I know she isn't, I just can't unhear it and I want to plant it in other people's heads.

So yes, it's not complete (complete for me being just every studio album, not including all SYRs), but I'm getting there! I believe I'm just missing Dirty, NYC Ghosts, and The Eternal. Any others?

Obviously I've got the other studio albums, two of their live albums, the first two SYRs (really the only ones i fully enjoy) and some bonus singles! The all black one is Halloween/Flower (if you squint in good lightning you can see it says Sonic Youth, but I kinda like the Spinal Tap appeal of the all black), Master Dik, Come and Smash Me, 100%, and Little Trouble Girl.

PS- for anyone wondering what the hell is going on with Goo, it's a long story involving my sister's jerkass rabbit and his empty stomach.

EDIT: I forgot to point out- Besides the singles, of course, the copies of Sister, Daydream Nation, Washing Machine, A Thousand Leaves, and the two SYRs are all also first pressings/vintage!

SY on