KOOL THINGS The Sonic Youth Listening Club. FINAL THOUGHTS start at post 2431

I can’t think of anything other band that would think to merge an ambient instrumental piece with an absolutely rough as fuck live recording of a Stooges cover.

Just the best band, really.

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I know it’s from a bit later but the Stooges cover reminds me of this cover; think I had them both on a mixtape. Big nostalgia vibes for me.

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When I first got Confusion is Sex, I sort of respectfully dismissed it. Like I found it interesting, but felt it was just Sonic Youth working out their earliest, angriest, most primitive version of themselves. Stumbling across ‘The World Is Red’ in isolation got me obsessed with that song (holy cow, the stuff they do to the guitars on that track!) and the rest of the album has gradually grown on me.

It’s kind of a unique sounding album - at once their most coldly and clinically “post-punk” and yet the guitar work is really free and expressionistic (is that the right word?). Obviously using the guitar as a tool for generating all kinds of timbres and noises is SY’s whole thing - but on this album more than anything else (moreso even than ‘Bad Moon Rising’, which I think is borderline their ambient album), the guitar is almost used like foley sounds in an old film or a theatrical play or something. Clanging church bells, ominous chimes in a midnight breeze, tortured squeals from an alien world.

I love it. I need to listen to it more often. I’ve no excuse. It’s definitely one of their friendliest in terms of length, and being able to find the time to listen to it in full.

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Fun fact*, i only twigged this was a cover after watching the 90s gangster caper Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels where the original appears in a gambling scene.

*may not actually contain fun.

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I’m gonna have some shit to say about Bad Moon Rising btw

Hoping it’s not a busy work week that week cause boy I’ve been waiting for the chance to do my big WHY BAD MOON RISING AND GEOGADDI ARE SIBLINGS essay

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Surprised there’s an anti-‘Confusion is Next’ contingent

It’s a fucking barnstormer from hell

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I’ve never got along with BMR. Really interesting to see if this club will be when i finally manage to get into it.

I think they are passed, with ease by a few artists here. Butthole Surfers, Whitehouse if you want out and out horrible. Feels to me, like Sonic Youth always could settle down and generate more than shock, which is a good thing?

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m-b, you’ve nailed it here. This is part of why I like CIS so much and I couldn’t put it better myself.

This post paid for by PROF$.

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Time to blast it

A good thing about CIS is that within like a minute it’s already more SY than the debut. It’s aaages since I’ve listened to it, but I’m surprised what a jump it is. That weird sort of dissonant, ragged guitar chime, very satisfying.

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not sure my brain is ready for early SY noise at this time of day

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I enjoyed that a lot more than I expected/remembered. Way prefer the production on this to the debut, and it feels like there’s a much more tangible link to the brilliance that’s to come. Best tracks for me are probably Bad Mood, Kill Yr. Idols and Brother James. Still don’t think I’d score it particularly highly as there’s a lot of relative filler, like the songs aren’t quite as developed as the sound yet, but yeah, that was fun.

Always loved the 1991 The Year Punk Broke version of Brother James - teenage me was all over this

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still need to watch this

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Recall years back assuming it had been deleted because I had searched for ‘The Year That Punk Broke’ in search engines that were not clever.

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The Year In Which Punk Broke

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Probably the film I’ve watched most in my life. Used to be obsessed with it.

Probably Cool Runnings for me

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The music bits in the Year Punk Broke are class but my god, Thurston is obnoxious to listen to all through the film.

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