03:32 PM - Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped
I didn't see Sonic Youth play at CBGBs this week. Not my fault! It's Ticketweb's fault for being useless. I guess I can get over missing an "intimate" Sonic Youth show after having some wonderful close encounters with ye olde Sonics last year - at least until I watch them from inside an empty pool in Brooklyn in August (with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Awesome Color). The new full length, Rather Ripped, is the band's first since the departure of (temporary, in retrospect) member Jim O'Rourke, and honestly it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. I suppose that O'Rourke's role was much more for the live show than anything else - which would explain why Pavement's Mark Ibold is joinging the band onstage for this tour. About this album - it starts strong, and sunny, with Kim Gordon singing before 5 seconds are up. That's certainly refreshing, and most of the tracks here share a a very straightforward momentum that never gets too fast or too slow, and has just enough of the expected noise, but really stays pretty close to the pop side of Sonic Youth. Even the song lengths are pretty conservative - only two come in at more than 6 minutes and for the most part they're between 3 and 4 minutes a piece. Fans of Sonic Nurse will definitely be pleased. If you're waiting for the next Daydream Nation, keep holding your breath. The last track, "Or," is a mystery to me. It's a total slow jam with Thurston's stream-of-consciousness style lyrics, subdued tribal percussion, and barely-there guitars but it just doesn't add up. Each time I get to the end of the record and hear the closing lyrics: "What comes first? The music or the words?" it just frustrates me and I can't believe it ended on such a down moment. But maybe that's just me. Find out for yourself by buying the album. You might want to get a preview by streaming the songs here. In somewhat related news, I saw Be Your Own Pet on Monday (they've been touring with Sonic Youth). Their records are some of the more fun and exciting music to come out lately, and their live show is, as could be expected, equally as energetic. They're young and goofy and having fun and it all shows - though I think that Jemina's Karen O / Emily Haines moves are a bit too carbon-copy most of the time, and that really turned me off to most of their set. She's got the energy and voice and moves, but it's a little too obvious that she's been rehearsing. Still, the music is great fun and worth having, and the show is good if you're tired of seeing sad bastard bands bathed in blue lights drooling over their delay pedals. 
(original photo found in cd packaging)
Comments
excelente ilustraci�n!!!!!
Aguante sonic youth!!!!
posted by: valeria at October 28, 2006 11:21 AM
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