The Sonic Youth Live Recordings Lossless Archive

If you're looking to listen to some live shows from one of the greatest bands to ever exist, there is now a really sweet resource. A badass Sonic Youth trader has put together a great site that includes shows spanning their entire career and solo and side projects. Get some:

Sonic Youth Live Recording Lossless Archive

A Random MP3 Trilogy

So I feel like posting a few random tracks. I bought The Breeders' new album, Mountain Battles, the day after it came out and so far I don't really know what to think of it. At moments I love it and others I want to turn it off. It feels like it is in another world from how I remember Title TK, which reminds me I need to jam that one again. I may end up totally falling in love with this one, or I might stop listening to it and never think about it again, but regardless, this song is great:

The Breeders : Mountain Battles : Bang On


Sonic Youth recently reissued their 1988 Ep Master-Dik, which I hadn't heard before this. I picked it up, and it is really cool. Here's a little cover from it:

Sonic Youth : Master-Dik : Beat On The Brat (The Ramones)


Finally, our very own Eric Guenther (From Exile) has started a music blog where he is releasing original music for free. The latest installment is a remix of a youtube video we had on here a couple of weeks ago that is really hilarious. He even dubbed in a badass guitar solo at the end. Check it out:

Southwest Dekalb Drum Majors : Bitch You Ride The Marta Bus (Eric Guenther mix)

Torrent Of The Day: Thurston Moore (9/29/2007)

Thurston Moore aka 1/2 old SY 2007-09-29 Rock and Roll Hotel Washington DC (16-bit) (FLAC)

Thurston moore band
Sept 29 2007
Rock and roll hotel
Washington dc
Mics>dat dat>aes/ebu>cd cd>eac>sf6>flac>td>you

Review by a member of the now defunct Q And Not U in the washington post:

Tuesday, October 2, 2007; Page C05
Thurston Moore
"I don't shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you, I throw up." you might remember that classic playground taunt from the '80s coming-of-age flick "Stand by Me," but it's also an apt description of Thurston Moore's performance at Rock & Roll Hotel Saturday night. Almost 30 years after forming legendary rock outfit Sonic Youth, the 49-year-old singer-guitarist is still making a racket, unfurling cuts from his new solo disc, "Trees Outside the Academy."

And then there's the "throw up" part: Moore discreetly puked on his guitar during "Off Work" -- a grungy new instrumental reminiscent of Sonic Youth's 1992 alterna-hit "100%." Thankfully, the illness was only momentary and the poor guy laughed it off, dedicating his next tune, "Fri/End," to "my friends" at a certain local eatery where he'd dined earlier that day.
Moore may have been strumming an acoustic guitar, but things got plenty noisy thanks to a backing troupe that featured Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, No Neck Blues Band bassist Matt Heyner, violinist Samara Lubelski and guitarist Chris Brokaw. The four players added grit, but without overpowering those evocative melodies that perpetually reside beneath Sonic Youth's distortion-happy outer crust.
The set's highlight came early with "The Shape Is in a Trance," as Moore's guitar work evoked both classic Sonic Youth and the weathered melancholy of Neil Young. Forgive the expression, Thurston, but that jam is totally sick.
-- Chris Richards

1. Frozen Gtr
2. The Shape Is In a Trance
3. Silver > Blue
4. Off Work
5. Fri/End
6. Wonderful Witches
7. Never Day
8. Honest James
9. Trees Outside The Academy
10. Queen Bee & Her Pals
11. Feathers
12. Staring Statues
13. Patti Smith Math Scratch
14. Psychic Hearts

What The Hell (Hottness) Am I Listening To?!?

Since rarely do I discover two albums that totally amaze me at the same time, I've decided to combine two of my regular segments to convince you to check these albums out:

Akron/Family


The Akron/Family show i caught at the Earl early this year blew my mind and is still one of my top 3 favourite shows of the year. Ever since catching them live, I've searched out as much of their material as possible. While i did find some really good stuff, none of their previous studio work felt anywhere near the intensity level their live show was at, and I had pretty much assumed that they were just a band that was much better live. Their newest release, Love Is Simple, has totally changed my mind. In addition to every song being a stand alone hit, the album takes you on a journey through every emotion and dimension this band has mastered. They are anchored in conservative musicology like The Beatles and Grateful Dead but find extremely interesting places to go with that foundation. I consider these guys the greatest jamband going right now, and i doubt most of the wooks and bro-skies have ever heard of these guys. Check them out:

Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead


Of All The Things


Buy Love Is Simple Here

Akron/Family Myspace


Thurston Moore


Thurston's latest solo offering might be the most accessable Sonic Youth related release ever. While the masses of SY followers are making experiment and noise more mainstream every day, Thurston and Company have spent most of this decade crafting stunning pop songs, and Trees Outside The Academy is no exception. For a huge fan like me, this album feels like a greatest hits of Moore's riffs and sound effects stripped down and scultped into a completely unique and original piece of work. Don't miss this one:

Silver>Blue


Trees Outside The Academy


Buy Trees Outside The Academy Here

Sonic Youth Myspace

Video Of The Day: The Year Punk Broke

Most of the Ohmpark crew is up in the wilderness over the extended weekend, but while i have internet for a brief minute, here's a great documentary on Sonic Youth and Nirvana on tour in Europe in 1991 that you must watch if you have never seen it. Here's all hour and a half of it:

Monday Mash-Up

So at first i didn't know what to think about the new Smashing Pumpkins album, but the more i listen to it and get comfortable with it the more I like it. Here's a track i like alot:

Smashing Pumpkins : Zeitgeist : Neverlost


Here's a little something to jam out to:

Sonic Youth : A Thousand Leaves : Hits Of Sunshine



Another classic:

Ugly Cassanova : Sharpen Your Teeth : Hotcha Girls



Here's some interesting releases out tommorrow that i'm excited about:











Here's some Tokyo Police Club:



Here's The Shins:



For the Atlanta college kids like me, Summer 2007 is over. I went to some cool fests, saw some great shows, and had a fun time so I leave you with this today:

Grandaddy : Just Like The Fambly Cat : Summer...It's Gone

Friday Free-Style

Let's get today started with a new Liars video:



One of the guys from Klaxons broke his leg stage diving.

Black Lips' new album, Good Bad Not Evil, hits stores September 11th. Vid:



Vegoose added the following acts:

• Mastodon
• moe.
• M.I.A.
• Robert Randolph and The Family Band

You can watch a streaming Flaming Lips show here tonight and tommorrow.

Joanna Newsom will be back in Atlanta at the Woodruff Arts Center Symphony Hall on Saturday November 17th.

The Long Blondes will be at the Earl on November 12th. I'll have more on them for you next week but for now:



Listen to some new Fiery Furnaces songs from their upcoming new album here.

Madlib in Bollywood? check it out.

Final Fantasy will be at The Drunken Unicorn November 6th.

More Tegan And Sara:



Tori Amos will be in Atlanta somehwere on November 14th.

Band Of Horses' new album drops October 9th.

I leave you today with Sonic Youth from a recent Daydream Nation show:

Torrent Of The Day: Sonic Youth (7-6-2007)

Here's a Daydream Nation show for you:

Sonic Youth, 2007-07-06, Ferrara, FLAC (AUD > R09; Daydream Nation show)

Sonic Youth, 2007-07-06, Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle Festival, Piazza Castello, Ferrara, Italy

Recording by Nic: hung around neck in strap (see sy2007-07-06.jpg) > built-in stereo mic > Edirol R-09 (16-bit, 44.1 kHz) > USB > PC hard drive > Audacity (switched left and right channel, track splits) > .wav files

Conversion and seed by rappard [at] gmail [dot] com: .wav files > Trader's Little Helper 1.1.1.90 (fixed sector boundary errors) > FLAC Frontend 1.7.1 (verify, align on sector boundaries) > flac 1.1.4 (level 8) > Mp3tag v2.37a (renamed, tagged); added ffp and md5 files; took the liberty of correcting and editing the taper's original text file slightly

01 Teenage Riot
02 Silver Rocket
03 The Sprawl
04 'Cross The Breeze
05 Eric's Trip
06 Total Trash
07 Hey Joni
08 Providence
09 Candle
10 Rain King
11 Kissability
12 The Wonder
13 Hyperstation
14 Eliminator Jr.
15 first encore call
16 Reena
17 Incinerate
18 Jams Run Free
19 Pink Steam
20 Or
21 second encore call
22 What A Waste

Taper's notes: I was in the second row center for the first 4 songs, but the pogo/pushing/screaming/blasphemous shouts ;-) were just unbearable, so during the 'Cross The Breeze coda I moved back a bit to the side of the stage in front of the left speaker stack. There I stumbled into some good friends of mine and everything became a sort of celebration, a bit of small talking, screaming and singalong added by the surrounding crowd (not too good for the recording....sorry), but we didn't talk while they played, so you'll hear a bunch of banter and stupid sentences in Italian/local dialect between the songs. All in all I think this is a pretty decent audience recording, especially considering this has been my first "taping" experience ever without a soundboard input and I never tried the Edirol "on the field". The sound was pretty good, Kim's voice a bit too low in the mic maybe and the drums not too clear, but no major issues. I had to switch the channels because I "wore" the recorder with a sort of necklace, and could not point it towards the stage as you're supposed to do with it.

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 1

We got to the park about a half an hour before the gates opened and found a pretty long line. The gates didn't end up opening until about 5:30pm, but as soon as they did, you could see kids going through the gate and then running as fast as they could to go get a close spot. The security checkpoint at the entrance was very slack and the entire line probably got through the gate in 1o minutes. We decided to setup close at the stage for GZA and Sonic Youth, and got a really good spot. I did a little exploring and was very impressed with the music shop area and the $1 beverages. We listened to Slint do Spiderland from far away and it was hard to hear most of it, but what I could hear sounded good (We also listened to them sound check a lot of it while waiting outside in line). Shortly afterwards, The GZA and his entourage took the stage we were at and did what i believe was most of Liquid Swords. Unfortunately, none of the real Wu-Tang members showed up as The Genius explained he was skipping a Wu-Tang Clan show in Amsterdam to be here, but Cappadonna and the other guys with him i didn't recognize did a good job backing him up.

After that it was time for Sonic Youth to do Daydream Nation. As soon as the show began, the crowd went nuts, and not necessarily in a good way. There were so many people pushing and trying to get up front and it was so tightly packed that the entire show would be a battle of endurance and will to survive. I don't know if it had to do with the amount of young kids, or the low priced tickets allowed too many scrubs in, or maybe just the ultra-hipster pitchfork crowd, but it was pretty annoying to me (I've decided to coin a new term for these douche bags with no concert etiquette; Hipsters going through puberty I will now refer to as "Pubesters"). On the flip side though, that was the best Sonic Youth show I have ever seen. They did Daydream Nation so well, and added to and improved almost every song, all I could keep thinking was, there is no other band in the world that could play an album they wrote almost 20 years before and make it so amazing to listen to and seem so relevant. They jammed out parts of each song and every single one blew my mind. After doing the album, they came out with Mark Ibold of Pavement and played three songs from Rather Ripped as the encore. Listening to "Incinerate", "Reena", and "Jams Run Free" in the context of just listening to Daydream Nation pretty much solidified in my mind that Sonic Youth is probably the greatest band to exist in the history of electric guitar music on every level with the exception of maybe The Beatles. I know that may seem a little too much to say, but there is no band ever that has been able to exist 25 years without breaking up, and been able to write some of the best albums and put on some of the best shows of the time that far into their career. These guys are just pure musicians that have never let anything keep them from making the best music of several generations and Pitchfork and most of the acts there would probably never even exist without them. We finished the night off drinking pitchers of Ohmpark's favourite beer, Fat Tire, and it would be a perfect end to an amazing day in the Windy City.

Artist to Watch: The Twilight Sad

The Twilight Sad's, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is the kind of lush epic you would hope formerly great bands such as U2 or Coldplay would come up with. Experimentation is the heartbeat of Fourteen Autumns, which leans heavily toward the wall of sound tactics of Sigur Ros or perhaps Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth.

They are playing a few festivals this summer in the US and you can expect a tour from these guys in the fall.

A taste:
Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed from Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters

Bonus track:
Three Seconds Of Dead Air from their self-titled EP

This is the only video that I could find of these guys:



The Twilight Sad's MySpace

Friday Free-Style

The Pixies' Frank Black aka Black Francis is releasing some albums this year.

Sonic Youth is re-issuing Daydream Nation this year with 15 live songs from that tour including a Beatles cover and a Neil Young cover.

Wow, I just mentioned four amazing and influential artists. How about some awesome vids:

The Pixies:



Sonic Youth:



The Beatles:



Neil Young:



On the heels of Ben And Jerry's success with the Stephen Colbert ice cream, Queen is getting a flavor called "Bohemian Raspberry".

DMX breaks laws.

Jim Morrison is still involved in legal battles.

The new Whites Stripes album comes out June 19th.

Over 100 Million ipods have been sold.

The new Queens of The Stone Age album comes out June 12th.

Bonnaroo announced their line-up for the Cafe Tent:

Angel and the Love Mongers
Bang Bang Bang
Dave Barnes
benzos
The Biscuit Burners
Pieta Brown
Cage the Elephant
Sam Champion
Christabel and the Jons
Rocco DeLuca (solo)
Dixie Dirt
Dubconscious
The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
Piers Faccini
Favourite Sons
Fiction Plane
Tim Fite
Haale
Jescoe
Alexa Ray Joel
Langhorne Slim
Manchester Orchestra
Jennifer Niceley
Brandy Robinson
Salvador Santana Band
Jonah Smith
Smokin’ Dave and the Premo Dopes
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter
Tenderhooks
Tin Cup Prophette
The Westside Daredevils
The Whigs

Frog Eyes will be at the Drunken Unicorn on May 14th. Here's a Frog Eyes live video:



Busdriver will be back in Atlanta opening for CocoRosie at the Masquerade May 10th.

I forgot to mention this last week because my Friday Free-Style was so late, but the new season of the Sopranos and the new season of Entourage started last week. I'm a huge fan of HBO and I highly recommend you get to a TV with HBO Sunday night at 9pm.

M.I.A. has new album coming out on June 26th.

Arbouretum will be at the Drunken Unicorn next Wednesday night.

You should read about women in the metal.

Creative Loafing has an article about Stone Mountain representin'.

WRAS Georgia State radio lists the 5 worst band names.

Listen to an Amy Winehouse live show here.

Listen to a streaming Lily Allen show here.

Interviews:

• Deerhunter
• Wilco
• Love Of Diagrams
• Low
• Bright Eyes
• Marnie Stern
• Ted Leo
• CocoRosie
• Clap your Hands Say Yeah

Here's some Marnie Stern videos:

Diatribe Of The Day: What Is A Musician?

The night after St. Patrick's Day a couple weeks ago, Me, Ichuda, and some other friends spent the night getting drunk in a dive bar on the beach at Tybee Island. We ended up getting in like a 5 hour discussion and argument about Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. I'm not going to rehash this tired debate here, but I am going to address a single element of the argument that has come out in previous music debates. There are certain phrases that people use when trying to make a point about particular music that always bother me. A simple example of this is: "Every *Insert artist or genre here* song sounds the same". When I hear someone make an argument like this, It translates into my head as "I don't know what I'm talking about". The phrase that came up in this argument that I've heard in similar arguments with many different people was "*Insert band or artist here* are/is a great songwriter(s), but not (a) good musician(s)."

I hate when someone says something like this. It really infuriates me because there are a lot of layers to this sort of thinking that I disagree with. First, somehow the word "musician" has come to mean something different to people than its actual definiton. Certain people in this mind frame think that there is a black and white dichotomy between being a song-writer and being a musician. Either you are songwriter, a musician, or both. Not only is this oversimplification lack an understanding of the evolution of music, but it totally redefines the word "musician" to only account for those who can play an instrument technically proficient according to conventional norms determined by some popular thought based in tradition. It basically boils down to, the faster you can play a scale, the better a musician you are.

Now, I do not disagree that in assessing how good a musician someone is, its fair to take into account how technically proficient that person is. But that is only a part of the greater picture. These classical-rock fundamentalists rob the word of every other meaning and dimension it possesses. Here's some definitions of the word 'musician' that i can find on the web:

Answers.com:

One who composes, conducts, or performs music, especially instrumental music.

Websters-online-dictionary.org:

1. Someone who plays a musical instrument (as a profession).

2. Artist who composes or conducts music as a profession.

But I think I like Wikipedia's best:

A musician is a person who plays or composes music Musicians can be classified by their role in creating or performing music:

• A singer (or vocalist) uses his or her voice as an instrument.
• An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.
• Both singer and instrumentalist can be improvisers, who create real time music.
• Composers and songwriters write music.
• A conductor coordinates a musical ensemble.

Musicians may also dance or produce choreography. The concept of the musician and the status of the musician in society varies from culture to culture.

You will notice that by definition, song-writing is musicianship. The song-writer is not a separate sphere outside of the musician, but one flavor of musician. You'll also notice that "conducting" is included in all three definitions. A conductor doesn't even actually make any music or sounds, but it still considered a musician. The conductor manipulates the music using the musicians as his instrument. Music is making art with sound. You have to think on that raw, fundamental level to really understand what a musician is. To better illuminate my perspective on these two types of musicians and their importance I think in terms of comic books, The song-writer is the penciller and the technically proficient are the inker. The song-writer creates art and the technically proficient perfect it but there's lots of different dimensions, and variations, and combinations. So arguing about who is a better musician between some who is purely a song-writer and someone who is purely a master of their instrument is impossible on a certain level. That's not to say that value judgements don't exist. The musician who can combine both as well as each of those clearly is a better musician.

Another problem with this argument is the limited conception of what passes for being a master of an instrument. There are classical musicians who believe that jazz and blues and rock 'n' roll aren't "real music" and that musicians in those genres are not as good as classical musicians because they don't do specifically what they are used to. Assuming that particular styles are objectively better than others is something that i will never agree with. As music evolves, styles evolve and just because a particular guitarist hasn't been practicing a particular old style of music over and over again does not necessarily mean they are any less proficient at their instrument. They may be inventing a new style of playing the guitar that the rock dinosaur guitarists could never do. Also, as technology is moving more and more rapidly, what constitutes an "instrument" is changing and a particular musician doesn't have to even touch classical instrumentation. Mastering making music from a computer is just as important as mastering music on a drum set.

The best way i can illustrate how i conceive what makes a great musician is to give an example. I consider Jim O'Rourke one of the greatest musicians of all time because he can play any instrument as good as the best and each with a distinct sound unmatchable, he can write brilliant songs, some of the best lyrics I've ever heard, he has a good and distinct voice, he can improvise at high levels, he has created some of the best pop songs and some of the most challenging and innovative experimental music I have ever heard, he has produced some of the best albums of the last decade, he mixes, he collaborates constantly with great musicians, and he is insanely prolific. The truly great musician to me is the one than can master as many different dimensions of music as possible.

So, I'm taking "musician" back. The next time someone is going on and on about some dude who can shred on a guitar in his sleep but couldn't write a good song, tell your friend "yeah, he's really good at his instrument, but he's not a good musician." and wait for that reaction.

Your reward for reading all of that garbage is a few Jim O'Rourke tracks:

Jim O'Rourke : Insignificance : Memory Lame

Sonic Youth : Murray Street : Rain On Tin

Loose Fur : Loose Fur : Carnival Knowledge

Jim O'Rourke : Terminal Pharmacy : Terminal Pharmacy

Torrent Of The Day: Thurston Moore at SXSW

Thurston performing songs from an upcoming solo album. Drogging with an acoustic:

Thurston Moore and Friends (sonic youth) 2007-03-xx sxsw - austin - tx (16-bit) (FLAC)

Thurston moore w/
Steve Shelley on drums and Sumara Lubelski on violin
03-16-07
Mohawk patio
Sxsw
Austin tx
Trks 1-7

03-17-06
End of an ear
Sxsw
Austin tx
Trks 8-14

Mics>dat>cd>eac>sf6>flac>td>you


i think moore did 6 shows at sxsw. here are two. good quality. end of ear is real good quality. fits on 1 cd. i have been to alot of festivals and sxsw is THE best. plus i only spent $3 on music.

Post-Binge Randomness

Boozing is fun, hangovers not so much. Tonight I'm checking out the RJD2 & Busdriver show at the Variety Playhouse and you should too. Here's a Busdriver video:



The biggest news to me from the weekend is that Sonic Youth will be performing Daydream Nation in its entirety at Pitchfork Music Festival this year. I have my tickets, do you have yours?



Speaking of great Chicago festivals, Peter Bjorn and John are supposedly confirmed to do Lollapalooza.

Actress Minnie Driver has a second album coming out featuring cameos from artisits such as Ryan Adams and Liz Phair. I had no idea she had a first album.

Lily Allen is bored of singing her songs.

The Polyphonic Spree have a new album coming out in June.

The Clientele have a new album due May 8th and will be going on tour with Beach House.

The Walkmen's singer got arrested at SXSW.

The new Modest Mouse record came out today. Modest Mouse will be playing at the Masquerade Music Park on May 5th. Here's a sample: People As Places As People

High Sierra Music Festival has announced the line-up.

Leftover Salmon have ended their hiatus and will make wookies dance again.

Bjork is touring but nowhere near Atlanta.

Listen to an Explosions In The Sky show on NPR from the weekend here.

Silverchair has a new album out March 31st called Young Modern.

Steely Dan will be at Chastain Park on Mat 11th.

Interviews wrap-up:

• Hold Steady
• LCD Soundsystem
• El-P
• The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced their first North American date in Canada. While we wait on American dates, here's some videos:

Torrent Of The Day: Sonic Youth (1-5-1985) (DVD)

This is one of my favourite all-time bootlegs. Sonic Youth in the middle of desert. Get it:

SONIC YOUTH - Gila Monster jam - 1/5/1985 - Mojave Desert, CA - DVD NTSC









SONIC YOUTH - Gila Monster jam - 1/5/1985 - Mojave Desert, CA - DVD NTSC

ok, this is the legendary concert from the Mojave Desert from their Bad Moon Rising tour. it is no longer in print. it was made from a VHS transfer i did using MySonicDVD. its decent quality, not bad for such an old show.

SET LIST

Brother James
Kill Yr Idols
Intro
Brave Men Run
Death Valley 69
I Love Her All The Time
Ghost Bitch
I'm Insane
Indian Beat (Flower)
Burning Spear

Videos Of The Day: Bonnaroo

Here's the video Beck had in the middle of his show:



Sonic Youth:



The Mars Volta: