Sonic Youth

I need to say something about Sonic Youth, anything. It's hard to be at all concise about a band this great, but let me try.

First, they are the greatest band in the universe. They join The Beatles, who've mastered pop, Pavement, who've mastered their own style of suburban pop, the Stones, who've mastered rock (and its ego), and certainly others you can come up with, bands which never disappoint, which always do something new but discernible.

Second, in a 30 year existence, there is no weak album. Some I admit I haven't fully "gotten" yet, but it's obvious the potential is there. I've heard the usual love-of-dichotomy "SY is split on a continuum between artsy noise and hard-rock songs," but there is so much more than that. There is always ambience, and there is always some kind of melody. The rhythms are pronounced (sometimes the rhythms are the melodies), and there's almost always some kind of "noise," an all-encompassing term if ever there was one.


Mostly what I would like is for others to notice how fucking amazing this band can be, a hard task, admittedly. Their discography is huge, and ambient noise isn't always the easiest thing to notice, even if sometimes the songs are clearly in the pop form or the melodies are highly pronounced (Teenage Riot, anyone?) And while every album is indeed unique, at distant listens they all sound the same. And consider that every critic and fan out there has their own opinions about which is the best album. How diverse is their discography?

2000's NYC Ghosts & Flowers is pure ambient, while 1992's Dirty is a Butch Vig-produced noise/grunge fest (they're both wonderful). Their first 1982 album is no-wave. Their second, 1983, is ambient noise rock (check out the Stooges cover and the lyrics to Confusion is Next). 1988's Daydream Nation is about as catchy as they can get, while 1998's A Thousand Leaves is about as laid-back as they can get. I could go on. I used to think Thousand Leaves was my favorite, but really it's just my first vinyl fetish and the first SY that I truly got into, opening up this wonderful world. I could always go for parts of Washing Machine, Confusion is Next, Dirty, and of course, shuffling through the entire discography.


And so to close, if there is any doubt about the ever-constant strength of this band, listen to a song from each album:

1982 S/T: I Dreamed I Dream
1983 Confusion is Next: Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog
1985 Bad Moon Rising: Death Valley '69
1986 EVOL: Shadow of a Doubt
1987 Sister: Schizophrenia
1988 Daydream Nation: Teenage Riot
1990 Goo: Kool Thing
1992 Dirty: JC
1994 Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star: Sweet Shine
1995 Washing Machine: Little Trouble Girl (or Unwind...)
1998 A Thousand Leaves: Snare, Girl
2000 NYC Ghosts & Flowers: Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)
2002 Murray Street: Sympathy for Strawberry
2004 Sonic Nurse: I Love You Golden Blue
2006 Rather Ripped: Jams Run Free
2009 The Eternal: Massage the History

"New Animals From The Air"-Eluvium

what can I say, inspiration always comes when I am at a computer lab trying to get homework done with my mp3 player on.

The opening track to his album is like the gong they hit at the begining of mediation sessions for me. It takes me in, it sits me down, it makes me close my eyes, it makes me take deep breaths, it makes me relax. Its a slow yet decisive song that is soft on the ears, heavy on the loops and layers, yet is as warm as a blanket for me. I often go to sleep to this song. I often put this song on before I start a paper. I put this song on when I need to relax. I put this song on a lot.

To be honest, it might seem like this song is one long loop, repeated for almost 11 minutes. And I know its pretty close to that. But I think that this song is not about trying to make a catchy loop, a good chorus, or even to be ground breaking. This song for me, is trying to get at your emotions. Its trying to still you, its trying to move you, its trying to change you. Its beckoning you to dive into this beautiful, foggy album. I think the record jacket speaks for itself, and this song.

Now I must admit, that this might be a hard one to grasp during the summer, when the sun is out, and people are showing off their skin. This is the kind of song that I listen to when I need to get something done. This is teh type of song you listen to when, like the record jacket, you are wandering throught he fog. When I need to relax, when I need to work, when I need to sleep. If you find yourself, awake at 3 am, and you need to sleep, try it. Its a lullabye. When you need to work, and you need to focus, this is your adderall.

mp3 download from record label: http://temporaryresidence.com/mp3s/eluvium_newanimals.mp3

Yesterday and Today - The Field (2009)

already halfway through 2009, i figured i would begin this blog with a post about my favorite album of the year (so far).



as the album art maybe reveals, this album's all about minimalism. with his ear moving closer to Steve Reich (famous for the essential minimalist work Music for 18 Musicians), Axel Willner has completed his second ambient house masterpiece under the Field moniker. moving away from the shorter, more immediately satisfying tracks he created on his 2007 debut, From Here We Go Sublime, The Field moves closer to Reich's territory by staying in the moment of a sound longer, looping seemingly infinitely on a closed circuit track of electronic bliss.

the shortest track here is barely under seven minutes, and it's the first Field track (that i know of) to feature vocals as actual singing, instead of just the instrumental blips The Field is known for. the rest of the tracks here dabble in or around the ten-minute mark. the key track for me is number 3, "Leave It," a long piece that spins and spins and spins, morphing slowly and steadily over the loop that repeats for twelve minutes.

but i continue to have trouble describing what makes this album click for me. i think to understand it, it takes a couple loud listens on headphones. when you listen to this normally, in your room or in the car, you hear a mediocre loop repeating for far too long. in your head though, forced to listen between a pair of good headphones, you hear the nuances that help the track evolve, like a virus changing its shape over geological time. little sparkly clangs that usher in transitions, bass lines that crawl out of the water like a fish growing legs, samples of female breath that exhale perfectly on time with crisp snares.



i had the very pleasant opportunity to see The Field perform at the Mezzanine in San Francisco just a couple weeks ago, and i am so happy i attended. as the photo shows, Willner is joined on stage by a couple other musicians for this tour, who took some load off Willner's job by covering some of the bases. awesomely, one of the other bandmembers actually played bass in a couple of the songs, bringing a wonderful organic vibration to the electronic thump.

if you are wondering what the title of the first track means, you are not alone. i asked Willner after the show what it meant and all he did was chuckle, saying, "it's a joke between me and my girlfriend." don't forget that humans make electronic music and human music rarely comes up with new topics.

1. I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet (8:02)
2. Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime (6:51)
3. Leave It (11:37)
4. Yesterday and Today (10:08)
5. The More That I Do (8:36)
6. Sequenced (15:42)

download or buy