I Hung Out With Sonic Youth Last Night
That's right Feldheimians, yours truly was backstage chillin with one of the most important bands of our generation. They played the Wiltern last night, and I got to go because I am the newly appointed Production Coordinator for Project Moonshine. That means I burn dvd's and sit and watch my former roommate Mike edit and say "yeah man, that right there, that right there is fucking sic."
More about Project Moonshine here.
Anyways, Project Moonshine is doing a documentary on Sonic Youth, and we were there to interview Kim Gordon, seen below. I sat on the floor in the corner while the interview moved along....it proved to be quite an interesting experience. Kim is very quiet, soft spoken, which you cant really assume from seeing their live performance.
Also got a chance to meet Thurston Moore, my personal favorite Sonic Youthian, and he was a cool guy, the only one of them that was truly animated backstage and onstage.
Anyways....the show was great, and they are great. They have a great sound, great tone, and really fucked up tunings. I could write a more in-depth review of this, but I know that I'm just going to talk to Ritter about it later on, and Angela is busy doing html.
All in all backstage at Sonic Youth is not as exciting as you would assume, and I'm sure it was very muchso lots cooler two decades ago. They are not intimidating, they are not gods, they are just normal people who figured out a sound and worked at it. That's all it is folks. You want to be a rock star? Figure out a sound, work on it. If your talented/disciplined enough, you will make it. That's the fucking equation, there's no need to buy a book.
Book's are for posers, cd's are for losers.......FLAC IS THE FUTURE.
LONG LIVE JAFAR!!!
posted by How To Swim at 9:25:00 AM
3 Comments:
eeah. I never got it. I know as a sound afficinado and elite Feldheimer, I should appreciate Sonic Youth, but I just don't. I got utmost respect, but I just don't like it.
But like any metal head will preach the church of Slayer I just couldn't give a shit about Slayer: their hair is too long and so are their solos. So why should I give a shit about Sonic Youth?
I'm all about chaos in music. I dig Black Flag. But I think I'm more about finding order in chaos, the very theme presented on the Downward Sprial.
Help me out here. what am I missing?
One thing that I respect about Sonic Youth is that they were promoting the "washing machine" idea concept months before their WASHING MACHINE album (the one that featured Kim all on guitar and not just on bass). They had made T-shirts with the washing machines on them and sold them at shows. There was a picture (http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/72/06/42/48/0072064248252_500X500.jpg)
taken of two people at an Amherst show that the band found and liked. Wanting to use that as the cover of their upcoming album they desperately attempted to contact the mysterious people in the picture to get their permission for use on the new album. They even used the invasive, far-reaching search service of MTV News to find the lucky douchebags.
I'm sure that a powerhouse band like Coldplay is mired with so much A&R/Marketing with their label that they don't even have a choice as to the cover art of their next albums. "But Chris listen, I know you want to call the next album 'FrenchBleed' but all of our market research shows that right now people in our target demographic of Caucasian 14-35 yr olds are right now really digging chromosomes and letters. The board has already decided to go with X and Y. We're sorry.
That' what I'm saying. I admire everythign sonic youth represnets, but I appreciate their music the way I appreciate the Fauvist and Dada movements: despite the earth shattering influence on other musicians, I don't get and don't like it.
The problem is, that becasue I don't get dada, fauvism, and Sonic youth, I feel like I'm missing out. what the big deal?
Post a Comment
<< Home