Category Archives: sonic youth

I Just Got Out From A Minor Operation

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Yuck.

Yuck is what you get when you take two dudes from London band Cajun Dance Party, add your sister for supporting female vocals, and then throw in a Japanese female bassist and a drummer from New Jersey.

Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom, the aforementioned two dudes, met in Israel although both are from London. They connected over an Animal Collective t-shirt. They later found their drummer in Israel, as well, although at the time he was still a college student in New Jersey. They all decided to give up any other plans they may have had to join the London music scene. And they were soon labeled “Revival Grunge.”

“It’s weird that there’s a certain label of bands called ‘grunge revival’ when there’s been guitar bands consistently making amazing music. There hasn’t been a stop or start or anything. There’s just been more attention given to it” explained Max Bloom.

I wanna be well designed
I wanna be well designed
Cause you talk and I just feel so
Cause you talk and I just feel so

Revival grunge? Meaning this is what grunge is now? Hmm. Paul Lester from the Guardian calls it more like a “shoegazey Sonic Youth.” YES. That’s it. Shoegazey Sonic Youth. Or Dinosaur Jr. Or Teenage Fanclub. There you go.

I try to think but I just don’t fuckin’ know

Quite honestly, I think their best track is “Rubber”, which closes out the album and lasts 7 minutes and 14 seconds. Mogwai remixed it and managed to stretch it out to 8 minutes. The self-titled album is interspersed with slow and brooding tracks like “Rubber”, a few faster but oddball love songs, and a few good ones that mix the two, like “The Wall” and “Operation.”

Click to Enjoy Yuck – The Wall

Click to Enjoy Yuck – Operation

Slottsfjel Festival in Norway today, can I get a shout out?! 😉 OK, how about Pitchfork in Chicago on Sunday. Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Seattle, check your venues, because Yuck will be there soon. Full tour list on their MySpace – and yes, they update it!

Sean, Madonna, and Me

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I’m probably not a true Sonic Youth fan, and I’m OK with that. I’m a casual fan I suppose.

Well, I was a casual fan.

I just listened to 2009’s The Eternal and it makes me wonder what I ever saw in them. In fact, did I really know who they were, or did I just associate them with Nirvana and Mudhoney and assume that I was a fan? Do you remember the 90’s? Were you alive in the 80’s? Did we really listen to this shit?

I should like Sonic Youth, I suppose. There is a lot to admire about them. I understand why they have so many insanely raging fans. They pioneered Alternative Music as we have come to know it. That’s probably hard to believe, especially when taking a listen to any one of their tracks. Try “Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn.” This is probably the best track on the album, so it might leave you wondering just what I’m bitching about.

Download Sonic Youth – Thunderclap for Bobby Pyn

But honestly, when you find a way to start a truly punk band – in the punk ethos, rather than the punk sound – in the early 80’s and move it progressively forward but remain threateningly indie, and experiment with the guitar without becoming a rock band… It seems to me that this is how you create that crazy, confusing genre called Alternative.

And the members of Sonic Youth are musicians I should look up to and respect. So I will give them cred. I’m just not digging this sound. I don’t get why anyone would accept this from a band for almost 30 full years.

Here’s what I’m bitching about:

Download Sonic Youth – Leaky Lifeboat

So there you have it. My review of Sonic Youth’s eightieth album in as many years is… What the hell is this all about anyway?

Thank you, don’t forget to tip your waiters.

Tired of Being Sexy

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They’re not new to the scene… And they’re not new to music bloggers… But chances are, they’re new to you. Don’t punish yourself for not running to look up the artist whose song played in that cool iPod Touch commercial. Here’s your chance to discover CSS.


This video was actually made for fun by a British kid, not unlike any other youtube video, but found by Apple’s ad agency and launched in their campaign, with barely any tweaking done at all. Amazing, huh!

CSS is a crazy, fun-loving, post-riot-grrrrl band (plus one dude) from Brazil. The name is short for Cansei de Ser Sexy, which is Portuguese for Tired of Being Sexy. I love the gung-ho manner in which this group embraces, worships, and sometimes caricaturizes American pop culture in their music, lyrics, stage presence, and not least of all in the selection of the band name (a Beyonce quote.)


The music is very electro, very synth, very 80’s. Yet, watch them live and you get to enjoy the hard-rocking guitar-strumming L7 style female hair band fun that everyone seems to have forgotten about. They are crazy. They are nuts. So are their fans. And they are having the time of their lives. In fact, while forming the band, they really just asked themselves who they wanted to hang out with and who they had the most fun drinking with. Playing music you love and getting away with singing some of the most “naughty” lyrics in a foreign tongue, living up to that “just have fun playing crappy [good] music” ideal that Sonic Youth embodied… What could be better than that?

This track, by the way, is not an example of those impish-sounding naughty lyrics, but rather has been pointed out by lead singer Lovefoxxx as one of her favorite songs to perform live. Enjoy Air Painter:

[Download CSS – Air Painter]

CSS is not going to put out a concept album any time soon. In fact, they never intended to be touring the nation and giving interviews. They set out to play, rock, sing, drink, and have fun. And now we all get to experience it. So lighten the heart and put on a stupid outfit and buy one of the CSS albums. And catch them if they hit a festival near you!