Swell Maps did it better. Sonic Youth is the Nirvana of Avant Rock bands.
Cool thing is an... okay song. But can I level with y'all for a moment? This is why we didn't hang out with you in high school. See, a lot of us knew and understood that we were passionate about our music. A lot of us knew and understood that much of our love was contextual, and that what you got out of Sonic Youth we would never get out of Sonic Youth because that XLR8R magazine you loved so much? That you insisted we leaf through? We weren't turned onto it by that cool chick you met while on vacation with your parents. We only heard about the cool chick. And we get it. You're into the cool chick, therefore you're into XLR8R, therefore you're into Sonic Youth. But we're not. And we like our music, too - but we know that our musical tastes are our musical tastes, and we'd like to think that you'd like our music, but we've seen time and time again that it doesn't mean the same thing to you as it means to us. Li'l story: I've got a buddy. He's about 6'5 and a weight lifter. He's a weight lifter because he was the skinny kid that got picked on. He plays a Schechter electric 6-string bass and has an encyclopedic knowledge of butt rock. But his favorite musical artist of all time is Patrick O'Hearn. Why? Because when he was at his lowest, the low-power AM station that he liked was often playing Musical Starstreams and those albums were the secret soundtrack to his inner life. Outside? All Yngwie, all the time. Inside? He's a Martin through an Echoplex. But he'd never insist that Patrick O'Hearn is god's gift to music. He understands. See, we listened to Soundgarden before you did. We borrowed Goo from that girl that it just didn't work out with. And Surfer Rosa posters have hung over the beds of at least three girls that things ended badly with. And on the one hand it was kinda cool when all of a sudden the whole damn school started listening to Nirvana... but on the other hand it was a drag because now we were going to have to explain ad nauseum why we liked it better before the drunk jocks had shit on the same label as us. Why we enjoyed NIN when it was up above it, but now that it's mostly theme songs for date rape we're down in it. People who take music personally know that music is a personal choice. I had a conversation with Hummie Mann once. He argued that motion picture soundtracks were the worst idea in the history of filmmaking because unless you were using entirely new music, you were playing Russian Roulette with the audience's experience with your music. That wonderful association you have with Singin' in the Rain? So we know what wonderful associations you have with Sonic Youth, with the Pixies, with Wilco, with The String Cheese Incident, whatever. Thing is, above and beyond however we may feel about the music in isolation, we have associations with it, too. And we like you. We really do. But we hate those fuckers that shoved goddamn Sonic Youth down our throats like Kim Gordon was Janis Fucking Joplin. Frankly, we don't care that much for Janis Fucking Joplin, either. So we love and admire your passion for your music. But when you act as if it's the only sensible opinion... ...well, that's where metal comes from.
bwahahahahah! I totally deserved this response! I should have/could have put WAY more context around my comment. I was driving him and some friends home from a dance last night, and I had given him control of the music. After several... pop songs(I don't know what else to call them)? I had him play a sonic youth song. And while I'll never step toe to toe with you in a "who knows more about music" battle... I will defend myself by saying - I wanted to open their minds just a little bit to something more complex than a 4-4 bass line with some howling variation of "girl I miss you" lyric slapped on top of it. Look - Sonic Youth isn't "the best band ever". And while I enjoyed TNG's Bowie-infused-Pixies-lovefest this morning... they're not "the best band ever". The Sonic Youth song I had my kid play just happens to be one of my favorites. I suppose that for me, music comes down to a few things... Context - I love a few songs more than what they might earn on some scale of musical awesomeness - because I heard them or listened to them at some cosmic crossroads of my life. Content - Maybe it's the lyrics, maybe it's the melody, maybe it's the harmonies... Something that makes this song stand out from that song. Something that breaks with convention. Something that nails convention right in the middle of the forehead so hard that convention reassesses what convention is. Something in the content is just.. "it" Technical proficiency - I will admit to being a little snobby sometimes - but not all the time. I like to know that the artists are the actual artists. I like to celebrate that a musician can actually make an amazing sound an instrument. I like knowing that an artist isn't the face in front of some hard working studio musician. oh... and I totally own a Patrick O'hearn CD.... hilarious. poetry right here.So we love and admire your passion for your music. But when you act as if it's the only sensible opinion...
And on the one hand it was kinda cool when all of a sudden the whole damn school started listening to Nirvana... but on the other hand it was a drag because now we were going to have to explain ad nauseum why we liked it better before the drunk jocks had shit on the same label as us. Why we enjoyed NIN when it was up above it, but now that it's mostly theme songs for date rape we're down in it.