sonic youth - "the burning spear" (download) It's hard to believe that Sonic Youth has been around for nearly 30 years now. Kim Gordon is nearly 60 years old , and Thurston Moore is 52 (believe me, I had to fact check those myself before typing this because it doesn't seem possible, that couple is pretty much frozen in time). Back in 1982 (yes, 29 years ago), they released this self-titled EP on Glenn Branca 's [...]
Last week , we kicked off a collection of recordings from WFMU's two days of Primavera Sound coverage with Prince Rama , Swans , Oneohtrix Point Never , Suicide , Pissed Jeans , The Monochrome Set , Ducktails , and Half Japanese . This week, we bring you six more from Barcelona's incredible multi-day / multi-stage music festival! Check out free artist-approved mp3s by... Aias :: Glenn Branca Ensemble [...]
Once upon a time, candy rapper Vanilla Ice was known to rock a house or two - or at least the recreation-center 13th birthday parties of herbs who didn't know any better. Today, Vanilla Ice would lik
Offering up our year end list a couple of weeks ago just wasn't enough. So I put the call out to a group of individuals - you know, the gang - who make a different in the music scene here in Louisville, asking them to collect a "best of" or "year end" list in whatever format they choose. I discovered some releases that I totally slept on this year. Perhaps you will too. I also discovered some personality quirks in some of my friends I didn't know existed before. For example, Dom from Phantom Family Halo does not want to [...]
Banner Designed by Cysquatch Welcome to "Question of the Week," a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue. This week, inspired by Axl's current ailment, we asked our writers: WHAT IS THE BEST METAL TO LISTEN TO WHEN YOU'RE SICK? The MS staff's answers after the jump. When I'm [...]
India has long held a place of mythic fascination for those in the West. India was where a British man without means, but maybe a few connections, could stake his claim. A place where the modern pop star can attain and taste exotic forms of spiritual enlightenment that come with a high sheen when compared [...]
I miss making mixtapes. I mean the medium itself and all the dinky little maneuvers involved. Popping out the two plastic bits at the top of the cassette always felt like triumphantly uncorking a bottle of champagne. One of my favorite tricks was the anti-segue, the extreme turn from something placid to a brutal piece of noise. In that spirit, I think Mr. Branca deserves the assignment. Not that this one isn't beautiful on its own terms. Just not in a very maternal sort of way. Yesterday, as an experiment, I put this on for my morning commute to see [...]
Last week I watched a new documentary - I Need That Record. The film, produced, written and directed by one Brendan Toller was released in April and it documents, independently, the total collapse of the mom&pop of the music world – the independent record stores. 3000 of them shut in the US in recent years. In an exciting, [...]
Composer and guitar-orchestrator Glenn Branca comes off inexplicably curmudgeonly and doomsaying in this blog for the NYT late last year, seemingly both claiming that creativity in music is dead (without really qualifying this rather sweeping statement) and also buying into the strange idea that music is some sort of linear progression of qualitative improvement, like the ever-decreasing time it takes to do a 100-metre sprint or something, which also seems pretty daft to me. Surely it's better understood like the outward expansion of an ink blot on tissue paper, branching outwards simultaneously in [...]
"I Need That Record!" is hitting stores this Saturday, April 17th, for Record Store Day. It features Thurston Moore, Ian Mackaye, Noam Chomsky, Glenn Branca, Lenny Kaye, Pat Carney, Chris Frantz, Patterson Hood, Legs McNeil and more. Trailer Thurston Talks Record Stores Ian Mackaye Talks Record Stores Purchase
No Wave was a pretty short musical movement in the late '70s that fell somewhere between experimental and punk. It was often more grating than influential but artists like Lydia Lunch and Glenn Branca inspired Sonic Youth . So we can be grateful for that. Lydia brings her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks to the Empty Bottle Monday. Becuz - Sonic Youth Tom [...]
1 Broadcast & the Focus Group - I See, So I See So 2 Su Kramer - Magic Dance 3 Gary Higgins - Down On The Farm 4 Puttin' On The Ritz - Girl From Ipanema 5 Laurel Aitken - Come Back Jeannie 6 Trans Am - Cocaine Computer [...]
A co-worker dropped off a copy of this documentary for me to watch at my leisure, and since I work in an independent record store I think I can offer a slightly more unique response to it than your average audience member. To put it succinctly, this is a film about record stores being shuttered across the country as a result of harsh economic times and a decrease in worldwide music sales. Using "talking head" interviews with folks like Ian MacKaye, Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca, and several store owners, the narrative follows the decline of retail locations in the wake [...]
This should be listened to while intoxicated...or at least while dreaming... Tracklisting: 01 - Sapat - Who U With 02 - Sun Arraw - Horse Steppin' 03 - Glenn Branca - Bad Smells 04 - Sonic Youth - She is Not Alone 05 - Organisation - Milk Rock 06 - Wooden Wand - Satya Sai Sweeeetback Plays 'Oxblood Boots' 07 - La Monte Young - Early Tuesday Morning Blues 08 - Psychic Ills - Fingernail Tea [...]
By all accounts, New York in the late 70s-early 80s was probably one of the least safest places in the world for one to be in. Gang wars and general sense of unease/danger that threatened to tear the city apart, yet it also led to lower prices on lofts and studios, which allowed artists of [...]
Glenn Branca – Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar Laurie Anderson – O Superman (For Massenet) Joy Division – Atmosphere The Fall – Totally Wired A veteran of New York No Wave band Theoretical Girls, Glenn Branca wanted to merge classical music with rock. Rather than taking the ELO route and laying strings over Beethoven-inspired prog rock, he took ten guitarists, including Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore (who'd go on to form Sonic Youth) plus assorted other musicians, and formed a kind of orchestra. "Lesson No. 1 For Electric Guitar" was [...]
The combination of reading the Sonic Youth chapter of the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life and listening to a bunch of No Wave comps reignited my interest in Glenn Branca . Unfortunately, Branca's name is just as likely to show up in the same sentence with "pretentious" as it is to appear with "Sonic Youth" or "No Wave." While I disagree with the pretentious tag, I can understand how minimalist electric guitar symphonies can wear on a listener (including myself). It says something that [...]
I'm announcing an intent to start this new "Musicnerd Homework" series where I talk about those albums you're supposed to have heard / you say you've heard somewhere but you're not sure - didn't really - probably just thought you should be paying attention / you know it's a touchstone and will refer to it out of respect. The title comes from a review I read about the reissue of Pylon's "Gyrate" record, where the reviewer said that the release pushed Pylon's music out of the category of "hipster homework" and into the contemporary consciousness. Assignment one: [...]
No Wave was a brief but explosive moment of artistic experimentation. It was terminally nihilistic, and a lot of its artwork sucked. But its greatest achievements continue to deliver a jolting artistic impact.
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