Live Review And Photos: Sonic Youth, The Entrance Band at The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA (07/13/09)

All Photos by Clint Miller

For the month of July Davy is off on the This Piano Plays Itself tour so Ohmpark has decided to enlist myself to keep you updated on what’s happening in the ATL. I was asked to review the Sonic Youth show Monday night at the Variety Playhouse. I was a bit skeptical that I could accomplish this at first due to the fact that I realized their is no way I could cover them properly since I belong to a younger generation of music fans and have not followed them for very long. In fact I am most familiar with their most recent album, The Eternal that was just released this year. I soon realized that this line of thinking was complete nonsense. That’s an elitist viewpoint. Also, who better to report on a band such as Sonic Youth than a complete noob? If they are able to impress me then that will show how incredible they actually are. So this review is for people like me, who aren’t familiar with 28 years of Sonic Youth records and live shows.

After arriving at Clint’s house and discussing the supposed $12 abortions that are available in California we quickly headed to Wendy’s. (BTW, We decided that if that’s true we need a mass exodus to California. That’s cheaper than condoms, pills, or moving to Mexico). After fucking with the Wendy’s girl (talking super slow and acting really surprised they had change for my 20) we headed to the Variety Playhouse in order to get there ten or fifteen minutes before the doors open. This would assure us a bad ass up front spot. To our absolute fucking chagrin there was a line of at least 60 people that went all the way past El Myr. Despite the bullshit of the situation we ended up very front stage right, which Clint informed me would be Lee Ranaldo’s side. As we waited we ended up talking to several die-hard fans. It turned out one kid has the same Radiohead tattoo as me and we had met before. I noticed some kids next to us bitching about how the set list would be comprised of mainly newer songs. I noticed them later rocking out harder than anyone to the very songs they were bitching about.

The Entrance Band opened up and despite their name they were actually pretty good. Their female bassist was the highlight for me.

Everything she played sounded right off of a Rage Against the Machine CD, but in a good way. I kept thinking the words “hippie” and “grunge” during their set. That seemed to best classify what I was hearing.

After a brief set from them it was time for Sonic Youth to come on.

I was expecting a four piece to hit the stage, but was surprised by a fifth member, Mark Ibold, who plays bass. I was familiar with him as the bassist for Pavement. He did a really good job yet it was obvious which members have been touring together for the longest.

Their set was almost entirely comprised of songs off of The Eternal. The songs “Anti-Orgasm”, “Antenna”, “What We Know”, and “Massage The History” stuck out as the best songs from The Eternal.


Click here to read the entire post…

Live Show: Sonic Youth (6/28/09)

For those of us that won’t make it to the sold out Sonic Youth show at Variety tonight, here is audio of a recent show:

Artist: Sonic Youth
Date: June 28, 2009
Location: Vic Theatre, Chicago
Taper: JB

Setlist:

01 She Is Not Alone
02 No Way
03 Calming The Snake
04 Walkin Blue
05 Poison Arrow
06 Malibu Gas Station
07 Anti-Orgasm
08 Antenna
09 Catholic Block
10 What We Know
11 Leaky Lifeboat
12 Massage History
13 Sacred Trickster
14 Off-stage

15 Nature Scene
16 Silver Rocket
17 Off-stage

18 Sprawl
19 Cross The Breeze

Download lossless torrent here

Hott Summer Traxx

During the summer great albums always drop like rain and I usually seem to have less time to talk about them, so here is a superpost full of tracks from the records I’m loving right now accompanied by a nano-review:

Dark Night Of The Soul

It seems Danger Mouse‘s best work is destined to be illegal, and this teamup with Sparklehorse and a vast cast of music superpowers is going to give the other “dark night” record a run for its money as best compilation of 2009:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Revenge
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Little Girl
Dark Night Of The Soul website

Bibio

Bibio takes his ’60s folky electronica into a J Dilla direction creating maybe the best summery album of the year:

Bibio : Fire Ant
Bibio : Lovers’ Carvings
Buy Ambivalence Avenue
Bibio myspace

Sonic Youth

The greatest band of the last three decades drops yet another gem that holds up to their cornucopia of a discography, this time showcasing their mastery of extended guitar jams:

Sonic Youth : Antenna
Sonic Youth : Walkin Blue
Buy The Eternal
Sonic Youth website

DD/MM/YYYY

Canadians get mathy with this intricate record that surprisingly sprawls into a lot of different territory in 35 minutes:

DD/MM/YYYY : Bronzage
DD/MM/YYYY : Sirius b
Buy Black Square
DD/MM/YYYY myspace

Woods

Folksy, psychedelic rockers that are too good for their lo-fi branding, and this album allows them to display their proclivity for writing great, succinct pop songs and occasionally letting lose a long meandering jam.

Woods : The Number
Woods : Military Madness
Buy Songs Of Shame
Woods myspace

Sunset Rubdown

Spencer Krug’s most consistent outlet produces yet another “grower” album that I love more and more with each listen.

Sunset Rubdown : Black Swan
Buy Dragonslayer
Sunset Rubdown myspace

The Mars Volta

TMV take a left turn from the velocity of their career so far, and it turns out they do soft, down-tempo and nuanced just a good as they do everything else.

The Mars Volta : With Twilight As My Guide
Buy Octahedron
The Mars Votla myspace

Video: Dead Confederate “Diamond Sea” (Sonic Youth Cover)


Dead Confederate @ The Earl (6/7/08)

This video is edited down way shorter than the 20 minute song normally sprawls, but it is a nice taste of Dead Confederate covering Sonic Youth from SXSW this year. I’ve still yet to catch them do this live in the many Dead Confederate shows I’ve caught, but maybe they will do it again at tomorrow night’s show at The Earl. It appears you can still score a free ticket by going here.

Since that video is a bit of a tease, here is full audio of them covering “Diamond Sea” from a show last year in Athens. You can get the entire show full of Sonic Youth covers here.

Dead Confederate : Diamond Sea (Sonic Youth cover)

Buy Wrecking Ball

Dead Confederate blog

New Sonic Youth: “Sacred Trickster” & “Pay No Mind” (Beck Cover)

Sonic Youth have released the first single from their upcoming, 16th album The Eternal. Barely over two minutes long, the album’s opening track features Kim Gordon “singing salutes to French painter Yves Klein and Western Massachusetts noise artist Noise Nomads“. While the record doesn’t officially come out until June 9, they are offering a “Buy Early Get Now” option where in addition to getting some cool extras for pre-ordering the album, those who pre-order it will get access to a stream of the entire album next Tuesday. The Eternal features Pavement‘s Mark Ibold on bass, who had been touring with them since their last release. While I did love 2006′s Rather Ripped, I think it was very much a search for a new direction and identity post-Jim O’Rourke and I think The Eternal is going to see a fuller realization of this new era sound. Also, since Thurston Moore complained that their previous major label status had compromised their recent albums, I’m interested to see what they do with the freedom they have been granted by their first release on Matador. No band in history has managed to remain so relevant for so long and I’m excited to hear if they can continue that trend. Below you will find the new single as well as their wacked out cover of Beck‘s “Pay No Mind” from one of their Record Store Day split 7″s that got released over the weekend:

Sonic Youth : Sacred Trickster

Sonic Youth : Pay No Mind (Beck cover)

Pre-Order The Eternal With Buy Earl Get Now

Sonic Youth website

New Sonic Youth


Thurston Moore @ ATP NY

Sonic Youth has been trying out some new songs live lately that will probably be on their first album under Matador. Here are videos of two new songs they played last weekend in Italy on video, and then you can download the audio of the entire show in FLAC:

“Mars”:

“No Way”:

Download Lossless Torrent of Sonic Youth (10/11/08) Bolzano, Italy

A few more videos from this show:

Click here to read the entire post…

All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 1 (Friday): Don’t Look Back, There are 3000 Hipsters Standing Behind You

After a great week in NYC (of which I will have more reports on when I get back), we headed to the Catskills for ATP. The event is taking place at a resort called Kutshers, but we were staying at the other official resort called The Raleigh. I overheard someone describe The Raleigh as “straight out of The Shining”, and that pretty much nailed it. This has got to be the weirdest place I have ever stayed.

We then headed up to the festival after checking in and had to wait in a very long line to exchange our tickets for wristbands. Festivals being marred in logistics issues always seems to be the case, and ATP was no exception, but nothing I haven’t come to expect. After getting my press pass secured and grabbing some grub from their “food court” consisting of two food booths, we headed right down in front of the main stage, and Atlanta’s greatest music fan, Kenny Crucial, was holding down the rail right next to us most of the night. I made it down there a few songs into the Meat Puppets doing their II album just in time to hear one of my favs, “Plateau”. The Meat Puppets were really good, and since this was pretty much their only album that I knew well, it was a greatest hits show for me. The guitarist was shredding hard and their bassist had such a goofy on stage persona.

Next up was Tortoise doing Millions Now Living Will Never Die. I made a point to not really listen to any of these albums before heading up here so they would feel fresh, and for some reason I hadn’t really listened to any Tortoise in forever despite them being one of my “entry bands” into good music so long ago. As they did their set beautifully, I realized that I still knew this album frontwards and back, and it was so enjoyable to listen to. I know I haven’t really mentioned this band much around Ohmpark since I started it, but there is no doubt in mind that these guys are some of the best of the best.

After that it was time for Thurston Moore doing his Psychic Hearts album. As much as I am obsessed with Sonic Youth, I really never got into this album the few times I had listened to it before. Now, I will take listening to Thurston any time, any day, and the set was great, with Steve Shelley on drums again, but I have to say that Psychic Hearts is not exactly in my upper stratosphere of SY related music. But regardless of my hang ups, it was certainly a crowd pleaser with the older hipster crowd that populated this thing. While there were a few “pubesters” rolling around, the audience for this festival has been pretty damn cool so far.

Finally, it was time for the event I was most excited about, Built To Spill performing Perfect From Now On. There is probably no album that has more personal meaning to me than this one, and my highest of expectations were not disappointed. I had seen them play abridged versions of songs from PFNO many times, but for this one, they played the most loyal versions of the songs I have ever heard, only adding a few extended jams here and there. After they finished out the album, they did a stunning rendition of “Goin’ Against Your Mind” to close out the set. They did an encore consisting of one my favs, “Stab” and closed with “Car” complete with a 15 minute jammout at the end. There is just no way i can describe accurately how great this set was for me.

Anyways, I have to run and catch some more music. More updates coming, and Biggie C is taking some gorgeous photos we will have for you next week.

The Sonic Youth Live Recordings Lossless Archive

If you’re looking to listen to some live shows from one of the greatest bands to ever exist, there is now a really sweet resource. A badass Sonic Youth trader has put together a great site that includes shows spanning their entire career and solo and side projects. Get some:

Sonic Youth Live Recording Lossless Archive

A Random MP3 Trilogy

So I feel like posting a few random tracks. I bought The Breeders‘ new album, Mountain Battles, the day after it came out and so far I don’t really know what to think of it. At moments I love it and others I want to turn it off. It feels like it is in another world from how I remember Title TK, which reminds me I need to jam that one again. I may end up totally falling in love with this one, or I might stop listening to it and never think about it again, but regardless, this song is great:

The Breeders : Mountain Battles : Bang On

Sonic Youth recently reissued their 1988 Ep Master-Dik, which I hadn’t heard before this. I picked it up, and it is really cool. Here’s a little cover from it:

Sonic Youth : Master-Dik : Beat On The Brat (The Ramones)

Finally, our very own Eric Guenther (From Exile) has started a music blog where he is releasing original music for free. The latest installment is a remix of a youtube video we had on here a couple of weeks ago that is really hilarious. He even dubbed in a badass guitar solo at the end. Check it out:

Southwest Dekalb Drum Majors : Bitch You Ride The Marta Bus (Eric Guenther mix)

Video Of The Day: Thurston Moore

We heart Thurston:

Torrent Of The Day: Thurston Moore (9/29/2007)

Thurston Moore aka 1/2 old SY 2007-09-29 Rock and Roll Hotel Washington DC (16-bit) (FLAC)

Thurston moore band
Sept 29 2007
Rock and roll hotel
Washington dc
Mics>dat dat>aes/ebu>cd cd>eac>sf6>flac>td>you

Review by a member of the now defunct Q And Not U in the washington post:

Tuesday, October 2, 2007; Page C05
Thurston Moore
“I don’t shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you, I throw up.” you might remember that classic playground taunt from the ’80s coming-of-age flick “Stand by Me,” but it’s also an apt description of Thurston Moore’s performance at Rock & Roll Hotel Saturday night. Almost 30 years after forming legendary rock outfit Sonic Youth, the 49-year-old singer-guitarist is still making a racket, unfurling cuts from his new solo disc, “Trees Outside the Academy.”

And then there’s the “throw up” part: Moore discreetly puked on his guitar during “Off Work” — a grungy new instrumental reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s 1992 alterna-hit “100%.” Thankfully, the illness was only momentary and the poor guy laughed it off, dedicating his next tune, “Fri/End,” to “my friends” at a certain local eatery where he’d dined earlier that day.
Moore may have been strumming an acoustic guitar, but things got plenty noisy thanks to a backing troupe that featured Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, No Neck Blues Band bassist Matt Heyner, violinist Samara Lubelski and guitarist Chris Brokaw. The four players added grit, but without overpowering those evocative melodies that perpetually reside beneath Sonic Youth’s distortion-happy outer crust.
The set’s highlight came early with “The Shape Is in a Trance,” as Moore’s guitar work evoked both classic Sonic Youth and the weathered melancholy of Neil Young. Forgive the expression, Thurston, but that jam is totally sick.
– Chris Richards

1. Frozen Gtr
2. The Shape Is In a Trance
3. Silver > Blue
4. Off Work
5. Fri/End
6. Wonderful Witches
7. Never Day
8. Honest James
9. Trees Outside The Academy
10. Queen Bee & Her Pals
11. Feathers
12. Staring Statues
13. Patti Smith Math Scratch
14. Psychic Hearts

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