Barcelona is so lovely and the line up for Primavera Sound looked pretty amazing so I thought I’d go along and miss quite a lot of it, due to having free beer on tap all weekend thanks to my friend sorting me out with a magic ticket.
Here’s some stuff I remember. The first thing I saw was Lightning Bolt, which was surprising because usually most people can’t actually see them because they’re on the floor in the crowd. But so this time they played on stage, I don’t know if that’s a first, but it was a first for me and I’ve seen them a whole bunch of times. Considering it’s like an integral part of their shtick that they play on the floor, it was actually really great to see them play on stage. Perversely it had a kind of novelty value, I guess. Seeing a band on stage. Anyway, they rocked pretty hard.
Then I saw Jesus Lizard again, which was even better than last time I saw them a couple of weeks ago, somehow, although there was nowhere near the same level of stage diving action from Yow. He made up for it by doing a lot of freaky dancing though, which was a sight to behold. I think I saw Dead Meadow next, who were drunk as hell, just like me. It was great, they just locked into their grooves and played real slack. It was obvious they were having a good time and it really osmosed into the crowd and everyone was swaying in that drunk and stoned manner that people do at laid back psychedelic shows, until the bass player stumbled backwards a bit too much, knocked over his wine bottle and said something to the guitarist that I presume was Man I’m so fucking drunk I can’t play because they stopped pretty much right then and were rewarded with much slack applause and heartfelt but flaccid whistling from the wasted crowd.
Thoughts: I don’t think too many people were surprised when Sonic Youth decided not to re-up with Geffen Records after Rather Ripped. The band had done four records for the label, and it seemed like they felt they had to keep putting out similar records. It was a shame, but some of them managed to be at the very least solid. Now the band have turned to Matador Records for their 16th album The Eternal, a record that is instantly better then anything they’ve released in the last decade. The Eternal is a shinning record that perfectly blends the fantastic, Daydream-y guitar sounds with actual melodic hooks. It effortlessly shifts from songs sung by Thurston to songs sung by Kim and then songs sung by Lee. It’s just a damn good record that I’ve only just begun wrapping my head around but it’s safe to say I’m officially hooked on this one.
Avant-rock deconstructivists and dreamscapers Sonic Youth will release their new album The Eternalon 9 June.
Their sixteenth LP in almost three decades of existence sees the band notch up another official member; former Pavement/Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold finally makes his studio debut after having toured with the group for the past few years. The band have also promised a number of shared vocals between Thurston, Lee and Kim.
This song, pulled from the premonitory ‘86 LP Evol, sees the band drifting toward the regions the best Sonic Youth songs inhabit, an atmosphere somewhere between wide awake and deep dream, guitars flinching sore for a while before rising in a sudden summit of noise. Still thriving in that space over two decades later, the New York troupe just announced that 16th studio album The Eternal will arrive in June. Looking back, this was a major step in them getting there - the first album to feature current drummer Steve Shelley, Evol was also a move away from the noise-rock ghetto into something less obnoxious and more subversive, a shy saboteur creeping on the subconscious like night terror, existing in that doomed place, the "Shadow of a Doubt".
Nisennenmondai and I are in a Turkish restaurant in London, and we are trying to speak to each other in English. Katoman, their tour manager, translates some questions into Japanese, answers others on the band’s behalf. Sayaka Himeno (drums, driving force) concentrates on my words as if lipreading. Masako Takada (motorik riffs; quartzy loops) and Yuri Zaikawa (one-note bass thwacks) smile encouragingly, Masako chiming occasional responses. On the recording, her high, soft voice and Sayaka’s lower one bloom sporadically between MP3 harshness, traffic, the clatter of kebab skewers, shouted Turkish, Katoman’s “Let me explain…”, and my own voice, at its most annoyingly language-teacherish, as our words bump haplessly against one another.
Nisennenmondai’s music is the precise inverse of their interview recording, existing in a space where words fall back and a path is cut, roughly, through misunderstanding and into bright-white light. The band’s three-pronged no-wave is a hand-made interpretation of infinity that hovers on a knife-edge between the fierce propulsion of Neu! and a more feral, pragmatic post-punk scuttle. Songs exist at a point of permanent climax, an ever-popping firework. Live, process is laid bare: there’s a feedback loop between them and you, a challenge to never lose focus, as the three women play chase with guitar loop and raging disco hi-hat.
JAR pic copyright Neil Anderson at www.wildblanket.com
It’s only their second ever gig, but I’m already mesmerised.
t was in ‘91 when I first caught "Dirty Boots," and over the years I would see many videos from the band, but it was this track that will always stick with me. Off of the band’s major label debut, when signing to a major label was taboo for an indie group, this track was an underground hit at the height of grunge. While commercial radio may have missed the boat with it, college radio was all over it, and to this day, they still treat Sonic Youth pretty well.
White Denim joins the short list of bands (the White Stripes, Radiohead, Sparks, Sonic Youth, et. al) that have been invited to play in Nigel Godrich’s basement.
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