given that any album with songs as good and radical as Tom Violence and Expressway would be the peak of most any other band's career.

My life has lost all of its sense.

Any bets as to how long it takes before we all look back at our posts in this thread in embarrassment for our cluelessness?

I think the best we can hope for in terms of the band is perhaps a hiatus after the south american dates, then sporadic live dates and longer gaps between albums. Which is probably what they'd end up doing anyway as it's clear they're not up for doing the conventional album-tour-album-tour-album-tour cycle as frequently as they once were.

You don't regard Sister as a peak? Even the band did so.

Is this the end of Sonic Youth?

In an interview Lee Ranaldo did when he was in Belgium a couple of weeks ago, he said about the Simon Werner soundtrack: "It's technically our last album at this point." Then he seems to realise that "last" is a somewhat strange word choice, and he corrects himself: "Our most recent album I guess I would say."

This is probably seeing something that isn't there, but I remember I already thought of it as a bit strange when I saw the interview the first time.

You can see Lee's quote at 2:05 on YouTube: watch?v=g6Gs1N2ao5U

The Eternal is a fitting title for their supposedly "last album"..

the album itself?.. meh. i think they can end on a better note

Eternal Youth?????
 

i saw them tour for the eternal and thought they were great. i hope they dont break up, i hope they do at least one more album, if not i think the eternal is a fitting end to a long noise fueled career. so sad

You forgot Evol, Sister, and Confusion is Sex. Those were all peaks IMO as well.

This.

i'm still waiting for news in main page.

I wouldn't count on seeing anything too incredibly soon.

I say Confusion is a PEAK too fuckers. No one has even come close to shitting out anything that fabulous.

CIS!

CIS!

CIS is great, but its not a peak. Compared to almost anything else from the time, its a peak, but the reason we love SY is their standards are that much higher.

Don't Worry. Extra Tension Enhances Music.
 

I don't think we should worry. I have a feeling they separated years ago but didn't tell us, except in song. Many couples separate and still make music. John Doe and Exene of X. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie. The White Stripes.

Yea, i truly think all of their albums are great. Some are just fuckin way greater than others.

this.

Totally agree.
I've sensed it since..."Turquoise boy" maybe?

what would the neighbors think?

this theorizing makes little sense if you remember that Thurston has written most of Kim's lyrics for the past decade.

why would you quoted such an awfully terrible song?

me too.

Well, the last 2 albums were pure tosh and thurstons solos were cack so like erm, so like, omg omg omg

yeah I was thinking about this too.

I've just been onto the neighbours. They don't give a fuck! Yeesh

I was sad and shocked when I read this, what a shame...

its a shame but i am not really that bothered if sy split up. i have not been that impressed with them in recent years. they have been very mediocre for a while so maybe this has something to do with it.

(This started out as a brief thought and then well... ended up like this...)

I think that every record that Sonic Youth did in the 80's was groundbreaking. They are all so different from each other. I think that they will always be remembered for Daydream Nation more than any other record. It was created out of such a fucked up and fractured time in America and it shows. Personally, I think that is what makes the record so strong. The band too at that time was struggling with labels and exposure or a lack of it, so that just added to the mayhem. I think Goo and Dirty were strong records. I never really got into Experimental... my least favorite... I don't even like it actually except for a couple of songs. It struck me as more of a Thurston solo record and I feel that Lee's playing on that record was sort of uninspired. Washing Machine was a return to their more experimental roots because of Kim taking up the guitar which added a whole new dynamic to their sound. I also thought that Psychic Hearts and Experimental exhausted Thurston of material and allowed for a more band oriented record. I love Thurston, but I think his best work comes out of a situation where it is tempered by the other band members. I think 1000 Leaves is where things started to settle a bit. NYC Ghosts was unusual in that it was SY trying to find their feet again after having all their gear stolen - it was a more poetic record for better or worse, but I liked it better than 1000 Leaves. Murray Street reminded me a bit of Experimental... and I think the only song on there that I love is Sympathy For the Strawberry. Rather Ripped falls into the same vein as Murray Street for me. I honestly thought they both were a little boring, despite receiving praise from fans and critics. I think Sonic Nurse was their best album of the past ten years - also the best sounding in terms of production. It had the potential to be a SY classic save for a couple of songs I didn't think worked - Peace Attack struck me as an afterthought and both that and Dude Ranch make me think of George W Bush - I don't want to think of him when I listen to SY - that's why I listen to SY. Golden Blue and Pattern Recognition are amazing songs. The Eternal definitely has some great songs on it and it has a lot more noisemaking on it than past records. I think that it really was affected (as the band has said) by the Don't Look Back Daydream Nation tour. They sounded like they were really excited to be "starting over" on a new label and it shows with the music.

I don't really care when they peaked. Everyone peaks, and I think it is next to impossible to maintain I high level of output throughout one's career. That being said, I was recently reflecting upon, and trying to think about the last awesome "throw down the gauntlet" killer-song-that-I-can't-get-enough-of was that they did, and I have to reach back to 100% from 1992. Listen to Silver Rocket from DDN, then the live version from the DDN special edition and then the live version from the Live At Battery Park show from 2009. The Battery Park rendition sounds tired and like they are bored. It lacks the life and panicky spark of the original.

Everything comes to an end at some point, and Sonic Youth is my favorite band and has been for 20+ years since I first heard Silver Rocket on a Blast First promo cassette sandwiched between four, as I recall rightly or wrongly, heavy metal songs. (Isn't that a record executives dream? A promo cassette that actually gets someone interested in their labels band?).

I suppose that I'd love for them to do one last blast. The best records in history have usually come out of the most disastrous crazy compromised band-almost-broke-up fucked situations. I'd love to think that they'd all get together and do this and go out with a fucked-up bang, but I'll survive if they don't and I'll still listen to their records.

Cheers.

Sonic Youth are complex. The chaos of Confusion can't even begin to compete with the mind melting beauty of ATL + vice versa. Every album (sans Rather Ripped) has a special place for me.

I was putting a little thought into all of this and noticed something: on most of the articles that announce the split, there are these quotes of Thurston praising his relationship with Kim circa 2008, right? People here have discussed that they might have been apart for some time now, perhaps since the recording of The Eternal, and perhaps that's where some of the cryptic tones come from.
I was remembering that on 2008 (2007? can't be bothered to search now as I'm in a hurry), on the Rather Ripped tour, I saw them live and there was this whole fucking electricity, Thurston and Lee swordfighted with their guitars and it was a fucking amazing performance. Now in 2010, on The Eternal tour, it was like everyone was much more stiff, more calm, no crazy shit going down onstage.
So, perhaps this has been going down for some time now.
All in all, like someone said, we had a good run, every one of them will have other projects and we will always have a fuckload of SY albums to listen to.

Way too easy to cherry-pick, though. Also fruitless, if you'll pardon the terrifying pun. I've seen so many SY shows I could point to certain moments and be amazed at the onstage camaraderie, and then take a show from like two days later where there was barely any meaningful eye contact.

As Heraclitus once said, "Life is flux."

If you want to cherry-pick then how about that moment on '91' the year punk had astroke' when Kim asks Thurston what he's eating and he turns his back on her to talk complete TOSH to the camera. Oh yes.

I take it that back then they were completely high all the time and somewhat estranged by the presence of a camera up their noses.

But yeah, I am extrapolating a bit, it was something the sprung in my mind and I thought I'd share it.

Sad news indeed. I hope the band stays together. Although they've given us so much good music and inspiration over the years. It could be worse, I'm sure.
I just hope for Coco's sake that Kim and Thurston are able to maintain a sense of civility between each other.
Nobody really knows what's going on so who knows what may happen???

agh. I haven't been on this forum for ages and I pop in out of curiosity and discover this bit of news. Ah well...

Heraclitus, yeah! Jenn, you're a stabilizing influence.

jesus, i haven't logged onto this site in years. caught news of this from SY's facebook page where all the comments on the brazil show say "last show ever!?!?" and i think, wtf? so i log on here and see this. as if these times didn't suck enough. massive global economic downturn, sky-high unemployment, an entire continent in fiscal crisis, .... and then one of the world's last remaining decent bands breaks up after 30 years, and another one shows signs of breaking up.

good job, world. good job.

I don't know what you said. Anyway, my girlfriend loves it when I act like a dick everytime there's a camera around

FUCK! It was just I noticed this. Of course I understand every couple could separate. But I still really hope SY won´t split.