No Garage and the long history of Sonic Youth
 

It was just another day in the long history of Manchester United"
- Sir Alex Ferguson, after a particularly bad Manchester United defeat (5-0) to Chelsea.

When you are a soccer fan you treat you team as family. You want to take part in their victories as well as in their defeats. You just want to take part in the history of something that is bigger than you.
I think the same about admiring a band. A true fan should follow the band when it reaches artistic highs and when it reaches artistic lows. They are all part of the band's history and a fan should look at those part as a long story.

Why an I'm saying all that? I just heard the new single "No Garage" and I was blown away! This is an amazing raw Stooges style instrumental recorded in December 2008 in Northampton. Later it evolved to a song on The Eternal (not sure about the title). Sonic Youth at their best!!!

Anyway, when you hear it you will realize that all the RR bashing and the worries that it was the end of SY as we know it, were unnecessary. No matter what you think about it, RR was just another day in the long history of Sonic Youth and this history goes on now to it's next glorious chapter.

nice meditation moshe...anyway i agree with you, the meaning of family it's for "the good and the bad".

I'm excited.

Sounds good to me.

The problem with applying the logic of a football team with that of a band is that people don't usually support a football team because they think they're the best (although in the case of Man U that's admittedly debatable). My point is that when I got into Sonic youth I did so because I thought they were the greatest band I'd ever heard. I started supporting West Ham for very different reasons. I was brought up in that area and the fact that they were (and remain) a fairly average team was never a consideration in my choosing them as 'my' team.

I've given SY plenty of second chances over the years but I can honestly say that my interest in them now doesn't stretch much beyond that of curiosity. I'll buy the new album and I hope I like it. But I feel no actual loyalty towards them - as they should feel none towards me. I don't resent Sonic Youth for no longer making music I particularly like. After all my taste has changed just as their's has. I just don't think they're a particularly good band any more. Few bands are after more than 30 years.

They'll always remain an important band for me, but more for what they were doing in the 80s than for anything they've done since.

^ i guess that a better comparison is between a football fan to a record collector. i think that both of them are trying to take part in something that is bigger than their own life and will live on after they won't.

anyway, my point was that "no garage" is great. The beck cover is really good too. It is wayyyyyy out there.