[cagedbird]

Great album. Still worth hearing. In Thunderclap what does the beard as circuit mean?

I think it means our beards are indices of loud speech. Like Moses or ZZ Top recordings.

[viewtiful alan redux]

I think Thurston is a lazy lyricist alot of the time, and some things are legitimately nonsense.

[SONIC GAIL]

t is eternal man i will like it for infinity

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by viewtiful alan redux

I think Thurston is a lazy lyricist alot of the time, and some things are legitimately nonsense.

totally right.

[SONIC GAIL]

so what its still great

[Chris Lawrence]

been listening to this a LOT lately and yeah -- it cooks. at first i was kinda down on seeing what will probably be an abbreviated eternal set @ the hollywood bowl, but familiarizing myself with the record again has made me see the error of my ways... (the downside is that they usually cut two of my absolute faves - 'walkin blue' & 'massage the history' - during abbreviated sets..)

i'd still dig seeing 'expressway' w/ malkmus on vocals, but considering how great these tunes are live, i'd be a fool to be disappointed...

[ann ashtray]

Originally Posted by SONIC GAIL

so what its still great

Indubitably.

[akprodr]

Sure, they are legitimately nonsense but I don't think it is easy to put words together like that.

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by SONIC GAIL

so what its still great

Oh! I'm not sain' it isn't. This is a fuckin' awesome album. I just happen to agree with viewtiful. (No Way for example. Decent tune, but the lyrics really bring it down.)

[viewtiful alan redux]

^Same.
I still enjoy the albums and the songs, but I think Thurston has a tendancy to write meaningless lyrics, increasingly lazily, just a general statement.

[atsonicpark]

The Sparta Locals tribute song rules!

[cagedbird]

yeah. yeah. yeah.

you guys aren't really addressing the beard question.

[ann ashtray]

Originally Posted by cagedbird

yeah. yeah. yeah.

you guys aren't really addressing the beard question.

A beard with output?

Who knows?

Most of Thurston's (and sometimes even Kim's) lyrics are hardly worth trying to pull specific meaning from. I know they used to just clip words out of magazines and rearrange them into lyrics sometimes. Just words I assume they feel as if sound good together in whatever sequence....specific "meaning" meaning very little. Like Thurston once said, "It's all in the music".

I mean, can you gather from the lyrics to Teenage Riot that it's (apparently...) about J Mascis becoming president of the UNited States? It def has a slacker/angsty/youthful quality to it...but I can't tell specifically that it's about J becoming pres.

Sugar Kane is apparently a song about how men have a natural desire to protect women (said Thurston, once...). I don't nec. hear that in the lyrics.

Lyrically, I get most out of Bad Moon Rising. They did a magnificent job painting a picture of a 60's peace-loving culture with the light switch knicked to the "off" position w/ all that Charlie Manson imagery/etc. Dark American history...no lack of it, and that album makes it clear.

Lyrics are almost always something i tend to stay away from, however. I like to think of voice/words as a tool used to provide sound, but specific words within whatever given song seldom mean anything to me. + Despite that, we're talking about Sonic Youth. They are weird, and appreciate the weird. I don't, and never have gathered a specific "message" in the way one might from a band Like Pearl Jam or someone like Bob Dylan.

I seldom dig anything in the way of poetry, either....so, take everything I say with a grain of salt.

[jon boy]

worst record since rather ripped, since sonic nurse.

[atsonicpark]

I don't really know any lyrics to any non-rap or -Beefheart or -Fall or -Jandek songs. Just don't really care about lyrics.. or vocals, usually..

[Chris Lawrence]

i actually had to check the lyric sheet for 'thunderclap' to see what the beard lyric referred to was.. and i never realized the line later in the song is 'that's when my poodle pukes on the gallery floor' -- i've always heard 'kicks' rather than 'pukes'. then i listened to it and it's obviously 'pukes'. this story has no point.

[Mortte Jousimo]

I had very great expectations about the Eternal. And I felt the album fulfilled my expectations totally, even upgraded them! I thought now I know how people felt in the sixties when they heard Sgt Pepper first time. I mean there is all Sonic elements, but they are in the balance theyve never been! The whole band hasn´t sound ever so consistent! It´s kind of perfect album, but in the Sonic way, not some kind of cleaness of Steely Dan. Of course I have enjoyed a lot the earlier albums sharpness, the kind of sound, where some instruments are much more front. After a year of the realise my exciment has calmed down and I think again sister is the best album. But the Eternal and many other Sonic albums are very near of it!!!

I also think that lyrics are not so important, the music is the most impostant! Of course it´s ok, if someone puts the message in the lyrics. I think for example Jello Biafra is skillfull the make lyrics that have message and also sounds good.

Only disapointment with the Eternal was, that I didn´t have the live album with it. I understood from the Matador pages, that if retailer make an preorder, there will be a live album on it. My retailer made it, but the live album didn´t come with it. maybe we are so faaar away here in Finland. I think the book didn´t also came with "Rather Ripped" here in Finland.

My favourites in Eternal are: Anti-orgasm, Leaky Lifeboat, Antenna, Poison Arrow, malibu Gas Station, No Way, Walkin Blue and Massage the History. I think there is no bad songs but Thunderclap is a little bit of appendix song.