[bad bad mojo]

pshh... standard tuning is only for stupid punk kids and acoustic folk singers...

[scott v]

Originally Posted by HaydenAsche

Playing in standard tuning would be selling out.

right, i think m^a(t)h is working with contradictions to confuse us.

[A Thousand Threads]

ok
i hate posting when i´m drunk
but this thread is
mhhm
like
A:hey
did you know that sonic youth didn´t invent music
B:What the fuck... I didn´t know that
.................................................. ..................................
does that make any sense
no, i guess

[FruitLoop]

Originally Posted by bad bad mojo

pshh... standard tuning is only for stupid punk kids and acoustic folk singers...

Like Joni Mitchell

[bad bad mojo]

HAHAhah!

[max]

another silly thread.

next.

[val-holla-ing]

i think the real answer to the question is...standard tuning is gay. and only lily man bitches use standard tunings. real men use not standard tunings. that's why sonic youth are real manly men. even arnold schwartzenegger bows at their manliness, because he plays in girlyman standard tuning.

[atari 2600]

but the TONE-SOUL

is the result...making it sound unique

you have a point, but then again innovative musicians have done much for the sake of tone...Dave Davies cut his amp speaker & then pinned & taped it back together & unleashed All Day & All of the Night (w/ a little help from Page) & all hell broke loose...Hendrix commisioned his infamous fuzzboxes & it goes on & on...

I mentioned this same thing years ago when people were badmouthing standard tuning & learning chords by explaining that SY played many chords & barres, just interpolated ones based on the tunings...

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

Originally Posted by val-holla-ing

i think the real answer to the question is...standard tuning is gay. and only lily man bitches use standard tunings. real men use not standard tunings. that's why sonic youth are real manly men. even arnold schwartzenegger bows at their manliness, because he plays in girlyman standard tuning.

But they appreciate J. Mascis for doing similar stuff in all standard. Surely he is manly?

[m^a(t)h]

hold on, guys Im sorry for the topic title, its a bad title, im not saying they should play in standard. Im just saying that their music is so tonal nowadays that they why as well play in standard tuning, its sort of a putdown on a band I love but that my friends think are great just because they use weird tunings.....

[top 40 squeeze]

Originally Posted by m^a(t)h

they do talk shows, star in Gilmore Girls, dude, where have you been???

So you don't like any bands that have ever done talk show performances? or have been played on the radio? or have appeared on TV? in a magazine? none at all? well, maybe you don't, but if you do you're holding Sonic Youth up to ridiculously high hipocritical standards.

[m^a(t)h]

[quote=top 40 squeeze]So you don't like any bands that have ever done talk show performances? quote]

did I ever say that?

[HaydenAsche]

math is such a pretentious noise-fuck.

[Magic Wheel Memory]

m^a(t)h,

You're taking a beating over this! I don't know whether the new stuff could be played in standard tuning, but I think you raised a good, thought-provoking question.

[m^a(t)h]

i need a cigarette....

[m^a(t)h]

are you ripped diesel, b/c when i think of what you look like i think of a really really strong dude, or like a big dump truck....

[m^a(t)h]

you ll always be a dump truck to me...

[val-holla-ing]

Originally Posted by SpectralJulianIsNotDead

But they appreciate J. Mascis for doing similar stuff in all standard. Surely he is manly?

j. mascis? surely, you mean gay. mascis.

[Trasher02]

Originally Posted by Sn@ke

There was a thread where someone was saying that he could play sonic youth songs on standar tuning, that's impossible you just can try to emulate the sounds, but you can't play the songs like they really are, and that kind of sucks. You can prove me wrong by recording a sonic youth song played in standard.

I can play Dirty Boots in standard tuning however the tabs are probably wrong but it has the simular sound.

[Glice]

Originally Posted by val-holla-ing

maybe it has something to do with tone? certain notes sound better on certain strings on certain frets. if you listened a little harder, maybe you'd take notice that they're not just playing power chords.

Originally Posted by m^a(t)h

It seems like sonic youths unusual tunings are now only a gimmick to keep them from being considered just "rock". For the most part their songs are very tonal and harmonic. The unususal tunings serve little purpose nowadays. Im saying this because I hate when people talk to me about them and how they heard there tunings are so weird. I mean songs like "shadow of a doubt", "halloween", and "brave men run" take full advantage of the open tunings (along with many other of their earlier works). But alot of their newer stuff is just power chords unecessarily spaced across octaves.

I suggest that both are, in part, correct. There are a few subtleties which warrant the use of alternate tunings - the subtle variations of timbre, the drone notes, the ocassional dissonant effect of close intervals in the courses. I assume they're still using courses (2 strings the same note) rather than whole chords across the strings (as in Blues/ Folk).

I think there are two separate understandings at play here - the first: Msquiggly lettersAth seems to be alluding to the general structure of the songs. In terms of the general structure, there isn't that much in the last 2 albums (what I've heard of RR so far at least) that sounds like its using any intervals or tonal progressions that are necessarily that far away from the general usage of standard tuning - that is, the tuning seems to have come to define the structure of the song less and less (something you would never say about Evol-era). I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with this per se, but I would suggest that it is much easier to emulate the more recent albums on standard tuning.

The second understanding is that of emphasis on the minutae of playing - as Val-holla-ing say, the subtleties of timbre and intonation borne of alt. tunings/ stringings. I don't particularly think this is the most important thing - I don't want to argue my case for this. The point is that what one set of people privelege in their appreciation of SY (the tonal structure) is different to what is being priveleged in other appreciators (the subtle minutae).

I should like to add that there is nothing holy about alt tunings - to my mind, Keiji Haino, Masayuji Takayanagi and Derek Bailey (all standard tunings) take the guitar to farther reaches than most, as do (did?) SY, Keith Rowe, Phil Niblock - the creation lies in the imagination of the creator. The majority of rock bands who use alt tunings do so for very little reason - they only end up emulating the 5ths of most rock.

Hmm. There is more to say, but for now I tire of typing.