i just started reading it. i hated the intro but so far the first chapter is alright.

It's pretty fucking awful. Get ready.

Thats why Sonic Youth should write their own biography! I'd love to hear the band say in their own words what life in the band was like, recording sessions, concerts and where their inspiration comes from.

CONFUSION IS NEXT was pretty good. Of course Alec Foege had input from the band.

Just listened to 'Eric's Trip' on headphones, it's definitely "I hate the past". I don't know how it could sound like anything else. I wasn't even really trying to work it out, I didn't realise that that bit was at the start, it just jumped out as that.

I've listened to it on headphones several times since...I have heard "I hate
the past" clearly sometimes, and other things other times. I'm willing to say I was mistaken and toss this out the window as a beef I have against this book. Still a weak piece of work, all told.

Of course, of course, it's small criticism in a sea of bigger ones, right?

Yessir.

I've read it once, and some of it was terribly boring and some of it wasn't too bad. I didn't like how something like "Silver Rocket" would get a very long analysis, and "Candle" would get about 2 pages.

I just felt like Stearns was an anxious fanboy trying to proove to us that SY were worthy of praise. But c'mon! It's a book that only the SY choir is gonna read... so why the preaching?

you know, i thought it was pretty good. yes it did get annoying in some parts and i had to skip those parts, but it was not as bad as i thought it was going to be.

i just ordered the double nickles on the dime one. that should be an interesting read.

I've only read the 33 1/3 books on VU & Nico and Double Nickles. Both were pretty well written in my opinion, especially the Double Nickles one.

The absolute worst chapter was the one about "Providence." It told you nothing, and in fact came off sounding (reading?) as elitist.

I liked the 33.3 book on Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices. The bio by Jim Greer was an easier read - but I actually learnt more about the band / reconsidered things I thought about the band after reading the 33.3 one.

That said, I work as a popular music studies academic for a crust and thus the idea of a treatise on GBV that is slightly less journalistic really appealed to me. Maybe it was only me tho.

Haven't read the SY one and probably wont. Daydream isn't my favourite SY album and I can live without a poetic interpretation of it.