Nels Cline LOVES 'A Thousand Leaves" and to heck with the rest of you
 

White Out & Nels Cline have a new album out, Accidental Sky (Nels apparently also has a solo one scheduled for January, Lovers). Lin Culbertson, Tom Surgal and Cline made some bitchen lists for Dusted magazine — Nels even said the same thing I've been saying about John Coltrane's Meditations for years. Just sayin'! Anyway, this is his take on A Thousand Leaves:


I assume the writer wasn't familiar with ATL and heard "orange" instead of "hits of"? Link:

http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/pos...out-nels-cline

How Nels could not get Hits of Sunshine is beyond me!
Just sayin...
--L

Hits Of Sunshine is absolutely one of the greatest SY songs! But on the other hand there are not any bad songs in ATL. And agree with Nels, Karen (also Hoarfrost) is one of the best Lee tunes!

ZZ Top & SY has always been very far away each others in my mind (really love both) but have to admit last time I listened Shiek, there was something same as in Hits Of Sunshine, specially in solo (Shiek is of course much shorter, I think they could have jammed it much longer, I think I would have enjoyed it as much as the long jam of Hits). Thurston has admitted they took rif in Doctor´s Orders from Stones Dancing with Mr. D, so why not also this ZZ Top recycling?

ATL represents Kim at her absolute peak. I have always thought ATL was overlooked. Thank you Nels!!

Nels Cline also loves LOW's "Trust". He is a God.

There's going to be a Google + Hangout with Nels Cline tomorrow. Questions can be submitted through here:
https://plus.google.com/events/c03hf...eiuc1ntn65n03o

Link to stream on youtube:
https://youtu.be/ffF9ypmHvhs

Snare Girl is gorgeous. And I love Stil.

This information is in the Destroyed Room-compilation liner notes, vinyl version. Actually I am not sure are they written by Thurston.

[guitar nerd mode]I love the way phasers are used on this album... that MuTron BiPhase is magic, it gives a unique touch to this album in my opinion[/guitar nerd mode]

I don't get it either! I can't speak for Nels, but for me the confusion comes from the instrumental passage; the main melody is gorgeous, of course, but I really don't get the nine staid minutes. I get the no-wavy two-note bass line, but beyond that I always have the feeling an interesting guitar track or two was left off the final mix. I've spent a lot of time with this track hoping for an "ah-ha" moment which, after years of effort, has yet to arrive. (Love the guitar tones, however.)

I seem to remember I mentioned this before and got shot down, so this is apparently a minority opinion.

And this moment of confusion doesn't the mar the album itself, which I rank very high. I think most SY fans do. So while I'm being contrary, I'll suggest that ATL perhaps isn't as "under-appreciated" as Nels seems to think.

ATL is my 2nd favorite after EVOL.

I love Hits of Sunshine because I did many hits of sunshine.....

Karen Koltrane is an absolutely transcending experience for me.

I agree this one is Kim's magnum opus. Not just her vocal tracks, but her guitar sounds all throughout are fucking nuts on here.

I have worn the hell out of this record but I still love every single track...by far my favorite Sonic Youth album -it really stands on its own in their discography.

when nels toured as a duo with glen kotche they covered karen koltrane.
it was good good good

ATL is one of my faves too. I always understood Hits of Sunshine to be an inversion our expectations of what a SY song or instrumental is. Instead of dense, high energy, abrasive playing there is slow, measured, languorous playing; while still masterfully balancing melody, noise, experimentation, effects, etc... It's like zooming in on a more typical SY track in extreme close up with tempo stretched out very slow but normal pitch maintained, though instead of achieving this through editing it is played in real time. Very psychedelic, fits the lyric. The phaser always makes me think of dripping dewdrops.

A Thousand Leaves is a masterpiece, period.

Yeah, the best I've ever been able to come up with is: it is "anti-" something or other. ("Anti-interesting" I say.)

I really can't believe more people don't see the instrumental passage as a lost opportunity. But obviously, I'd rather join everyone in satisfaction than convince everyone to be disappointed.

Agreed

I like that it is so simplistic and minimalist not everything has to be a sonic explosion..

Hits just has so great atmosphere whole through, like you are traveling in a hot desert alone. Same kind of desert feelings I find Made In USA.