How Important was Jim O Rourke to SY when he was in it?
 

How big of a part did Jim play in the albums that helped SY out on ? Would Murray Street and Sonic Nurse be radically different if he hadn't contributed or would they have basically been the same? Would the albums have been worse if Jim hadn't been involved ?

Murray Street and Sonic Nurse were SY's most praised records in years. Before Jim their album NYC G&F got bad reviews and most fans agree after jim left and they did Rather Ripped that it wasn't as good an album as they'd been doing lately.

he brought a lot of studio savvy to the albums...and without him we would
have been denied the bass line in "plastic sun". did he galvanize the
Youth? they certainly gave the impression they loved having him around.

when he was into it he was like a mini-thurston with his onstage energy.
when he wasn't into it, he gave the impression of a fifth wheel waiting
to fall off. contrast this with ibold, who treats every performance like
a dinner at the florida avenue grill.

"Would Murray Street and Sonic Nurse be radically different if he hadn't contributed or would they have basically been the same? Would the albums have been worse if Jim hadn't been involved ?"

unequivocally they would have been different, but radically? i think jim definitely brought a
focus and skill to the process that no other band member could. i don't think it's a stretch to
say he has a superior "ear". even if he did produce the worst us maple album ever. sorry jim.

that man can do no bad in my eyes. and i loved it when he was in SY, i loved seeing him live w/ them. i wish he would have stayed a member.

i miss that dude, when He was in sonic youth, his bass skills took jamming to a new level, and that is completely lacking in the new. The synthesis between improv and planning is gone, its all planning again.... alas, the psychedelic/jam band/jazz fusion theme is gone and the noise/rocknroll theme is back in action....

not important at all.

OK, Jenn... You have to tell us more about the florida avenue grill! :)

VERY important-- he ruined it!

ha ha ha no. i believe there'd be no rain on tin without him. but there'd be no NYCGF either. hm....

i dont know. im sleepy.

he was a member while they did nyc ghost and flowers.
not an official one of course, just an engineer/producer but you can really hear him on some of the songs (on side 2 side for example)

he wasnt important in a creative way, maybe allowed a bit more fredom like rain on tin but he was important in an extra pair of hands way. he didnt enjoy it, he left to pursue his own thing but i never believed it would be permanent anyway.

I take it people here either never have seen, or are completely ignoring Jim's contributions to live Sonic Youth. If you had it would be crazy to say "he didn't enjoy it" and that "he wasn't imporant in a creative way" well that is just absurd! poor jim getting no credit for the five or six years he worked with a group... that must suck!

he came up with the bassline on PATTERN RECOGNITION I guess which is IMPORTANT to me.

i didnt really like how he was a member at first. this was before i listened to his solo stuff. but now i have and i'm a big fan of it. it's funny how his music and sy's music differ. when he was in the band, he didn't add his 'musical flare' to it, he just magnified and matured sy's sound. which ended up sounding completely awesome. you can definitely tell the difference now in sy's latest music. but i dont think it sounds bad at all.

and yeah, jim is a really awesome bass player. too bad he's not making music anymore.

[quote=!@#$%!]
i believe there'd be no rain on tin without him.
quote]

Very wrong. Check the track "Choir Boy Church Basement" from Thurston's HURRICANE FLOYD disc... it's essentially a solo acoustic rendition of "Rain On Tin" that seems to show that "Rain" started as a solo Thurston track, and its form was pretty much done.

In fact, if I remember correctly (from the SILVER ROCKETS/KOOL THINGS documentary, much of MURRAY ST started as songs that Thurston was going to record for a proposed solo album back then, but they ended up being used by SY.

BUT check out HURRICANE FLOYD, one of my favorite Thurston improv albums.

...yeah. so, he wasn't important at all, like i said.

I think he was important, but only in the way he was important to Wilco: studio style.

I mean, "Disconnection Notice" would sound the same, but wouldn't have the quasi-electronic fade-in happening throughout, y'know? Maybe "Sympathy For The Strawberry" would lack the keyboard. He seems very interested in subtle touches that fill out a production, not so interested in skeletal songwriting.

Just my guess. I wasn't there when they wrote/recorded, but...

The worst U.S. Maple album is still a fuckuvalot better than most other shit, man!

Nurse is one of my favourite SY records, and I think the both of them would be pretty different without him... I don't really know exactly all the stuff he does, but I know it's a lot of studio stuff, and writing a couple bits... regardless... guy rules.

Long Hair in 3 Stages is my favorites, besides Talker. Hmph.

I really like Jim, a lot of his solo work (especially the more electronic stuff) is wonderful, and his work with Gastr Del Sol is godlike. I just don't think he really contributed too much to SY... though the production on NYC Ghosts and Flowers is AMAZING...

I wouldn't underestimate his contribution to SY. He's a good musician/producer and added a lot to Murray Street and Sonic Nurse. Love the way he improvised and freaked with his pedals on the Nurse tour.

As far as solo, I love I'M HAPPY AND I'M SINGING AND A 1,2,3,4

thank you, somebody gets it.