What?! Holy shit! God dammit!

I love this album, really textural and beautiful... though it has it's faults (I blame Kim... Lightnin' and Side2side are pretty cheeseball... words+lyricswise, that is.
And Renegade Princess has some annoying lyrics. But still an wicked song.
The title track is easily one of the best songs ever written, by any band, and by SY too. Holy cow! That is all I can even say, anything else would not even begin to describe it..

Yeh, most of the slip-ups can be blamed on lyrics and vocals trying too hard to be... poetic... but all the music just totally negates anything bad in the words.

Hell yeah!
I'll took the chance to ask fellow boarders/tapers/traders and stuff:

This is the concert I'm talking about, does anyone have it/know if there are recordings floating around?

Date: Sunday, June 17th, 2001
City: Bologna, Italy
Venue: Parco Nord
SET LIST NOTES

Having Never Written a Note for Percussion
Voice Piece for Soprano (pt 1 - Against the Wind)
Six
Voice Piece for Soprano (pt 2 - Against the Wall)
Burdocks
Voice Piece for Soprano (pt 3 - Against the Sky)
Treatise
Clapping Music
Four6
She Is Not Alone
Side2Side
--
NYC Ghosts & Flowers

Dean Roberts participated in "Treatise" and "Four6". OTHER PERFORMERS

unknown... DOCUMENTATION

No known sources. Have any information on this show? E-mail me!

Christ, nicfit! Lucky bastard!!! She Is Not Alone?!?!?!?! What the crap?! Where did that even come from?!

Hey, if we;re asking around for shows... anyone got the Toronto show from 2006 hehehe?

Actually I think they played those songs on a pretty regular basis as encores for the "goodbye" tour... gotta check Chris' site to make sure...

Yeh, I just checked it out... lots around then.

I'd love to hear some recordings of that era... Goodbye 20th Century is one of myt favourites.

this is my second favorite of theirs (to confusion).
just fucking amazing all the way through.
they have to bring these songs back live, they just got to.
Sonic youth at their best: pushing the boundaries of music.

This to me is the litmus test of a Sonic Youth fan. If they tell me that "Sonic Youth hasn't done anything good since the '80s" I used to ask if they'd heard Washing Machine, but now I ask if they've heard this record. It somehow just makes it better that the fuckwads at pitchfork didn't get it at all. Too bad it is also their worst selling major label album, but I guess that goes with the territory.

The title track is indeed the best Lee song ever and one of the band's definitive statements. "Nevermind" sums up the whole grunge thing lyrically without paying homage musically, which is really effective, right down to the Green River quote at the end. "Free City Rhymes" is really pretty for all it's sadness. "Small Flowers Crack Concrete" is indeed the sappiest thing Thurston's ever written, but still a good song through it - kind of like "Paper Cup Exit" is good despite the Lee beat-cheese. I do wish they'd both get over the Ginsburg infatuation, at least when they're writing lyrics, but in the end it's still only rock 'n roll, so who cares.

What stands out for me on this record, that I think really points to the O'Rourke production influence (as well as having to use new instruments after the theft, but still more the former) is how experimental it is in terms of Sonic Youth structures. Thurston talks more than singing "Psychic Hearts" type songs. He and Kim share vocals on "Renegade Princess" in an arrangement that is nothing like the other rare instances they've done that. While Thurston has gone all beat-poet wanna-be, the resident Dead-head pulls off the most epic drone-song he's ever done and doesn't once in it tell us to look up at the trees or the endless highway (or if he does it works so well, it's not noticeable, which is a real accomplishment!)

I have some recordings from SYR4, but not in very good shape (mp3, incomplete, etc.) Maybe some of our dearest tapers/bootlegers will share some lossless, more complete versions. If not, i will upload for you some stuff i have.

For nicfit: Sorry, but i don't the show you've indicated.

NYC Ghosts & Flowers, my inescapable favorite. I was wondering when I'd have the chance to tickle this one to climax. I call it "ear-scouring dungeon emanations"; it's also an album in black-and-white, if such a thing exists. They were revisiting a medium that they'd left behind in the 80's.

It's the most upfront of all their albums in terms of its references. Goo, by contrast, seems to swirl a whole smorgasbord of American pop culture into its grooves, while this unwaveringly explores the mythic city and certain elements of its underground cultures (the "fucked up in Cleveland" lyric notwithstanding). The beatniks get the most explicit attention, but when listening to Renegade Princess and Free City Rhymes I feel like SY is imaginatively recreating the birth of punk-rock and hip hop. Renegade, for example, is like some tripped-out re-scoring of the video for Micheal Jackson's "Beat It", with the long coda that lasts the whole second half of the song coming off like a slow-motion replay of a Brooklyn up-rock (in black-and-white anime).

It's so spoon-bendingly dense that it defiied my attempts at analysis at first. I didn't dig the whole thing like I do now, I was mainly obsessed with Free City Rhymes and NYC G&F. But one night I was driving around Orange, CA all high and shit with this album cranked, and Side2Side came on. Its myriad layers, the simultaneity of its fragmentation and cohesiveness, the sheer not-giving-a-fuck about it, totally won me over.

My one complaint is not about the album, but the prospects of ever hearing this stuff live. I've been to three SY shows and it doesn't feel like there's ever going to be an NYC G&F Redux, although that would be a cream-dream. We should all demand it, complete with instrumental versions of everything (or else)! Listen to this one all the way through and its initial dreariness will give way to a desolate bliss. If you can truly rock to StreamXSonic Subway you'll know you're there.

you know what rules about this album? the production.

probably my favourite or up there with a few others as my fave. small flaowers crack concrete an amazing song, one of the best on the album and title track is fantastic. never understood why people have a problem with this album at all but each to their own i guess. lightning is also fantastic and its a much more interesting sounding youth than other albums, especially the last two. i like the way it was the one they did right after their equipment got stolen so has a newer sound to me. i cant imagine it sounding the way it does if that had not happened. i loved this record from the start.

AMAZING

when I first got it, I thought it was f'ing awesome. Now I think it's f'ing awesome.

what's the story with this picture?

Don't you recognize the guy (it's a screencap from a tv thing)?

Good. Very good. :)

hahaha OMG is that Dawson?

Holy shiz, wait! I HAVE that episode! That's the one where Dawson tries to impress Paycee's foxy sister, Gretchen!

YES!
Season 4 ep 2, I have no idea about the plot or anything, I just googled a bit to find which episode it was to dl it and check if I was going mad.
There are reruns on italian tv, right after futurama, I keep the tv turned on while I work on the pc and I laugh at the dialogues, but I turned my head and saw that frame and thought there must be a NYC G&F conspiration going on for me lately (and I'm glad! but it's a bit an obsession this week buagghhh!!).
I wonder what's written on that red-fonts sticker...

Nic, that sticker is a standard THIS CD IS FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES BLAH BLAH BLAH sticker