Yeah, so true. I love the deluxe editions of Goo and Dirty. DDN was cool, but it was pretty much just all live material which you can easily get from bootlegs.

And the Enigma/Blast First edition of DN sounds slightly better than the Geffen one.

As part of the eternal BEGN bonus we got a sister session demo of catholic block, i guess that´s a hint that a sister deluxe is due in near future.

as far as remastering the albums, i don´t really see the point.
The lps sound just fine the way they are.
(that said, i don´t know how they sound on cd, but can image that they sound a bit crappy)

remasters no, Deluxe edtions yes please

the DGC DN was awful! awful transfer, awful master, awful something... all those scratchy guitars... eeww..

instead of remastering it, they should just play it again, record it how they play it now, how it sounds now. How about that? Live, studio - whatever. Somebody has to give them this excellent hint.

imagine the ddn deluxe with a cristal clear live record from their last ddn tour instead of this crappy tape.

I think Sister and EVOL don't need to be remastered at all; Their sound is their charm. Of course I'm all for any bonus material from the timeline (Not counting live shows, since SY bootlegs are fairly easy to find).

~Jeremy~

no. there is no good sy live album existing. and i havent heard any listenable boot of the recent ddn show yet, and i listened to all of them. what i want is a professional live record, comparable to grateful deads "live and dead" or wilcos "live in chicago".

Nonsense:
- Blastic Scene
- Hold That Tiger
- Live At The Continental Club
- The Walls Have Ears
And of course boatloads of good to very good bootlegs.

Out of interest is there a page or site that rates SY boots or alternatively can anyone reccomend some of the "crown jewels"? I don't have any but would be interested in cherry picking some of the better ones.....

good idea for upgrading utkonos with this kind of page actually.

regarding the quality, these live-records are not comparable to the live-records i named. in fact, the few you named are of a terrible bad quality compared with live recordings of any other band. and i was talking about special quality live recordings! do yourself a favour and listen to grateful deads "live and dead" and to wilcos "live in chicago" - not because of the music, but because of the sound, the method of recording. the only step in this direction from sonic youth so far was the recording of the "from the basement" session. the guys who did that obviously know how to record live music, and sy should try out more like that. best they could do: hire the professionals who recorded "live in chicago" for wilco, thats perfect.

I certainly wouldn't rate them "terrible bad quality" [sic]. There's a certain charm to less than stellar production with some records. For example, Evol and Sister have a kind of murky quality that I really like, and a "remaster" (perish the thought) might not be an improvement.

If you want pristine production, you can always go back to your Girls Aloud records. :D

evol and sister are great, as i said, and Blastic Scene, Hold That Tiger, Live At The Continental Club, The Walls Have Ears are charming, but not what anyone would call a good live record.

I have to beg to differ and agree with rappard, i would call the above recordings, "good"... you must consider other things than just the most pristine quality recordings made on the most hi-end of equipment, it will ultimately dissappoint you as once you feel you've heard the so-called perfect "live" record there will be another and then another and another and so on... imo, there is no such thing as an ultra perfect pristine live recording i don't care who its by.

There is something especially charming about hearing those live 80's recordings of SY, those listed above are some of the best recordings of the band and disputedly some of the best out of any "indie/underground" band of that time. I like the mystery of a non perfectly sounding live recording to a certain degree (of course!).

as i said, they are charming. all i said is: i wish they would ad a live recording with a better quality, using the best recording-method. i didnt say, you or rappard whish that. :-) do you know how they record classical music? they dont take it direct from the instrument, but from the audience - but from 100 different points in the room, and then mix it. they have a milky-way of microphones above their heads, so they catch the atmosphere. thats what you should do with sonic youth. i hate it, when they take it direct from the output, audience is better for the atmosphere - but i hate the audience for beeing only one "point of view". so, mixing many professional audience-takes with a little direct-sound, thats what i am dreaming of. as grateful dead did in the 70, and that was never reached again - in case of sound-quality.

Okay, I haven't been a big fan of remastered albums as I get annoyed at the potential of buying, and re-buying the same album over again because of a few bonus tracks...etc and supposed "better sound".

With that said though I took the plunge and bought the recent Dirty 2LP remaster and I must say it is noticeably superior to the deluxe edition (4LP). It doesn't have that awful overly compressed sound, every instrument sounds distinct and clear and it doesn't venture into that loudness war that seems to continue with todays recorded music. I don't have an original 2LP version of this to compare to but, wow this is awesome!

The digital download that came with the LP also sounds better than my Dirty deluxe edition 2CD. Just wished all the bonus tracks from the deluxe were done the same way.

Thanks for the review man! Almost tempted to get this now. But the fact that I already have the original CD, the deluxe 2CD and the deluxe 4LP is putting me off a wee bit...

Yeah I was put off until I read on some message boards that this remaster is superior to the deluxe edition, and I got a discount at my local store.

oh, the matrix recordings are out there, but no one is giving them away for free.

The remaster is the only way I can listen to Goo. I feel like the remaster actually sounds more sincere, like the record the band would have made if they hadn't jumped to the majors.

I'm not down on them for going to Geffen, they did some awesome stuff during that period. They were making music their career so more power to them if they want to make that jump. I just think Goo sounded like a version of Sonic Youth that was meant to be played on MTV next to the Pop, and Rock videos of the day, whereas earlier(and later) Youth didn't fit that bill.

If Goo had the vibe of Sister or Daydream Nation it would be an amazing album. Unfortunately for the longest time is was my least favorite of their albums.