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porkbone1
= Cult of Ray =
USA
390 Posts |
 Posted - 06/01/2004 : 14:18:27
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I own about 27 Sonic Youth CDs, and they used to be my favorite band before the Pixies. I also agree that to some extent, the Pixies are a pop-punk band. But you have to consider this when reading an interview with Sonic Youth: they are quite a bit older than the Pixies. They probably hear people talk about Joey Santiago bending two strings on his guitar close together and think "Damnit, we've been doing that for 23 years." Because they have.
Like PsychichTwin said, they are a bit pretentious, (art-punk, anyone?) And age does have quite a bit to do with it. Sonic Youth was making music when the Pixies were in 7th grade. How do you all feel about the newest music that is coming out now? We (as Pixies fans) tend to look down our noses on a lot of other bands, but you've got to give Sonic Youth respect for being a kick ass band.
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The joke has come upon me |
Edited by - porkbone1 on 06/01/2004 14:19:24 |
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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2004 : 14:39:40
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I agree. And I think they're still making pretty inventive music. To some extent they are making the same music as they always have, but they're still tons more creative than many other bands in their 'prime'.
 "Everywhere I go I want to travel by Maglev" |
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ProverbialCereal
- FB TabMaster -
USA
2953 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2004 : 22:12:18
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quote:
Originally posted by porkbone1
They probably hear people talk about Joey Santiago bending two strings on his guitar close together and think "Damnit, we've been doing that for 23 years." Because they have.
...and Hendrix did it over 30 years ago. I think Joey just made it his signature thing, and it complented the chord progressions of the Master Chord Progessioner well.
Just quit a cult / going through withdrawal |
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benji
> Teenager of the Year <
New Zealand
3426 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 01:14:42
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didn't SY only release their first album in 1983 - that makes it only a few years before the Pixies.....
You Know You Want To! |
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TheCroutonFuton
- Mr. Setlists -
USA
1728 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 04:46:59
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Yeah, I was gonna say....they aren't that much older than the Pixies...
"Freedom is a state of mind and the condition and position of your ass. Free your mind and your ass will follow." - Funkadelic |
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ivandivel
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 05:20:08
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I have an interview with sonic youth from around Dirty where the interviewer mentions that some some songs on dirty have a "surfy-kinda-pixies-feel (bossanova was the album she referred to)" - a comparison they did not reject if i remember correctly.
Sonic Youth themselves refere to Goo and Dirty as their pop-albums, amazing albums they are indeed. I've always wondered if they'd manage to be that good at making "pop" without the pixes. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd be a little embarassed aboout having more commercial success than the pixies with these albums. Personally, i think sonic youth, great as they are, are the KISS of art-rock. They know very well what they are doing, and they have been building up sonic youth as a (art) b(r)and for a long time. They had to distance themselves from Goo and Dirty, of course they need a little distance to the pixies. |
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VoVat
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
9168 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 16:09:55
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quote:
Yeah, I was gonna say....they aren't that much older than the Pixies...
They weren't part of the music scene for that much longer, but I get the impression that they're older. I read recently that Kim Gordon, at least, is in her fifties. Frank isn't even forty yet.
Cattle in Korea / They can really moo. |
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Chris Knight
= Cult of Ray =
USA
899 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 18:17:45
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quote:
posted by porkbone1
Sonic Youth was making music when the Pixies were in 7th grade.
Charles Thompson was about 16 when the first SY EP came out.
quote:
They probably hear people talk about Joey Santiago bending two strings on his guitar close together and think "Damnit, we've been doing that for 23 years."
Man, I feel sorry for SY if that's what they think, because that means they've been using the same meat-and-potato gimmick for 23 years!
Kidding and pedantry aside, I am certainly a fan of Sonic Youth. It wouldn't faze me a bit if the band actually disliked the Pixies' work, but... to dismiss it as punk-pop or whatever without having actually listened to the records is something else entirely. I take a bit of offense to the comments, not because the Pixies are my favorite band, but because they're a cultural touchstone and are in fact part of the same '80s classic-alternative pantheon in which Sonic Youth resides. Not only that, but Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, as far as I can tell, are the only Pixies records even close to classifiable as punk-pop. When I think of the term punk-pop, I think of the Ramones and the Buzzcocks and the myriad of harmlessly fun bands that, to this day, try to sound like them. Not the Pixies. |
Edited by - Chris Knight on 06/02/2004 18:19:13 |
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porkbone1
= Cult of Ray =
USA
390 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 19:38:08
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quote:
Originally posted by benji
didn't SY only release their first album in 1983 - that makes it only a few years before the Pixies.....
You Know You Want To!
Sonic Youth formed and recorded their first EP in 1981. So yes I guess that would make Charles about 16 at the time.
As for how old the members of Sonic Youth are, Thurston Moore is 46 years old, and Kim Gordon is 51.
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The joke has come upon me |
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The New Bolero
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 21:45:49
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| With his "I shouldn't say this but..." preface Thurston actually seems fairly reverent towards the Pixies to me. |
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floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =
Mexico
15297 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 22:56:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Boseph
First of all: Sonic Youth is a fantastic band. One of the greatest of all time.
Second: What the fuck is the big deal? So they're not very familular with the Pixies. Whatever. Did they at any point say "the Pixies suck"? No. Thurston just said AT THE TIME he wasn't a big fan. Which leads me to believe he no longer has anything against them.
And keep in mind, they were played Tony's Theme. A fun song, but not one of the Pixies finest moments, and definately not the kind of thing Sonic Youth would dig.
All in all, people have different tastes. The Pixies may simply not be Thurstons kind of thing. It doesn't mean he doesn't have respect for them. I doubt Frank listens to Sonic Youth too often. What's the difference?
And to say that "they're just jealous" is so god damn stupid for SO many reasons. THINK BEFORE YOU POST!
i think Sonic Youth is just jealous.
i find it IMPOSSIBLE to belive that they'd be unfamiliar with the Pixies. that would be like Bob Dylan claiming he never heard Jimi Hendrix, "yeah, i think i remember that song.. Purple Phaze or somethin'??"
saying they're unfamiliar with them is just a passive-aggressive insult.
they're too big of pussies (and too aware that they're wrong) to admit they hate them because they know that everyone will see their hatred for what it is: bitter, ugly jealousy towards a band that far surpassed them in every quality they tried to possess. they were weirder, darker, and even, arguably, more "arty" than Sonic Youth ever were, without trying half has hard.
the Pixies out Sonic Youth'd Sonic Youth, and were 10 times better on top of that; Thurston Moore is Frank's bitch and he knows it.
actually, maybe Thurston Moore doesn't have any recollection of the Pixies because he's blocked it out from his memory. too many traumatizing moments: waking up with sweaty panic attacks, wondering what he was going to write .. "what's the use??," he'd ask himself, panting, "they're just going to write a better one".
he couldn't deal, so he chose to ignore it.
but can you blame him? really, how can you go on knowing deep inside that for every song you write, no matter how "out there" it is, or how much feedback it has, or what foreign object you use to play the guitar part with, there'll always be a Pixies song shining high above your song, and your song will be below that song, as if your song was that songs bitch, and that song is looking down on your song saying, "that's right bitch .. you're my bitch.. heheh"
that's gotta be tough. |
Edited by - floop on 06/02/2004 23:26:05 |
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floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =
Mexico
15297 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2004 : 23:13:28
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| or, maybe they just never heard them.. |
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benji
> Teenager of the Year <
New Zealand
3426 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2004 : 01:58:03
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i'm with floop.
made me laugh on this sunny London morning that for sure.
You Know You Want To! |
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hibster
- FB Fan -
102 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2004 : 06:59:33
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didnt the pixies do a set of sy covers on the john peel show? or am i thinking of someone else? a mate had them back in 89/90 on tape & i never listened to them.
cant think why though.
this is why events unerve me |
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Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =
USA
451 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2004 : 13:36:57
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| Floop, you made me laugh my ass of...but I wonder, did you forget to write in the sarcastic font, or did you truly mean to use the literal one? |
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frankenspock
- FB Fan -
USA
13 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 03:23:41
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quote:
Originally posted by bumblebeeboy2
what a bunch of lying, talentless twats. 
I interviewed Sonic Youth back in 1990 for a college radio station. Nirvana was their opening act at the time. The interview was mostly Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, who turned out to both be really nice guys and talked to us at length about any number of weird subects. Kim wouldn't say a word to us, and Thurston breezed by for about fifteen seconds, sniffed out that we weren't from a "real" media outlet, and split the scene like the table had botulism spores on it.
Total dicks. Half of them anyway. They aren't _allowed_ to appreciate the Pixies. |
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frankenspock
- FB Fan -
USA
13 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 03:34:45
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quote:
Originally posted by floop
i think Sonic Youth is just jealous.
Could be. Musically, SY have been flogging the same horse so long that the "Youth" part in their name is no longer a giggle point, but an actual verbal contract breaker. I think music consumers could file a class action lawsuit against them just on general principles at this point.
Secondly, most importantly, they've been mining the same vein so long, and, realistically, it's been tapped for over a decade. I think it must sting, at least a little, to see a band like the Pixies barely even _begin_ to explore their own depths, break up after a handful of albums, and then go on to become rock's answer to the Lost City of Shangri-La. The Pixies did more with less than anybody, ever, and to the Sonic Youth mind, it might feel like they've been running in place for all these years.
Then again, as I mentioned in a previous post, Thurston is really just sort of a _dick_. |
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The Champ
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
736 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 08:39:20
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| Floop way to tell it as it is..yet it begs the question of why they arn't fuming with anger about all of Nirvana's success...maybe they take credit for discovering them which helps ease the pain of being a constant Second place only to the Pixies..well more like 3rd place, second to Nirvana..or maybe actually 4th place next to Soundgarden. Speaking about Soundgarden they formed in 1984 which surprised the fuck out of me. I had their album that has black hole sun on it sitting on my shelf for years and never listend to it when they were popular ( brother bought it used) because i thought they were just a nirvanaish band. But i was wrong about that cause they outdate Nirvana and the Pixies, and when i read when they formed i gave it a listen too and was pretty surprised. Their singer has a very good voice i gotta admit. |
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VoVat
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
9168 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 15:39:12
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Couldn't they still have been Nirvana-ish if they had come before Nirvana? Not INTENTIONALLY Nirvana-ish, of course, but still.
Cattle in Korea / They can really moo. |
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killmocker
- FB Fan -
Japan
41 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 19:50:49
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This is a message for all the people here who are like FUCK SONIC YOUTH!! THEY DON'T KNOW THE PIXIES!!! THOSE SNOBS!
..I'm like pretty much 100% sure they know who the fucking Pixies are. And they likely know the music and dig it too. I remember in Melody Maker when they published Black Francis' tour diary one part in particular:
LONDON APRIL 16
Record "Monkey Gone To Heaven" on a top-notch TV arts program. Later that night, that guy from Sonic Youth and that guy from Pere Ubu booted our video on "Night Network" because Joey made a thumbs-up sign.
How could you not know a band you were making a bootleg of, fer chrissake?
Also, someone earlier mentioned Kim did guest vocals on 'Little Trouble Girl', this is true- she's apparently good friends with the band.
And I remember an interview in this SY fanzine where Lee Ranaldo (the lead guitarist of SY for those who don't know) asked Kim Deal jokingly if she called Black Francis 'Black' and she's like oh no no everone pretty much calls him 'Charles' and such
and blah blah blah I could give a lot more evidence but after all this you'd think SY would know the damn Pixies OK?
I'm pretty sure they were just being funny and letting the interviewers on because so many interviewers (and people in general!) are clueless.
So many people make SY seem like asshole art-snobs however I get the impression they are really cool and open-minded and easygoing.
I'm not saying there is not a possibility they could be jerks, but then again you shouldn't say they definitely ARE assholes because you don't know that either. Your guess, which is a far stab, is as good as mine. Interviews and the like can give you an idea on what kinds of personalities members in a band have but it doesn't mean you know them, they could just be having a bad day or something. In some other part of the forum some girl talked about Charles Thompson himself telling her to fuck off after she asked for an autograph. To me this sounds way worse than the silly SY interview, but are you all going to disown the Man and everything even remotely linked to him (including this site)? Perhaps, but I frickin won't cause everyone is only human after all and there's more than meets the eye. Unless you personally know them, you won't have much a clue what they are really like. So shuddup.
I love the Pixies and I love Sonic Youth |
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Levitated
= Cult of Ray =
Chile
652 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2004 : 20:25:15
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| Well...I think that SY do know who the pixies are, but they don't know them musically, I mean they must know a couple of songs, or maybe they've listened to a full album but they didn't dig them, but is that a sin?? SY is a great band, a jealous band? maybe but they don't need to be jealous of anyone because they are great band. SY had (maybe still have) a kind of punk attitude (not musical necessarily at least nowadays) and since the pixies are a great band but without a punk attitude SY never paid so much attention on them, but come on you don't have to hate SY for not liking the pixies. (sorry for my bad english) |
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noexx
= Cult of Ray =
361 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 03:50:20
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| perhaps they were messing around with our favorite VH1 people...... |
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Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =
USA
451 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 12:27:00
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quote:
Originally posted by killmocker
..I'm like pretty much 100% sure they know who the fucking Pixies are. And they likely know the music and dig it too. I remember in Melody Maker when they published Black Francis' tour diary one part in particular:
LONDON APRIL 16
Record "Monkey Gone To Heaven" on a top-notch TV arts program. Later that night, that guy from Sonic Youth and that guy from Pere Ubu booted our video on "Night Network" because Joey made a thumbs-up sign.
How could you not know a band you were making a bootleg of, fer chrissake?
I think what he meant by booted is in the voting style of getting videos off the air, as in "MTV's Control Freak booted Ludicrous' new video cause it was wack..." |
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *
1446 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 13:12:29
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Except for Washing Machine I had all the Sonic Youth records up to A Thousand Leaves (cuz it was the newest) when I was in college and I never liked any of them or listened to any of them for pleasure, but I kept them because I thought that maybe someday I might grow into them. Also the one live Sonic Youth experience I'd had was awful. Thurston Moore in particular came off like someone who really needs a severe beating.
I never came around to liking those records. I sold 'em all years ago and will never look back. In fact, the only Sonic Youth-related things I'll even touch anymore are some of the records on Steve Shelley's Smells Like label (Lee Hazlewood reissues!).
There are 5 bands I always say are banned from my home (and this includes any side work that people in those bands do on other people's records). REM, Pavement, Sonic Youth, U2, Pearl Jam. |
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The Champ
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
736 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 14:15:51
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| Hey Rem's not that bad, you u let A-ha get through your doors? |
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Chris Knight
= Cult of Ray =
USA
899 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 19:35:37
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| FYI: everyone's former second-favorite band is making an appearance on Wednesday's Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno. They'll also be on tonight's Subterranean (MTV2). Punk-pop indeed. |
Edited by - Chris Knight on 06/06/2004 19:36:46 |
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *
1446 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 19:47:21
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quote:
Originally posted by The Champ
Hey Rem's not that bad, you u let A-ha get through your doors?
I'd consider it.
And actually REM has managed get through my door in a few ways that I can think of. I have the first Kristin Hersh album, on which Michael Stipe appears. And I have the second Neneh Cherry album on which Michael Stipe rears his ugly head again. The Neneh Cherry album I have attempted to get rid of though, but it's a such a common $1 bin CD that no one will take it. |
Edited by - Jason on 06/06/2004 19:48:20 |
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2004 : 20:23:38
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quote:
Originally posted by killmocker
I'm pretty sure they were just being funny and letting the interviewers on because so many interviewers (and people in general!) are clueless.
So many people make SY seem like asshole art-snobs however I get the impression they are really cool and open-minded and easygoing.
I'm not saying there is not a possibility they could be jerks, but then again you shouldn't say they definitely ARE assholes because you don't know that either. Your guess, which is a far stab, is as good as mine. Interviews and the like can give you an idea on what kinds of personalities members in a band have but it doesn't mean you know them, they could just be having a bad day or something. In some other part of the forum some girl talked about Charles Thompson himself telling her to fuck off after she asked for an autograph. To me this sounds way worse than the silly SY interview, but are you all going to disown the Man and everything even remotely linked to him (including this site)? Perhaps, but I frickin won't cause everyone is only human after all and there's more than meets the eye. Unless you personally know them, you won't have much a clue what they are really like. So shuddup.
I love the Pixies and I love Sonic Youth
killmocker, you've said what I wanted to say, and way better than I could have.
If the only tool you have is an elbow macaroni,
all your problems look like Schroedinger's cat. |
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VoVat
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
9168 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2004 : 16:47:55
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So, Jason, you're not going to be buying any Minus Five CDs? Your loss, I suppose.
Cattle in Korea / They can really moo. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2004 : 19:39:37
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On the new Sonic Youth DVD, they talk about their relationship with Kim Deal in the commentary for the Little Trouble Girl video. They talk about how they were really good friends with her around that time. Kim Gordon actually directed the Canonball video (I don't know if that was mentioned yet on this thread).
Boycott cults and t's |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2004 : 13:03:47
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Cool! I never knew that. I like that video.
Pixies!?!? Pixies!?!? Don't talk to me about the Pixies!!!.........OK, talk to me about the Pixies!!! |
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jimmy
= Cult of Ray =
USA
876 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2004 : 00:05:37
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I swear I'm not saying this because they were putting down the Pixies: Sonic Youth is the most disgustingly pretentious band ever. They're the musical equivilent of a typical modern art painting: sloppy, random bullshit.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the word "pretentious" popped up in half the posts here.
That VH1 story reminds me of people who will accept any piece of shit as art, but consider someone like Norman Rockwell to be just a magazine illustrator, and not even in the realm of "real art". |
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pixiesboy
- FB Fan -
5 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2004 : 12:37:39
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only 1 thing to say SY r a buch of pretentious bastards and they obvoiusly heard the pixies play so they can go suck it
we are not worthy to listen to the pixies,but then again i'd be angry without 'em |
Edited by - pixiesboy on 06/25/2004 12:38:34 |
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ractrader
- FB Fan -
Argentina
18 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2004 : 11:47:41
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| You know what? Here in Argentina there was a 3-cassettes tribute to Pixies and Sonic Youth called "Wave of Kool Things". And I think both bands deserve more than that. Great bands, even if Thurston doesn't like what I do like. |
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model consumer
- FB Fan -
USA
128 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2004 : 21:40:10
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I love Sonic Youth as much as I do the Pixies and really, I think of their sound as a darker, danker yin to the Pixies poppier, prettier yang.
Kim Gordon always comes off as a pompous flakey bitch. She knows all the right vocabulary and has enough education to give highly academic sounding discourse, especially on any art topic. However, I suspect she is not quite that bright.
Thurston Moore, in spite of the obvious handicap of his first name, is probably less pretentious than some would portray him. In any case, it's their opinion, which is their right. If they really don't like the Pixies, they don't get it, or whatever, and it's their loss. As anyone who has watched the film "In 1991, the Year Punk Broke" knows, Mr. Moore is not always truthful or even straightforward with journalists.
It doesn't, and shouldn't change my opinion of Sonic Youth or their music, which I still love.
I have to say "Tony's Theme" is one of my least favorite Pixies songs. Even if the song were from any other band, it would be pretty much unremarkable, forgettable. It is a VERY unfortunate choice to try and elicit an opinion on the band, especially from some aloof cunty NYC art rockers.
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"What's all I listen to? It's all freedom rock!" |
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Topic |
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Sonic Youth talks about the Pixies
