| Product Summary | | Label: MATADOR RECORDS/ADA | | UPC: 00744861082927 | | Release Date: 6/9/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 211086707 | | Item#: M4N3YG | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 27033 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Sacred Trickster ~ Sonic Youth |  | | 2. Anti-Orgasm ~ Sonic Youth | | | 3. Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso) ~ Sonic Youth | | | 4. Antenna ~ Sonic Youth | | | 5. What We Know ~ Sonic Youth | | | 6. Calming the Snake ~ Sonic Youth | | | 7. Poison Arrow ~ Sonic Youth | | | 8. Malibu Gas Station ~ Sonic Youth | | | 9. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn ~ Sonic Youth | | | 10. No Way ~ Sonic Youth | | | 11. Walkin Blue ~ Sonic Youth | | | 12. Massage the History ~ Sonic Youth | |
| | Produced by John Agnello and the band, The Eternal not only marks Sonic Youth's return to the independent label sphere (titles on their own SYR label excepted) after a long association with Geffen, but more importantly, ranks as one of their more inspired efforts in a 28 year career. Recorded through November and December of 2008 at the band's Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ, The Eternal features many firsts for a Sonic Youth album, including a number of shared vocals between Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, and Lee Ranaldo, and the studio debut of former Pavement/Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold, a member of Sonic Youth's touring band for the past few years. They will be touring throughout the summer in support of the new album. Of The Eternal, Matador's Gerard Cosloy says, "We've not had a record in our recent history that's been the subject of nearly as much speculation and anticipation. Suffice to say we're pretty amazed at the way the band delivered something this neoteric while still sounding like, well, themselves. Less of a reinvention and perhaps more to do with a particularly awesome dozen songs."
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Mark Ibold, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore. | | Audio Mixer: John Agnello. | | Audio Remasterer: Greg Calbi. | | Undoubtedly the most influential American indie group of the late 20th century and beyond, Sonic Youth has seldom wavered in their embrace of underground music and culture even as their move in the 1990s to Geffen brought with it a decidedly more mainstream listenership. While the carefully orchestrated squall and skewed melodicism of late major-label efforts SONIC NURSE (2004) and RATHER RIPPED (2006) marked a dramatic departure from the fiery noise anthems of old, THE ETERNAL, Sonic Youth's 2009 album for Matador, is a welcome return to a familiar, back-to-basics approach. | | On THE ETERNAL, SY sound at once revitalized and limbered by the move back to an indie, with Thurston, Kim, and company revisiting familiar tropes--gales of blistering guitar noise, acerbic power pop riffs, and ruminative spoke-sung recitations--with the sharpened edge of a band wised at their twilight years. While these elder statesmen won't be kicking up teenage riots anymore, the sassy, punkish opener, "Sacred Trickster," may be as energetic as any of their anthems circa GOO or DIRTY, with Kim Gordon's feral come-ons losing none of their evocative power. Meanwhile, the explosive riff-fest, "Poison Arrow," pairs grinding detuned guitars with sheets of droning feedback in classic SY style. |
Producer: John Agnello; Sonic Youth |
Engineer: Justin Pizzoferrato; James Frazee; Aaron Mullan; John Agnello; Ted Young |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 06/09/2009 | | Original Release Date : 2009 | | Catalog ID : OLE 829 2 | | Label : Matador (record label) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00744861082927 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Spin (p.98)
- "THE ETERNAL is the Youth's best album since 2002's MURRAY STREET -- the riots aren't teenage anymore, of course, but they're wisely messy and darker, newly rooted in a heavy hookiness akin to Mudhoney and the Wipers."Entertainment Weekly (p.61)
- "[A] sort of survey course in SY history, careering from their early art-school atonality to the more melodically sophisticated compositions of later years." Alternative Press (p.130)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "When bassist Kim Gordon takes the mic, it's apparent she hasn't mellowed one iota; when she teams up with Moore, they come off as a street-tough Sonny and Cher." Billboard - "[T]he guitar tones have rarely sounded better and new bassist Mark Ibold brings a head-turning articulation to the low end." Q (Magazine)
(p.124)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[O]pener 'Sacred Trickster' is thrillingly focused. Refreshingly, nothing outstays its welcome..." Paste (magazine)
(p.50)
- "[T]hey're fearless in their exploration of what it is to be human. At the end of the day, that's about the most comforting sentiment you can ask for from a rock 'n' roll record." |
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| | Bio | | | Sonic Youth Sonic Youth began in 1981 downtown New York City - Thurston Moore - guitar, vocals; Kim Gordon - bass, guitar, vocals; and Lee Ranaldo - guitar, vocals. the band made its 1st eponymously titled mini-LP released in 1982 by Neutral Records, a label founded by NYC guitar/composer Glen Branca. Lee and Thurston were witness to the original 1976/77 NYC CBGB/Max's scene of Television, Patti Smith, Suicide, Ramones, etc. Kim was in L.A. studying as a visual artist. they started playing during the era (1978/79) of what is termed No Wave----harsh, challengeing abrasive music informed by rock, noise, jazz and modern composition/experimentation. With cheap guitars and various hot rodded tunings they wrote songs like no one else. The vibe was fresh and, though mirroring the nihilism of no wave, had notions of forward positivity. By 1984 their sound had developed into a more mature pop/noise hybrid with a genuine experimental flair for structure. They went to London and destoyed all who heard and watched. Sonic Youth, in a New York minute, wiped the "death of the electric guitar" concept out, and went on to further the explosion of recognition for the new U.S. underground. Things have not been the same since. Upon return to the U.S. from the 1984 Steve Shelley, from Michigan, joined the band on drums. Steve's formidable drum skills upped the bands musicality a level and everyone yelled, "hup!" In 1987 they recorded Sister which would inspire legions of gig-goers a 1/2 generation younger than SY (Pavement, Sebadoh, etc.). This LP touched on themes of hyper-irreality and dislocution. Sonic Youth recorded Daydream Nation in 1989, a double LP which brought them to the attention of the critical elite, winning them year-end best of awards up the butthola. This LP encapsuled all that had been brewing musically and lyrically with the band through the 1980s. At decade's end they signed to a major label, Geffen. This was considered insane by many on watch as their was really no history of independent undergound bands succeeding within the realms of the corporate music industry which they helped build an alternative to. They released the LP Goo in 1990 and then Dirty in 1992. Both LPs were chock block full of heady, heavy swirl and strum. They noticed a new generation of music lovers digging them and their contemporaries on a massive scale. And then Nirvana sold a zillion records and the industry was a new deal----sort of. In 1997 SY built a studio and recorded a series of EPs on their own homegrown label SYR. This music was extrapolated, mostly instrumental forays into wild improvisatory meditations and sub/conscious structural creations. In the summer of 1999 SY were liberated from all the signature sound tools they developed for the last 12 years or so. They came home and picked up hammers and nails and started afresh, writing their new LP entitled NYC Ghosts & Flowers.
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