SY Compilation for a Friend
 

Ok, so i went for drive with my friend yesterday (in his car), and because I was tired of constantly listening to his tiny CD collection, (either Garbage, Muse or Skunk Anansie) I thought I'd bring a SY album with me (DDN) anyway, we pretty got through the whole album and by the time it got to The Wonder he said that all the songs had the same guitar riffs and same formula, which was a bit of an insult because DDN is amazing and has huge amounts of variety and different tunings, and also reminded me of the reason why over the past 3/4 of a year that I have been listening and discovering SY I've never bothered to introduce them to friends.
So I thought I'd make a compilation of their singles to prove that the band has a huge amount of variety to their music and sound, I chose singles because I suppose in away they are more accessible than the album tracks.

These are the tracks, in the following order that I chose:

1. Teenage Riot
2. Bull In The Heather
3. Sunday (edit)
4. Dirty Boots (edit)
5. Little Trouble Girl
6. Youth Against Fascism
7. Incinerate
8. Superstar
9. Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyles Hand Cream
10. Sugar Kane (edit)
11. The Diamond Sea (Little Trouble Girl Single Edit)
12. Drunken Butterfly
13. Death Valley '69
14. Starpower (edit)
15. Disappearer
16. 100%
17. Kool Thing
18. Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)

Anyway, I am just wondering what you all think of the tracklisting, do you think it's suitable for a noob? and shows a lot of variety?

I made the same thing not longe ago, you can check out the suggestions from the guys in this thread.
If you want to know my final lineup, this is it:
01 - Dirty Boots
02 - 100%
03 - Pattern Recognition
04 - The Dripping Dream
05 - Incinerate
06 - Mildred Pearce
07 - Catholic Block
08 - Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog
09 - Mary-Christ
10 - Kool Thing
11 - Bull In The Heather
12 - Sugar Kane
13 - On The Strip
14 - Chappel Hill
15 - Purr
16 - Mote
17 - Paper Cup Exit
18 - Silver Rocket
19 - Beat On The Brat
20 - Nic Fit
21 - Teenage Riot
22 - Pacific Coast Highway
23 - Stereo Sanctity
24 - Death Valley '69
25 - I Don't Want To Push It
26 - Into The Groove(y)
27 - Schizophrenia
28 - Disconnection Notice

Good luck

i like. my girlfriend made me a sonic youth comp album ages ago to introduce me to them so comps are definitly the way to go. cant remember exactly wat trcks were on it but it was very similar to yours :)
nice work :D

Thats a fine selection there, however I often think that singles are rarely the best output of a band, even one as awesome as Sonic Youth - i disagree with what tracks bands decide to release as singles sometimes, for example Nevermind seems a bizarre choice from 'NYC', Renagade Princess screams out as a single, and a far better one at that.
Its good that you've got stuff from all their work, and you've set it out in glorious chronilogicless order like that, it'll make a varied mix-tape/CD-R. But, if that dude didn't dig Daydream, then maybe just pick stuff from an era of sonic youth he will be more likely to connect with, maybe the heavier stuff on Confusion Is Sex, or the spacier sound of Murray St, i dunno. I think theres something for everyone in this band, but just laying it all out on a plate like that could be a bit confusing, perhaps just concentrate on one area...

Its a good selection of tracks, and putting tracks from all the Sonic's career and displaying them in glorious chronilogicless order is good in that it'll make a varied mix-tape/CD-R. However, I'm not sure whether just the singles is a good idea, I always disagree what tracks bands, even Sonic Youth, decide to release as singles, I feel a singles compilation rarely displays their best stuff. For example, Nevermind seems a bizarre single choice from NYC, I always think Renegade Princess is crying out to be a single, and a much better one at that. If this dude didn't dig Daydream maybe it'd be better to focus on a period of SY that he'd be more likely to connect with, so maybe the spacier Murray St. stuff or the heavier early No Wave stuff, I dunno. I really reckon theres something for everyone with this band, and having stuff from all their albums could be a bit confusing, I think it'd be better to pick a certain area to focus on.

He liked Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyles Handcream when I played that when he was round a few weeks ago, he's got "hey hey little baby breakdown" stuck in his head, that was one of the first songs I was obsessed with last year when I started listening to them so it must be a good song as a starter, although you wouldn't think so with all the unusual noises that i would expect only an ear trained fan would appreciated.
I totally agree that selecting songs from all over SY's career would be confusing as I was very confused by Screaming Fields of SY and put it aside and decided to only concentrate on Goo onwards, but I picked it up again and became obsessed with Shadow of a Doubt, Starpower, and Death Valley 69 so I realised I do like their earlier stuff, I think it was just a bit too much to handle, and also, their 80's material isn't as accessible as their latter material (I found at first).
BTW, thanks Thin_ice for the link to that page, i've had a look, and it seems that maybe using singles isn't the best idea.

People like that annoy me. I have friends who will say "All punk music sounds the same - three chords and no good solos, a singer who can't sing so they speak instead of sing, and drummers who never do any solos or fills."

Anyway, your list doesn't have anything from the self titled album, maybe The Burning Spear should be on it.

I think that if he was able to listen to "The Sprawl" and "Total Trash" in one sitting and think they have the same guitar riffs or formula, you have a hopeless case to begin with (and never mind that he likes those bastions of variety in songwriting Garbage!)

It's a shame that in order to try to convert him you feel compelled to put so many edits on your list, as what's edited out usually is what makes a song sound like Sonic Youth and not any number of indie rock bands that sound like SY with the brilliant noise cut out.

I'm honestly not trying to be a dick about this, but there is a reason Sonic Youth aren't in, and will never be in, the Top 40 or even on "commercial alternative" stations - their music is better than that crap and they will never appeal to the lowest common denominator. Which is good.

" "

what do you think of Thurstons American Coffin? good shit you ask me!

That's a cool mix I hope yr friend digs it.

it didn't work, we were in his car, and it got to DV'69 and he said "i don't like sonic youth, they are depressing" and he turned it off. although he likes Mariah Carey & Arthur Doyles Handcream... oh well, I'm not really bothered, it makes me appreciate them much more.

Depressing? What? Sounds like your friend is a little quick to depression himself if he's so quick to think that. Maybe it needed more Expressway?

look, he listens to skunk anansie so there is really no hope for him!!! only joking kind of! each to their own i suppose........

fuck it. force him to listen to silver sessions at high volume in a locked darkened room on loop until he admits to the youth as being amazing.....

I made a comp of tracks just the other day for another forum that I frequent, it looked like this:


1. Tom Violence (Evol, 1986)
2. Shadow of a doubt (Evol, 1986)
3. Starpower (Evol, 1986)
4. Theresa's sound world (Dirty,1992)
5. Skink (Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star, 1993)
6. New Hampshire (Sonic Nurse, 2004)
7. Turquoise boy (Rather Ripped, 2006)
8. Pink steam (Rather Ripped, 2006)
9. Karen Koltrane (A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
10. Teenage riot (Daydream Nation, 1988)
11. Expressway to yr skull (Evol, 1986)


guess I didn't want to scare them with the fast punk stuff.

lol, well he is on anti-depressants, but beside that I really don't think he's one for appreciating music as an art form. His favourite band is 'Garbage' and last year I made him a copy of their greatest hits 'Absolute Garbage' which I bought because I like some of their songs that appears on that album, but the other day he said he now hates garbage because he has been listening to them in his car for 3 days in a row. I'm sorry but your favourite band should not be hated because you've been listening to them everytime you get in your car for a few days because you can't be bothered to change the CD. I feel his music has to have pop elements to it, i've been there when he put the skunk anansie album on (supposedly one of his favourite bands) and watched him skip nearly every track on the album.
I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people really arn't interested in SY, my friends bought me a few SY albums I don't have (for my birthday this tuesday :)), and since I wanted to try them out, the only risk I was willing to take was The Diamond Sea (alternative version) from The Destroyed Room, and after 5 minutes when the heavy bass kicked in my friend (the person who bought me the destroyed room) asked if she could turn it off, I know the song is 25 minutes, but to turn it off in one of the best bits... although another friend said she's been playing Kool Thing on Guitar Heroes 3. Which, in my opinion is not a great representation of what SY are about (except for the tuning).

Well, if I had to make a compilation to a friend or something, it would have to really consist of Evol, Sister, DDN era. But of course, some Goo, Dirty and their recent works Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped.

Something like this:

1- Teen Age Riot (DDN, 1988)
2- Schizophrenia (Sister, 1987)
3- Reena (RR, 2006)
4- The Empty Page (Murray Street, 2002)
5- Stones (Sonic Nurse, 2004)
6- Shadow Of The Doubt (EVOL, 1986)
7- Beauty Lies In The Eye (Sister, 1987)
8- Hot Wire My Heart (Sister, 1987)
9- Bull In The Heather (EJST&NS, 1994)
10- Sunday (A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
11- Candle (DDN, 1988)
12- Total Trash (DDN, 1988)
13 - Star Power (EVOL, 1986)
14 - Disconnection Notice (Murray Street, 2002)
15- Unwind (Washine Machine, 1995)
16 - Love You Golden Blue (Sonic Nurse, 2004)
17 - Peace Attack (Sonic Nurse, 2004)

Or something like this. Or hand him/her Rather Ripped, which is quite acessible IMO.

P.S: Damn, I forgot Unmade Bed and Do You Believe In Rapture? . 18 and 19, or something like that.

You ought to throw some good live tracks on there as well.

Yeah I had the same problem with some of my friends, they just couldn't understand SY, but I played so much, over the course of about a year it brainwashed them. They love them now and even went to London to see DDN with me...they also have an awesome and massively improved taste in music/art/literature... Sonic Youth Works!