im enjoying my first listen

This should be its own thread, but:

Sonic Youth
The Bad Seeds

that's about it.

don't forget chumbawamba

Except neither have...especially the bad seeds. SY has come closer than almost anyone I can think of but there are some duds in their catalog.

Well, I suppose that's a subjective adjective I used, but I stand by the consistently good tag. I'm biased because they are my favorite band, but as such I would argue most of their albums worked in some context, even if everything wasn't specifically up your alley. In other words, I can see building blocks at work, or how a particular album fits into a certain era.

Don't get me wrong, they've had a remarkable career. They've been more consistent than most. Their early feedback heavy noise rock is unlistenable to me though and they had a number of releases between dirty and murray street that weren't very noteworthy. Maybe if they are your favorite band you'd disagree but I traded a bunch of those in. I also dl'ed a few of those self-released projects of recent years from emusic and didn't much care for those. More power to them for keeping their integrity, exploring their muse, and putting out a lot of great albums. But no, I don't like them all. In other words, there were interruptions imho.

I'll agree that there were definite periods I don't care for. For awhile I couldn't stand Goo, Jetset, or Dirty. I've soften considerably on Goo and Dirty. See, I'm into their noisy stuff, so Confusion and even their SYR series is up my alley. I've enjoyed the mellowing though. I think I realized the progression towards that on Thousand Leaves. When the single for Sunday came out I pretty much realized they weren't going to release a full-on noise blast under the Sonic Youth banner for a long time. However, like some of the people on this board have said, Diamond Sea is an exquisite song. Probably one of their best songs. I think in one way that is what has set them apart. They've proven that they can move fluently between the noisy and straight(ish) rock worlds.

One of my many "wants" is 1991: The Year Punk Broke to be put on DVD. Maybe if this record makes enough noise. I have the vhs of it and Gila Monster Jamboree, but both with extras would be appreciated.

Man, after all these years, the only thing that still stands out to me from that is Thurston Moore filming his own Cleveland Steamer go down the toilet..............."and now for some real shit, we're going to play live"

The Church
The Fleshtones
Giant Sand
U2

And I want to add Los Lobos and XTC in there but I honestly can't remember when either put out their most recent album.

And the Cramps would've made it if Lux hadn't shuffled off his mortal coil.

I sometimes forget that these guys first got together in the 70s.

And your post just reminded me that the Tragically Hip are over 20 years old now.

Sometimes I forget that I often agree with you....

Town and the City, The Ride, Good Morning Aztlan... all released in the last five years or so... some uneven moments, but some great moments. Los Lobos are the Great American Band that doesn't get enough respect.

1987

surprised at this

XTC put out their most recent album 9 years ago (Apple Venus 2) and broke up 4 years ago. They had a great run though.

Me too at first, but it jibes and is totally rational. Rads, always a fan of the Church and early U2. He may say the later output sucks but I don't remember Rads dismissing them in totality.

Nobody loves the Cramps more than me (how many bands have you traveled 18 hours on a bus and then slept rough on a park bench to see for an hour and a half?) but Sonic Youth still have an edge to their music than the Cramps, on recorded medium at least, lost about 1984.

The Cramps could still do it on stage (I saw them twice in the 90's and they are among the best gigs I've ever been to) but their last 4 or 5 studio albums were essentially novelty items.

If anyone thinks the Cramps were still kicking hard and making vital music through the 90s, they're having a laugh.

While Sonic Youth and the aforementioned Bad Seeds definitely had weaker albums, they were constantly moving forward at the very least.

if anyone wants to feel old, Green Day have been around for over twenty years.

I like some of the bands that rads mentioned but all of them had some duds. Its really hard to be consistently good over such a long period. The ones that have come the closest to doing it for me are probably Lloyd Cole (only ETC is a dud) and Van Morrison (i can't think of a dud but I haven't felt the need to listen to every 90 and 00 album).

And I finally got around to listening to the Eternal last week. I'm not sure its as good as Murray Street but I think its probably better than the last two (both of which I liked).

Well, if we're making a list of bands that have lasted over 20 years without a single dud then the list will look like this:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

And that's just the top five, fill in the rest to your heart's content.

Personally, I think Sonic Youth has it a little easier than some other bands because of their origins completely outside the world of rock. They started as an art noise band, and they still fall back on capital A art when they don't feel up to writing songs. But I've heard (and thrown out) nyc ghosts + flowers and if that's not a dud, then we differ on the very definition of music itself.

The Eternal is the only thing I've listened to by SY this decade and remotely enjoyed. I'm not sure I'll still listen to it in 6 months, but it is at least an enjoyable listen.

Could someone PM me please