Final Demand (Read entire post FIRST!)

ractrader · Post by **ractrader** » 04 Sep 2004 16:10

I'm starting to think we're never gonna listen to the last track...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 04 Sep 2004 21:32

75

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pls, do not post messages like this one.
admin

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 04 Sep 2004 21:38

Can anyone suggest an SY album that's a good place for a beginner to start?

Daydream Nation

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/lp6.html

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 06 Sep 2004 22:47

I love the Strokes

OldNessy · Post by **OldNessy** » 07 Sep 2004 01:27

Hello everyone. Personally, I voted for Sonic Youth. I think the reasons have been covered by other people in this thread ie: artistic integrity, longetivity, representing New York, continued ingenuity in the members approach to their art. That's not to say that another band couldn't come along tomorrow & steal the mantle from them. But Sonic Youth are an amazing enigma that just keeps moving. If you were looking for an album to start with (& you're obviously a VU fan), I'd say start at (or near) the beginning with 'Confusion Is Sex', & work yer way forward gradually. Believe me, it's worth it! If you're looking for an easier listen, maybe start with 'Murray St', 'A Thousand Leaves', 'Dirty' or 'Goo'. Then work your way toward the masterpieces 'Daydream Nation', 'Sister', 'Evol' & 'Bad Moon Rising'. Plus there's all the "out there" stuff released on SY Records. They're probably my favourite band of all time, at this point.

Television & Patti Smith both repesented the legacy of VU at one time, but their careers have just been too sporadic to register as large as Sonic Youth (as a touchstone). I recently picked up 'The Blow Up' by Television, & it is an incredible performance. In 1978 they had the songs & the skills to take them some place. But then what? Patti too. I think my second favourite Patti Smith album would have to be 'Peace & Noise', released in the mid-1990's. 'Horses' is still wonderful, of course. She had a startling clear vision at first, but she obviously couldn't count on those around her to help get where she needed to go to survive. & it pisses me off.

The rest of the bands there are ok to WTF? Patti Smith, runner-up.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 07 Sep 2004 18:51

Anonymous wrote:75

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pls, do not post messages like this one.
admin

Just keeping check of the running total to keep moral up.

269 to go.

jeanniecomelately · Post by **jeanniecomelately** » 10 Sep 2004 11:30

I think it's hard to determine just like that who represents the VU's legacy the best. Each of the above bands/musicians represents it in their own special way, some of them perhaps more than others, but imho there is no band who even comes close to what the Velvets have done and it is not flattering to choose the best followers. It is flattering if you say: well this person has really created something new and exciting, this is fun. All of the "competitors" here are pretty independent in that they have established a name for themselves by doing something other musicians had not done/were not doing at the moment when they did it, or just managed to create a lasting, beatutiful body of work and that is what counts.
While I must say that I probably like the Modern Lovers the best from the bands in question, I cannot say that they represent the VU's legacy the best. Nor can I say that about Patti Smith, whom I respect a lot, but what she is doing is not so similar to what the Velvets have done. Her singing style is different, and she is more engaged in poetry (I guess) and politics than anything else. She comes from the theatre, too, so that is also something that sets her performans apart from the Velvets', which were feasts of rock and roll music. Well, maybe except the EPI, but that can't be considered theater either, more like performance art.

Sonic Youth are a band of different times, post-modern times, Generation X, and as far as I can say (and perhaps I don't know their music well enough), the style is totally, totally different, even though Thurston Moore says he is inspired by Lou/the VU, can you hear those influences in their "noise" rock? Ok, Metal Machine Music, maybe.

Cheers,

J.

jimjim · Post by **jimjim** » 11 Sep 2004 12:27

Hi guys....hate to bring a downer on y'all but I just had to ban someone from jimjims over this topic (only the 2nd time I've had to do it).

The guys name is synth_2000 and he's been banned from here for moaning too much about the 350 target. He sent an e-mail to the group saying pretty much the same thing. I thought it was too nasty and would start flame wars so I rejected & explained "Sorry this is too immflamatory for this list. I'll allow the Cale info request if you dump the rest."
This was the reply:

Too inflammatory -- you must be really grovelling to get that track, Have yiu no pride?
No sense of resoponsibility to a VU group - or is it you just want a better collection than the rest if us? Too inflammatory - how very asine of you. This is the famned Velvets list and panty waist politics shouldn't be practiced by those who hold the reigns of power.
Take Ferges name out but the rest should be known by the list's members, unless, of course, it just hampers your personal trading.. Bet you still haven't got that track. Perhaps as Lou would have it you should cut off your balls and send them to this creep who is keeping you dangling.. Your "courage" befits a Partridge family list. You obviously don;t get thr VU except as an adjunct to your consumerism. I want reasonable access to this list's membershup. They should know the quality of stink involved.

You know what someone like John Cale would make of your fecklessness. He'd be laughing so hard at your diminished sense of the inflammatory. Sure chikfren shouldm't play with matches; but this is an era of flamethrowers and worse. Inflammatory -- sure for a misguided eight year old whoo treats rhe list as his "property". SHAME ON YOU!
synth_2000

So I banned the motherf**ker!

Get bent mate. 8)

MikeMikeMike · Post by **MikeMikeMike** » 11 Sep 2004 19:21

Don't mess with those in power...that's what I always say! 8)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 11 Sep 2004 19:53

jeanniecomelately wrote:I think it's hard to determine just like that who represents the VU's legacy the best. Each of the above bands/musicians represents it in their own special way

I don't think Bauhaus, The Dandy Warhols & The Strokes have much to do with VU, although they may have tried to ape one aspect of the Velvets sound. Better choices would have been Wire, Yo La Tengo & The Pixies, in my opinion.

While I must say that I probably like the Modern Lovers the best from the bands in question, I cannot say that they represent the VU's legacy the best. Nor can I say that about Patti Smith, whom I respect a lot, but what she is doing is not so similar to what the Velvets have done. Her singing style is different, and she is more engaged in poetry (I guess) and politics than anything else. She comes from the theatre, too, so that is also something that sets her performans apart from the Velvets', which were feasts of rock and roll music. Well, maybe except the EPI, but that can't be considered theater either, more like performance art.

Since when is Patti Smith "from the theatre"? Or politics? What she does onstage is by instinct. & her music ROCKED when it had to. Lenny Kaye knew how to get to the good stuff.

Lou Reed wanted to be a "real" poet just as bad as Patti ever did (& I think they're both great writers). See the lyrics from one of his later solo albums, 'Magic & Loss':

"You can't be Shakespeare
You can't be Joyce
...You're stuck with yourself"

Sonic Youth are a band of different times, post-modern times, Generation X, and as far as I can say (and perhaps I don't know their music well enough), the style is totally, totally different, even though Thurston Moore says he is inspired by Lou/the VU, can you hear those influences in their "noise" rock? Ok, Metal Machine Music, maybe.

Sonic Youth put out their first EP in 1982 & the original band members are all in their 40's & 50's! It's universally agreed that they made their best albums (so far) in the mid-1980's. How does that make them generation X? Thurston's first band The Coachmen sounded very much like a cross between VU & Television. "Noise rock"? Haven't you heard the Velvets 'White Light, White Heat'? There's more than a few elements of the Sonic Youth sound in 'Sister Ray' alone. & in a shared love of 1960's free jazz.

Sonic Youth have had such a long career & they've been able to connect with so many different movements in music. They were there (in the audience) at the start of New York punk, took in post-punk & no-wave, started a band or two, embraced hardcore, found their peers in Dinosaur Jr., The Swans & Black Flag (etc.) - & at the beginning of the 1990's were in perfect position to help usher indie rock into the mainstream. Now it seems like it's all about refining the sound, & gracefully moving forward like great jazz musicians always have. Patti Smith too. May they all continue to blow.

Cheers,

Old Nessy

The Velvet Forum

Final Demand (Read entire post FIRST!)

Which band best represents the legacy of the VU's music?

:)