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Pitchfork's Top 200 songs of the 1980s

seems like a lotta useless knowledge out there on a band no one's ever heard of.
 

Here's p4k's commentary of "teen age riot," ranked 15th:

However cheekily, "Teen Age Riot" attempted to capture the zeitgeist like this: "At the time, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr represented our slacker genius," Thurston Moore once said of their guitar anti-hero—a long-haired guy who later turned down an opportunity to join Nirvana—"so in tribute we wrote a song called ‘Rock N Roll for President’ about him being president, which we eventually renamed ‘Teen Age Riot’."

Sonic Youth recorded 1988’s Daydream Nation, their major label debut and unequivocal masterpiece, that summer at a SoHo studio owned by minimalist pioneer Philip Glass; Public Enemy were there, too, working on the other board. For an album that winkingly took the form of a double LP with an embedded trilogy and fine art on the cover (that candle painting sold for over $16 million in 2011), its opening track, "Teen Age Riot", was deceptively simple. But it’s the kind of rock'n'roll song that makes you feel like you could change your entire life—your spirit, desire—if you listened, read, and watched hard enough, perceptive of Sonic Youth’s clues. It sounds like two songs—Kim Gordon’s free-associating dream logic pries it open, followed by some of the most conventionally-structured lyrics that Moore ever wrote—but inside was a sea of possibility. The song had the cool Warholian distance, the unconventional tunings, the dryly evocative turns-of-phrase that made Sonic Youth’s sound, but it had a rare looseness. You can still imagine yourself existing within this one’s world. Steve Shelley’s aerodynamic beat gave it a spacious sprawl, and those wistfully twinging chord changes at the end of each verse beckoned an affecting, reeling invitation: you’re really it.

To be clear, no one in Sonic Youth was a teenager when "Teen Age Riot" came out; everyone was in their thirties aside from 26-year-old drummer Steve Shelley. But what Sonic Youth rendered a "teen age riot"—the susceptibility to be galvanized, the openness of spirit, a willingness to care about music that much—was and is a wake-up call you can live at any age, at any time. This is crucial to remember as the narrative around Sonic Youth mutates. It was "Teen Age Riot" that gave Sonic Youth the mass appeal to wield real influence and power in popular and unpopular culture, and whether a guitar band will ever do that again remains to be seen. Now something Gordon said of this era in Our Band Could Be Your Life feels especially pertinent: "We were influential in showing people that you can make any kind of music you want." —Jenn Pelly

Like Teen Age Riot fine and love J Mascis, but it's painful to read a lot of music commentary.
 
TenaciousKory said:
Did she spurn your advances sometime?

Yeah, she's gotten older. She's 62 years old. Voices change. I don't think atonal vocals reflect poorly on a rock group that has experimented with those sounds for 30 years. Seems like a silly thing to point out.

The fact is that she's as much a part of the group as Thurston, Lee and Shelly. She's been with the group for three decades and pulls vocal duty on what seems like at least half (I haven't counted, but feel free) their songs. She has her role as a performer in their most popular songs, and her voice has noticeably aged, but that's not an argument against what she's contributed to the band in total. They're all equally brilliant musicians. There isn't a weak link.

I agree that some of her best material is on Dirty. In the seven shows they played on their final 2011 tour, Dirty was the fourth most played from album. Take all the setlist data of every song they've performed live and Dirty only drops to fifth place. It's not a marginalized album. It's clearly one of their best and the work she put into it shines through live and on record.

I'm also not sure what "relegated to bass" means. You have an interesting perspective on rock musicianship.
Click to expand...

Because bass is where you put people who can't play guitar very well. We aren't talking about some R&B band where the bass player is the best musician in the band or Flea hopping around while playing a million notes. We're talking about Kim playing 8th notes with her pick. Her bass lines aren't memorable or complex. They are basic root notes 99.9% of the time. I have a great appreciation for a solid rhythm section and understand its importance in a band. It holds everything together. And while she is obviously adequate at keeping time, I don't listen to SY and think that she and Steve have some kind of great chemistry. The interplay I hear in that band comes from Thurston and Lee primarily, and then Steve reacts to their playing or comes up with fills where Kim isn't. Steve is also a badass drummer. I don't know. Maybe that's the problem with Kim. There are three really badass, creative dudes in the band, and there she is singing about feminism and sexual harassment, all while playing the token role of the attractive blonde in a mini skirt onstage (at least back in the day when she looked good) playing the instrument that requires the least talent.

There is a difference between the atonal sounds those guys dial in with their tunings and Kim singing absurdly out of tune. She is the only one that does that. Thurston and Lee are not exceptional singers, but they sing in key. Even when Lee is doing his spoken word stuff in Eric's Trip or Skip Tracer it doesn't sound like he is clashing against the underlying music. Kim does, and she does a bit too often for my tastes.
 
now here's something that doesn't suck. Notice how you can't help but dance when you hear it? That means it doesn't suck. I don't even know what the hell the dude is saying

 
No Tainted Love, or I Ran (so far away) or Melt With You!??

Seriously, how do you justify a list that excludes those 3 classic songs?

I'm really disappointed by their 80s list. It's very flawed.

A publication that selects Low as its best album
of the 1970s but then omits Ashes to Ashes in lieu of Let's Dance?
 
John Ruskin said:
No Tainted Love, or I Ran (so far away) or Melt With You!??

Seriously, how do you justify a list that excludes those 3 classic songs?

I'm really disappointed by their 80s list. It's very flawed.

A publication that selects Low as its best album
of the 1970s but then omits Ashes to Ashes in lieu of Let's Dance?
Click to expand...

We do the trifecta of I Ran, Just Like Heaven, and Melt With You in our setlists. Gets people to boogie every time.

Tainted Love was a remake so I can see why they omitted it. Besides, Sex Dwarf is much more enjoyable.
 
No Sledgehammer? No Reflex? No Frankie Goes to Hollywood? No Tears for Fears? In the Air Tonight?

This list sucks!
 
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