Velvet Underground or Sonic Youth?

[St. Jarvitude]

Which influential yet sadly forgotten band should I explore next?

I've already explored Radiohead (duh), The Shins, The Flaming Lips, and Wilco well enough for me. I'm looking for another band to look into, and both sound very appealing.

Maybe I'm just really lazy - I've got Rhapsody on the computer downstairs, so I could theoretically listen to them all I want... but I'm interested in hearing what DU has to say first.

(and some "Buy this album if you want to experience XXXXX" assistance, please)

[pilgrimm]

1. Velvet man

venus in furs is a nice song to make love to your old lady by

[St. Jarvitude]

3. I'm a little young to have an old lady

Especially an old lady.

About two years short, except in Kentucky I think. But there I can't bathe on Sundays. Pigs.

[pilgrimm]

well when the day comes, say when your 25 like myself

and your lady is old don't forget Venus in furs

[St. Jarvitude]

9. actually don't have a lady at present

Here's hoping I get one at least before I turn 25. LOL

:toast:

[rudeboy666]

12. Dinosaur Jr. 'You're Living All Over Me'

another SST 80's gem

[St. Jarvitude]

15. My chem teacher last year loved Dinosaur, Jr.

I asked him what he liked in music... and he said that (he wore Dinosaur, Jr. shirts to school sometimes) and Poster Children were his two that he always reccomended.

I never got around to listening to any of their stuff.

[rudeboy666]

21. Black Flag/SST

Damaged......great first album. BUT First Four Years is better.

Dinosaur Jr......before Lou Barlow left to form Sebadoh.

[Gothic Sponge]

2. If you go with Sonic Youth, you must get Daydream Nation.

[St. Jarvitude]

4. Very well.

I trust anyone with your avatar.

[Khephra]

5. Sonic Youth

Goo & EVOL (Probably their darkest two cds)

Daydream Nation (deals with technology, P.K. Dick and cyberpunk alienation)

Dirty -- their most pop

Washing Machine -- the point where they start making longer songs than normal for even them.

A Thousand Leaves -- most melancholy...there's a sense of looking back at it all with several songs involving the 60's and acid. Best of the most recent works.

[St. Jarvitude]

7. Cool beans.

I think I'll check out Daydream Nation, and if I dig it, I'll get Dirty. For now.

[rudeboy666]

11. Granted

but you must ultimately explore the source(or one of them).

VU/Nico is pretty damn good.............

[LoZoccolo]

6. VU

Think about this - someone once said that the Velvet Underground didn't sell many records, but everyone who bought one started a band.

[St. Jarvitude]

8. I made some comment about Velvet Underground at school the other day

I think it was something to the effect of "I've heard VU is the greatest band nobody's ever heard of."

This punk-ass beyyyotch goes "Don't you mean Velvet Revolver, idiot?"

I wanted to smack him in the face.

[LoZoccolo]

16. Here is your album list.

I'd actually suggest them in order.

The Velvet Underground And Nico - This is like, kind of commercial-sounding in parts, but you still get this sense that it's some bold introduction to the band. Like they're showing you they can go all over.

White Light/White Heat - This might be my favorite. You mention Sonic Youth as another interesting band - this is probably where Sonic Youth learned it from. It's really noisy and badly recorded which makes it even cooler. Plus there's a 17+ minute song on it that's immersive but not boring. Also, the imagery in the lyrics is often crude and disturbing.

The Velvet Underground - This is real mellow. The rumor behind it is they got a bunch of their equipment stolen while they were on tour and came up with this sound in the absence of the stuff that made White Light/White Heat what it was. The lyrics on this one have a more mature flavor. There's this really tripped out song with simultaneous spoken-word parts called "The Murder Mystery".

Loaded - This is more normal and classic-rock sounding but it's still the Velvets so it's hipper than average classic rock.

There's two albums of unreleased stuff, VU and Another View. I actually don't have Another View so I can't tell you much about it, but VU is similiar to The Velvet Underground.

[rudeboy666]

26. The Velvet Underground - This is real mellow.

....this is probably one of the best VU out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WLWH might be a bit 'overrated'.

Of course, some might disagree. :)

[bloodyjack]

22. are you in high school?

it sounds like you're in high school.

for the love of God, start picking fights with kids who have bad taste. you'll be glad you did later on.

edit: thank you for posting this thread. inspired me to dig through all my old SY cds/tapes

so, in answer to your question: VU/Nico is a great introduction to the band along with 'Loaded'

The first Sonic Youth record I bought was 'Goo' and it's still one of my favorites. it comes close to holding a candle to 'daydream nation' (ha). avoid 'dirty'. after you've heard all the aforementioned albums, check out 'a thousand leaves'.

oh yes, and there's always comedy 'ny city ghosts & flowers' option

[Tom Kitten]

10. I'd say the Velvets

Back to the roots! When I was in college you just could not find a Velvets album anywhere, they were long out of print.

Sonic Youth is good too but I was only into them a little while (Halloween to about Goo) so I wouldn't know what I was talking about since that's a fraction of their output.

There are other bands with quite a litany, too, like Can, the Fall, and Stereolab...Between those three you'd have about 1500 albums to discover! :)

But yeah, go for the Velvet Underground...however I don't know your tastes so I cannot guarantee you''ll like them...

[St. Jarvitude]

14. I tend to like anything between cheery pop and "classic rock"

Real punk (The Clash, NOFX, The Pixies) is awesome in my book but there is no place in my music library for fake, corporate punk (Good Charlotte, Newfound Glory) :puke: R&B I can stand, and there is some really good folk music out there too.

I've heard VU is some sort of kickass combo of late Beatles and early punk, in which case I should love them to death.

[rudeboy666]

17. burn

"I've heard VU is some sort of kickass combo of late Beatles and early punk, "

You've heard wrong.

And you at least deserve Purgatory for mentioning the Clash with NOFX!

[St. Jarvitude]

19. NOFX might not be great music

But they are real punk. And I can respect them for that.

The Clash meanwhile... were both great music and great punks. I can love them for that.

I've heard many things about VU... one of them is that they cannot be described or compared to any other band. The beatles/punk comparison is only one out of a million I've seen.

[rudeboy666]

23. agree

......what's not to love about Fat Mike!

[Tom Kitten]

24. They're dark, though....

The ones I would recommend are the 1st one with Nico (the Banana one), the 3rd, just called "Velvet Underground") and "Loaded", which is a quantum leap from their earlier work, much more "accessible" than the others. "White Light White Heat" has some great songs on it but it is raw, I know very few people who have listened through all 17 minutes of "Sister Ray"...But it has "The Gift" on it, which is basically a twisted spoken word short story by John Cale about love set to a kickass jam...

The two Velvet Underground Live 69 cds are also good, although I hate it that Mercury split the original double lp into two separate cds, but then again, they're a greedy major label which sucked at finding and keeping talent...

[LoZoccolo]

25. Ha see "Sister Ray" is like my favorite.

Me and a friend in high school loved to put it on at a party or driving or something, and we'd know like the whole thing!

[Tom Kitten]

33. well MY favorite was...

"I Heard Her Call My Name"...Especially the guitar solo after he Lou Reed says..."And then my mind split open"...such a roaring cacaphony of earsplitting atonal feedback so intense that if you were on any sort of self medication you'd be clawing your face off in no time! When I was a college dj I would occasionally play it and then the phone would light up..."WHAT is that AWFUL thing you're playing! I usually like your music but I COULD NOT STAND hearing that awful racket! I had to CHANGE the STATION!" was typical of the replies I got...But hey, it was just some Lou Reed ...just trying to blow some carbon out of people's ears...

Sister Ray is ok, but if some people couldn't take 3 minutes of such stuff, then chances are 17 minutes of similar sounds might push some past the breaking point!:evilgrin:

[LoZoccolo]

18. That cat picture in your avatar...

...is that one of the ones painted by that cat guy that went insane and started drawing real abstract pictures of cats? I read somewhere that at the onset of his schizophrenia, he started drawing really paranoid-looking cats with huge eyes like that.

[Tom Kitten]

30. ummmm.......no.....

I actually took it from an illustration from the Beatrix Potter story "The Tales of Tom Kitten" and kinda made the features more pronouncable for it being such a small image. See, he's wearing a shirt!



I do know who you are talking about, though, I remember those pictures too, they were in one of those old Time-Life books that were advertised in magazines like TV Guide years ago...

and actually I think (I hope) my mental health is ok...someone else said my avatar was creepy the other day...Hell, I thought it was kinda cute!

[LoZoccolo]

27. Louis Wain, that's who I'm thinking about.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/voiceandsalt/48220.html

The picture of the two cats with the dolls actually creeps me out more than the abstracted and embellished ones.

[alittlelark]

13. Sonic Adventure 2 for me !!

[katusha]

20. sonic youth is the artistic child of VU

both great NYC bands. so if you want to know the child first learn about the parent.


on a non-sequiter note also check out komeda for some swede-pop fun.

[LoZoccolo]

28. B L O double S O M

Do the right thing!

Yeah, I like the new Komeda album!

[katusha]

36. quirky but cool

i think i have developped a soft spot over the years for swedish pop.

[Liberal Mommy]

29. My list

Big Black
Son Volt
Vaselines
The Cramps
Joy Division
The Misfits
Slint
Pavement
Blake Babies
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Kate Bush
Dead Can Dance
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Ramones
The Cure
King Kong
Boss Hog
Reverend Horton Heat
Violent Femmes
Archers of Loaf
Mule

I can get you album names of any of these bands if you are interested. Can you tell I'm an old timer? haha (32)

I've seen Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Sebadoh,The Pixies (BTW Frank Black is a total jerk in person), Archers of Loaf, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion & Flaming Lips live. In fact I was pregnant the last time I saw J. Mascis play at Stubb's BBQ in 2002. :)

[St. Jarvitude]

31. You saw the flaming lips live??

Oh, how I envy you...

Were they as awesome as I've heard? I saw them live on Conan O'Brien's show, and if that's what they can do for one song on a TV talk show... :wow:

[Liberal Mommy]

32. In 2002

They had people dressed up like bunnies in the crowd. Lots of confetti & a totally kick ass show. They played a movie in the background... Ahhh I loved it!! But I had been waiting over 10 years to see them live so it really rocked that I finally got to.

[Tom Kitten]

34. I saw them three times...

They put on a good show! Great atmospherics....dense fog machines, strawberry incense, mirror balls on stage, strobe lights....very psychedelic, man!
The third time I even got to do the poster for their show!

[bloodyjack]

35. The Misfits?

do you mean, like, Danzig-Misfits?

That is AWESOME