Premier Rock Forum

Mandroid2.0 wrote:

John C3 wrote:If Ian Mackaye did a Starbucks advert would you still think he was cool? He's paid his dues, right?

Actually, my art school friend saw Ian in a D.C. Starbucks, and it broke his sweet, idealistic little straightedge heart.

This is fucking pathetic.

(Your friend needs to get a life.)

sleepkid wrote:

gcbv wrote:

steve wrote:

losthighway wrote:1. Sonic Youth's last three albums are better then any album you have ever made.

Care to wager on that? Let's put together a panel of listeners and I'll take my chances. How's $1000 even money sound?

Seriously, I'm not a betting man, and I would take this wager and risk my life savings on this bet, it's so ridiculously obvious.

So you're taking Steve up on the wager? I volunteer to sit on the panel then. I can guarantee my impartiality as I have not heard the last three Sonic Youth albums, and I also do not own a Travis Bean. So I would be able to objectively judge whether any of the last three Sonic Youth albums are better than any album Steve has ever made.

My guess is that you would lose this wager, but I promise to approach it with a totally open mind. Now we just need two or four more impartial panel members, and we're in business.

I like SY a lot, listen to the records all the time and even I can hear that the last three SY records have been pretty boring, all by the numbers late era SY no suprises moderate rock.
This dude's off his rocker, for real.
I want in on this bet, I got some bills I need to pay.

I think he meant he'd side with Steve, obviously.

I can almost guarantee you that Thurston is pulling Pitchfork's leg.

Let's think about this for a second. Starbucks is planning on selling a Sonic Youth compilation right next to albums by Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones? Yeah RIGHT. All of the Starbucks CD's are by lite-rock superstars on the order of Sting and Elton John and Billy Joel. Some of their other ones are comps of African dance groups and old jazz musicians like Sidney Bechet.

Do you think Starbucks would actually play SY's music while their baristas make the coffee? Yeah RIGHT. There is no way that this would happen. I am almost 100% sure that this is complete bullshit and Thurston is having a laugh by making shit up the way Pavement and the Butthole Surfers used to make shit up in their interviews.

Just look at how many times he laughs when he's making this shit up:

Thurston Moore: Yeah. We sort of devised this idea of a Sonic Youth record where we asked all these different people to choose their favorite song, people like artists and actors and other musicians and what have you. So all these people, from Jeff Tweedy to Beck to Marc Jacobs to Portia de Rossi to Michelle Williams [laughs], they all chose their favorite songs and wrote a little thing about it. So it's a compilation record of artists choosing songs of Sonic Youth. There's going to be one exclusive song of ours that we'll record, so that's something we have to record.

Pitchfork: So it's going to be one of those things up at the counter along with the biscotti and the disc of Elton John's favorite Christmas songs?

Thurston Moore: [laughs] Yeah, something like that. I wish Starbucks would ask me to compile a mixtape record.

Pitchfork: That would be ... interesting.

Thurston Moore: I love doing that stuff. But you know, it's so funny, because Starbucks is the new record store, right? [laughs]

Michelle Williams? The Dawson's Creek girl? Yeah RIGHT. Thurston is having fun with us.

This is actually an interesting topic and I had a thought on this the other day.

My sister who lives in Manhattan was talking about how much it has changed. recently I went up there for the closing of Tonic, which I guess is seen as a symptom of this change.

so, anyways, my sister was wondering where all the people who are being priced out of NYC are going to go. this group obviously means middle class etc., who largely have a history of being the culture producers throughout history. In the past, they were the ones employed as artisans, craftsman etc, from which our leisure culture grew. music is a good example, where it has been transformed by specialization, to the point where a mother no longer sings to her baby but plays a purchased cd of lullabyes.

this specialization or creation of the myth of virtuosity is all about commodification. this is our culture today. the new iphone, like it or not, is a cultural object that was created by a capitalist company, just like a led zeppelin record or even the multi disc john coltrane live at the vanguard.

there's no way around it, unless you decide to become cardew, which after years of thinking was the way, I've come to conclusion that it's akin to taking your ball and going home.

Skronk wrote:I think he meant he'd side with Steve, obviously.

and I think I was agreeing

Yeah... now that I read it again, it's pretty obvious.

Artists? Actors?!? WTF is Portia de Rossi going to do on a record, a monologue?

Total bullshit.

Wouldn't Starbucks also have to pay a shit-ton to license these songs from Geffen too?

Why would they do that?

Isabelle Gall wrote:as if it is culturally deconstructive in some sense to hang out with Sophia Coppola at Marc Jacobs and then Wolf Eyes at the No Noise Fest?

I think you mean the No Fun Fest?

I think there was, in fact, some noise at this particular festival. And I don't think Wolf Eyes was invited. You seem to know a lot more about it than I do, though.

Another part of the joke is that Thurston said there would be one original cut on the album.

Lots of people do compilation albums and then throw in a couple of original cuts so that their devoted fan base will still buy it even though most of them already own all of the songs.

Sonic Youth wouldn't make such a crass move. Thurston is the guy who puts out albums by Sunburned Hand of the Man on his tiny little label, Ecstatic Peace, for chrissakes.

Pure bullshit.