For a long time this was probably my favorite SY album, and it's still a toss-up between Sister and Sonic Nurse, depending on my mood.

I feel this record is similar to DDN in the sense they totally reinvented and perfected what they had done before this. While Daydream is more built on riffs, WM feels more on just jamming and creating an atmosphere. You could even say that it's their most open, spacious record.

Really, it's their finest hour recording-wise. The guitars sound absolutely perfect here and I love the way the vocals were mixed in.

One thing I oddly always liked about this record was how it feels like Thurston keeps a low profile due to the longer Kim songs and two Lee appearances (Not to mention Unwind). Makes his songs hit harder, I feel.

Washing Machine is my favorite of theirs by far. One reason why?

Steve's ride cymbal.

From Saucer-Like on, it really defines the album for me. This is where he really perfected it, imo...when, why, and how to use it to best compliment the whole band. It's all over the place, and beautifully sets the mood and tone of many song sections for me. Much more so than on anything before.

Like Panty Lies for example...holy shit it's so simple, but when he rolls over from the high-hat to the ride at around the 2:00 mark, it gives me chills. The "last section" of Washing Machine? Totally different w/o that ride groove. Diamond Sea, nuff said.

I have always seen WM as the perfect transitional album. One that stands alone well by itself while really capturing the old and, in hindsight, where the band was going. It just seems like everyone really seemed in sync musically and creatively with one another on this album.

I also always saw Panty Lies as this really intriguing "feminine" counterpart to Androgynous Mind (which I loved). So I always really like it for that. I can see people not liking it, but I always really dug it too.

Actually, just read this after posting. Exactly what I was trying to say, in a way. I completely agree.

There's a surprisingly sparse amount of complete shows from this tour on youtube, unless someone can (hopefully) prove me wrong. Electric Factory (Philly) 10-18-95:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M_iqU4-Rl8

Inferior audio/video quality to the other. (Shut the fuck up, audience. Don't you swine want to hear pearls?) But often worth it.

what the..
(I was googling some nice pics of WM artwork and came across this)

 

http://adecouvrirabsolument.bandcamp...to-sonic-youth

ALL of steve's drumwork on ANY record is twomp bait yo

Word.

when i first heard Panty Lies, i was almost convinced that the song would NEVER grow on me. but now it's become one of my favorite tracks.

arthur doyle hand cream on the other hand.. yeesh

do you know if the 8 tracks demos of Washing Machine can be heard / exist somewhere ?

This is my favourite Sonic Youth album...

I was reading some of Kim Gordon's book and she mentioned that Little Trouble Girl was inspired by the Shangri-La's...

The Shangri-La Projects record label is based in Memphis and released quite a few albums recorded in the Easley McCain studio where this album was recorded.

The song Washing Machine was originally called "Kim's Song" and, for me, it's a significant statement. The symbol of a washing machine, with it's connection to domesticity and renewing clothes, is extremely strong. It strikes me as a statement from Gordon about her new identity as a mother. I mean the song itself sounds a bit like a washing machine, sloshing around and around.

Alongside all this it's the first album where Gordon mainly played guitar and I believe she was taking the band in a new direction with this record.

Ooops... double post!

Completely. Many bands have those "transitional" albums in their careers, and I have always seen Washing Machine as the absolute best "transitional" album of all time, on so many different levels. Musically, instrumentally, their lives in general, etc... Just so many levels that all add up to a thing of beauty for me. It may sound hippy dippy, but that is always how I have felt. And too be even more cheesy, it came along during my teens at a very transitional period in my life and in my musical development. It was a time in life where I truly felt I had "learned who I was" and was confident in the decisions of liking what I liked for reasons I liked, if that makes any sense. When I was ready to take the next steps of becoming "me" and letting go of social and peer pressures (very Dr. Phil, I know...but it's just how it is).

Washing Machine is simply, hands-down, my favorite album of all time. I am going to go play it now (likely on repeat).

You know... it's one of my favourite albums too. I call it my Afternoon Album.
Like you I listened to it as a teenager... but now I'm a dad... it makes more sense to me.

There are a bunch of albums recorded in Easley McCain at that time I absolutely love:
Starlite Walker by Silver Jews
Under the Bushes, Under the Stars by GBV (well, part of this album was...)
Pacer by The Amps

and now I'm listening to the Grifters, who are great.

But Washing Machine is really spinning around in my head at the moment...

Sorry for the bad pun!

Arthur doyle hand cream was fucking KILLER live though, so i love the track for that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2mRhtDaLGE

I love the live versions of these songs off this album better besides the Diamond Sea. for some reason the production erks me. great album nonetheless.

its SY's "It only Rock and Roll" or "Black and Blue". still very good but not the classics.

^^ you think your clever don't you. you only got 6 hours of sleep you stupid fuck you. up all night posting bullshit on message boards calling people faggots. you should be ashamed of yourself.

Washing Machine is one of their definitive albums. For me it was less of a transitional album and more of a actualization of something they were trying to do for a while at that point. Both Dirty and Jet Set seemed to strive for a certain sound without ever quite reading it. A more modern sound, maybe. A new direction. A poppier sound. But while Dirty was too rock, and EJS was too raw (don't get me wrong, I love both albums), Washing Machine found the balance. And most importantly, it had the full Sonic Youth experience. Instead of "Sonic Youth does alt. rock" it reconnected the band with their swirling, dissonant essence, and the result was "Alt. Rock gets Sonic Youthed."

I think it follows a bit of a pattern. Sort of like how Evol perfected what the band was doing in the early '80s, and made a real definitive statement out of all the sounds and styles they were messing with, Washing Machine did the same with what they were toying with post-Goo. And the result was a seminal album, one that is on a par with their best work.

I've always been more of an ATL guy, but there's no denying Washing Machine. It's hard to swallow, as Sonic Youth should be, but once it sinks in it sounds like it was always perfect.