Oh, yeah. Right. Not that I knew this stuff about the turnings intuitively (I didn't) but this certainly makes sense.

I think Phsychic Hearts, much as I love it, suffered a bit from the same issues. Sounding a bit like an SY layer cake with a few layers looped off. That album has a lot of sonic similarities to the more Thurston-y songs on Washing Machine, like "Junkie's Promise," but it lacked the added dimensions that came from the other members.

Back then, it was certainly more excusable. Early John Lennon albums sound an awful lot like Lennon's roughest Beatles tracks, severed from the rainbow of color that the band made when they recorded together (mixing metaphors, sorry). But at this point, is really be thrilled to hear solo offerings that were just totally different. Especially from Thurston, who seems to be the least adventurous SY-er in his proper studio albums.

No leak, yet? What happened to the music industry :D

Btw, how do you feel about Smoke of Dream Radio Edit / Album Version?

I guess the production sounds a bit more outstanding for the Radio Edit version, so I'm kind of afraid how the whole album will sound...

Looks like RnRC will have some bonus trakz.

http://hostess.co.jp/releases/2017/04/HSU-10122.html

cheers mil_p. we shall get them two bonus tracks no problem. eventhough it would be nice to have jap. ver. on wax.

Oyyyyy... The last time I ordered something from Japan, from a similar-looking site (Between The Times And The Tides, http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/BGJ-10147), my card was hacked and some motherfuckers in New York (!) paid a hundred taxi rides with it. Not again. I'll wait until the bonus tracks show up on Boomkat or Junodownload or something. They should be on the Kung Fu Store! And Thurston should be on Bandcamp! And I shoulda been rich, but I'm just digging a Chinese ditch!

Looks like WFMU played "Cusp" today, anyone got the chance to hear it?

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/72145

great! cheers.

how come you end up on WFMU by the way? googled it, or listener to WFMU? just interested...

nice setlist by the way: Alan Licht & Steve Shelley , Six Organs Of Admittance , Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, Delia Derbyshire , Samara Lubelski and plenty more.

oh, you can relisten to it mip_l just click on pop-up button next to the song or on the top if you want to relisten to the whole show. I will definitely check out the track once I am home.

Hehe, yeah I googled some stuff around new album today and that's why I came by it, I was listetning to their radio for the half of the day today and it was quite ok!

Regarding "Cusp" - thanks for the heads up, I didn't notice the play option. The quality is very low, I think I might have ruined the listening experience I like about when I hear something for the first time.

well, they have good quality streams..I do not know what is story with that issue.

WFMU is great radio. I would recommend you to go through Brian Turner´s archives where you can relisten some great action by Lee Ranaldo and Dust sets played live in WFMU (twice I think), or Spectre Folk with Steve Shelley playing The Fall songs!

https://wfmu.org/playlists/BT

or some SY sets from Primavera Sound

https://wfmu.org/playlists/SZ

interesting track / unusual. me likes Cusp very much so!

Did you have a good quality sound while listening to Cusp? I barely could hear anything in this track... Don't know what's the reason I tried in two different browsers.

Also thanks for the link, I'll check them out buddy!

not really, you were right. but it was not like I could barely hear it. eventhough talking about sounding of the this particular piece I had a feeling like it ment to sound like that. little bit distorted-ish lo-fi sound. maybe I'm wrong. it'll be definitely much better listening experience listening to it in different format then mp3 alright.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08mnb4f

Thurston Moore Masterclass
Steve Lamacq

Steve's joined by Thurston Moore, whose signature guitar sound has been a strikingly brilliant noise in alternative rock music for 30 years.

It will be Steve's first proper interview with Thurston since his NME days in the early 90s. And, this time, Thurston's bringing his guitar and taking listener questions.

The Masterclass will cover songs from the early days of Sonic Youth, plus material from Thurston's brand new solo album, Rock 'n' Roll Consciousness.

Holy Molly Parker Posey, can anybody capture/record this? Thanks in advance.

lovely!

thx!

After few listens to RNR:

Exalted compared to the live version, which is much more loud, sounds a bit weird here, very silent at the beginning that you can barely here these interesting riffs. Then when it comes to the vocal section and echoing, um well it's messy and not in a good way. It kind of sounds like someone haven't spent enough time for production here.
Cusp is just interesting, something different from Thurston.
Turn On is ok, cool sounds and expansions. Some nice vocals then some bad vocals when the song gets higher tunes.
Smoke of Dreams is dreamy and I like it.
Aphrodite is the best track on RNR. Sounds like sonic youth could do that in the 80's, and the vocal sections are interesting, cool and different.

is not this out on 28th. of April?

It is, but it leaked something like two days ago!

oh, alright I see.

Turn on, Cusp and Aphrodite are pretty good. Better than I expected. One recurrent issue with late SY and the solo lps of both LR and TM so far has been, for me at least, that songs in terms of chord progression move too fast into resolution, or whatever's the term for this, ie the tensions are resolved way too early, as a given. This is one major distinction with the classical SY material, where the musical tension was much more prominent and held on in a fruitful way, most of the time. They got older and mellowed out I guess.

I get what you're saying. The chord progressions and tempos in general, if not the chords themselves, grew much more "normal" over time. Look at "Incinerate." The Sonic Youth of 1986, and even 1998/2000 would never have recorded a song like that. I don't dislike it, and it's catchy, but it sounds more "indie rock-y" than Sonic Youth-y.

The tensions on Bad Moon Rising and i]Evol[/i] and Sister sometimes NEVER really resolved. Or they did, only to fall apart or explode into every direction ("Tuff Gnarl"). I think some of this spirit was still with them on Murray Street and Nurse, but the last two albums sounded a bit like the SY equivalent of "Touch of Grey."

Still good stuff. Just not revolutionary.

hm yeah. The tensions resolve somewhere ELSE, not in the actual music that is heard, but in the unheard inner core of the music, so to speak. This is what made sy so great for me. I guess it boils down to expectations vs where's the artist at.

An example of a song that would have been bloody great if it stayed without obvious resolutions would be Ambulancer. Just leave it at the 2 chord verse thingy, leave it rough, don't round it up and make it all beautiful, there's your song. Anyway like you say it's still good music.

Someone somewhere must have written a musicology phd paper on this.

Cusp is my fav. its pretty simple but its different sounding and the chord progression is only simple sounding on the surface, Steve's drumming is what "makes" this song to me.

I agree about the mix on Exalted, the mix sounds weird unless the version I'm hearing is wrong? One of the guitars sounds like it's mixed too differently or the eq is not quite right but maybe its intentional, the guitar solo is mixed "hot"... actually all of James solos on the album are mixed really "hot", seems to be intentional? The delayed vocals on this song are strange, delay time seems too long and seems outta place with the tempo which really throws me off when the vocals come in but seems to sound better and more interesting as the vocals continue. The overall mix on this song just sounds much different than the others except for Aphrodite which also has a guitar track that's mixed low in the mix during the noise section.

The odd yet interesting thing is the abundance of James Sedwards "tasteful sounding guitar leads" that are all over this album, at first I was like this doesn't sound like a Thurston trademark thing and something that's more akin to classic rock and on songs that don't sound anything like classic rock, but its done fairly well and seems to be done purposefully so.

https://thurstonmooreofficial.bandcamp.com/releases

i never liked music which wanted my whole sympathy, sonic youth touched me because it deserved my antipathy too, and kept an interesting balance/tension between both - and this the case here again - just very, very interesting, thank you Thurston!

seems like lot of you heard the album already. I am hanging till 28th., or Sat. to be correct when I will go to record store to get the album. I hope they will have it by then. I heard Cusps and I really liked it. bit different track.

I saw Thurston last night and he gave me a free promo copy of the album! I'd heard most of it already but was nice listening through completely. I like it a lot.

You lucky bastard, you!

I couldn't resist, but I wish I could - have fun listening to it the best way that is possible.

that is cool Stu! in what format is that promo?

he must know you personally by now, does not he?

I know what you mean. well, I was little bit busy as well, so it went hand in hand not to download it :) . uhmm, I still need to get Nick Soulby´s book.

so it is officialy out from today right?

I just ordered Rock 'N' Roll Consciousness LP but couldn't wait to get it, so now I'm listening to it for the first time via Spotify. Album seems quite monotonic (in a bad way) so far (third song Turn On is now reached to half of its length). I'm pretty sure though that this album grows a lot with every round.

First round through and I immediately put it on again. After the first listen my favorite song is Aphrodite. Exalted sounds now much better than on first listen as I presumed.

I think I'm gonna like this album.

I've warmed up more on some of the odd sounding mix on some tracks...

ceasefire should've been on the album imo.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/753ggom5nt...04-26.mp3?dl=0

There's also 2 videos here:

Thurston Moore - Sunday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051d8ns

Thurston Moore 100%
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0518yrx

thank you Stu!!

Yes, thanks for coming to the rescue! :)

Now, dude, all that talk about "Sunday" and he cannot ONCE mention that the riff came from Helium? Has any SY member? EVER? Sorry, but at this point, if I were Mary T$ I'd just sue them...

on the first listen i wasn't so sure but second time through I like it.

the main part of smoke of dreams is so good, probably my favorite part of the record, but the other parts of that song kind of ruin it for me.

the drums on cusp definitely do make the song something different. the chord progression on that one somehow makes me think of my bloody valentine.

i'd like to see them live i think.