Sufjan Stevens speaks about SY
 

http://pitchforkmedia.com/interviews...ens_sufjan-06/



Pitchfork: Do you remember the bands and venues you saw at that time?
Sufjan: I went to the Metro a lot. I can't remember the theater, but I saw Sonic Youth in this big theater with the Ex. That was incredible. I have to write an essay about it.
Pitchfork: Who are you writing it for?
Sufjan: It's for a book of essays this guy is putting together, about different shows people have gone to that changed their lives.
Pitchfork: It sounds like the Ex were really formative for you. Were you listening to more folk stuff before you were exposed to them?
Sufjan: Yeah, I was listening to a lot of songwriting early on. I grew up on popular radio-- there wasn't a lot of diversity. And then in college somebody loaned me Sonic Youth's Sister, and that's when I started listening to rock and roll. I was going to this show to see Sonic Youth, but the Ex were opening and they blew me away. I wasn't really interested in Sonic Youth after that. I remember it being really dirty and energetic, and so unassuming. There was nothing going on, there was no pretension about it. It was all about instinct. You could tell they were untrained musicians.
They started this band in the late 1970s during the punk movement, and they were a serious anarchist band that was basically playing for squatter's rights. They were very unskilled, but over the years they developed a unique sound, unlike any punk music at the time. The rhythms were very interesting. The drummer, she's just incredible, and they would incorporate Hungarian folk music and scenes like that in their work. It was a hybrid of all these styles and traditions. It was really dirty, but it was also very musical and political and angry, but it had softness to it because the drummer was this very sweet and thin woman who basically kept the band together and was in charge.
Pitchfork: You said earlier you're a technical listener. Was that the first time you empathized with the instinct instead of the playing?
Sufjan: I think I was just in awe of the guitar sounds, and how they played together.
Pitchfork: Can you tell us anymore about this book? Who's in it, when it's coming out? Sufjan: I don't know...I missed my deadline, so I'm a little embarrassed about it.

Illinois is so fucking ghey.

he's allright.

Sufjan is great. I have and really love all of his albums.

i like him and all, but if he's looking if he's listening to music for technique, he should go rock out to rush.

Sufjan Stevens is incredible.

i like sufjan stevens a lot in spite of himself

me too (thanks to hayden)

my dad plays his records all the time, i like the seven swans one best.

i do too

His records bore me. It is like listening to this generations Billy Joel.

Billy Joel? I see no connection or similarities at all.
For those of you who aren't into the more singer/songwriter aspect, check out his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. Its a really cool experimental electronic album.

I can't work out if he's complementing SY or not.

I can't either. He really likes The EX better I can tell.

Yeah, from what I can tell from In the Fishtank, the Ex kind of suck.

Sufjan Stevens is nothing like Billy Joel, either. Very poor comparison. This person obviously is just not listening.

Stupidest comparison on the new board. I would rep you but I'm lazy and don't care.

Am I still on Hayden's ignore list, or did he just respond to me with some adolescent wisecrack? I don't know, because he's on my ignore list.

Blah. No need to say anything about it, twat.

Wow, this is great. It's like a mute button.

Hi, Hayden. What's that you're saying? lol

Hi Hayden I love you Hayden

These ignore buttons are causing so much tension. Ahh. Paging love to this thread.

They both fucking suck. That's all that matters.

my friend is well into sufjan, and i went to see him. i quite like his lyrics, but apart from that he's pretty sucky./
also, all his fans were really lame, they just stood and stared like they were having some sort of weird religious experience. and half of them were knitting. *yawn*

YAWN is right, hence my comparison to early Billy Joel.

YAWN.

sufjan can jam his singer songwriter claptrap up his wazooo.

what an authority. thank you mr good taste police.

Sufjan loves the Lord. Real men knit and love the Lord.

you'd probably want to hear a bit more of the ex than that before you write them off. they're a pretty amazing & prolific band. i really liked the fishtank thing, though.

yeah, the fishtank CD is not very representative of the Ex...

The EX are great!