How about "Schizophrenia" - the melody is defined by major 6ths. This type of melodic writing is everywhere in their music. The guitar riff does the same kind of thing. It gives it this sort of wistful, open-ended sound. stormy weather", note the emphasis on the 6), then repeats that phrase and resolves back up to the 1, but with the underlying chord changing to the ii, making the melody resolve to the 7th of the chord. Let's look at "Teenage Riot" first since it's one of your examples, listen to the vocal melody: it sits on the 2nd scale degree ("everybody's talkin bout the.") before diving down 3, 1, 6, 5 (". I think it's tricky to pinpoint what it really is that gives it that quality, and it's probably not something they were really consciously infusing into their music so much as it's just a reflection of how they felt coming up in the time and place and scene that they did, but here are some thoughts:ġ) Emphasis on "open intervals" - major 9ths (2nds), 4ths, major 6ths, 7ths. This is possibly the best question you could ask about Sonic Youth. I think that’s because in all their years of breaking the rules, they learned what the rules are, and learned how to bend them and maybe even play by them a little Try exercising “What’s the last fucking thing Eric Clapton would do?” when you’re writing.Ī friend of mine described them as “car crash music” and that fits but these two in particular speak more to people. To be able to do this you have to be mindful of the cliches and expectations of the genre. A clear example is the bridge of Total Trash where you’d expect a solo and the song dies right in front of you. interested with subverting or even completely rejecting the tropes of rock at large. They were trying to write music for the future by taking a really post modern view on rock music. More conceptually, Sonic Youth were a very forward thinking band. Also check out Glenn Branca’s“Lesson Number One for Electric Guitar” He was a mentor of sorts to Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo. One story I remember hearing about them is how they’d buy cheap japanese guitars from pawnshops and detune them by ear until it felt “right” and then jam with them. This Fansite has all the tabs written like the band played them. They used tunings that helped them play several of the same notes at the same time. The strum in the beginning is a really stadium rock opening flourish, something the Who would do. Songwriting wise, both of these songs are unapologetically in major keys. It was also one of the first albums they recorded in their own studio, being able to work at a more relaxed pace, and as another user pointed out playing around with the weird gear they collected over then years. According to them that was their attempt at making a “pop album.” Weird as the songs are they’re way less spooky/edgy than the rest of their discography. Most of the songs off of it are interesting but the production floored me. I hear the nostalgic sound you’re talking about more with Incinerate, and the whole Rather Ripped album. Huge Sonic Youth fan here’s my two cents:
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