Review:
'Sonic Youth'
'Smart Bar – Chicago 1985'
- Album: 'Smart Bar – Chicago 1985'
- Label: 'Goofin’ Records'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '12th November 2012'- Catalogue No: 'GOO-016'
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Our Rating:
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Featuring a set from the ‘Bad Moon Rising’ tour, the bulk of the tracks performed are from said album, although early versions of ‘Secret Girl’ and ‘Expressway to Yr Skull’, which would subsequently appear on ‘EVOL’ also get an airing.
Emerging from the fuzzy dissonance at the start of the disc is ‘Hallowe’en’. ‘Death Valley 69’ comes on early in the set and hits at full-throttle as the band attack hell for leather with searingly abrasive results.
‘Ghost Bitch’ is a particularly fearsome atonal shouty racket, Kim Gordon’s hollering battling in a swirling vortex of feedback and primal drumming, while ‘Kill Yr Idols’ is a squalling mess of ear-bleeding sonic mayhem.
The sound quality is rough, making ‘Smart Bar’ an album you’re unlikely to play on your headphones as you walk round town or on the daily commute on the bus or train. But to complain about the fact it sounds like a ropey bootleg would be to overlook the fact this is a historical document, and one of no small significance. It captures one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years at a key point of the early stages of their career, at their most dynamic, challenging and visceral. And for that reason, this album is essential, and not only for the completist.
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Sonic Youth Online
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author: Christopher Nosnibor
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READERS COMMENTS
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Sonic Youth maan...defo one of the most influential, youre dead right there - but just one of a multitude of brilliant, brilliant groups that were plying their trade at the time.
Standards were so, so much higher 25-30 years ago. Either that, or the industry valued every quality act it came across; almost certainly because we werent completely flooded with 95% shit like we are now, which leaves all the finest artists today in serious danger of being overlooked or discarded.
Obviously theres the commercially-orien...shortened comments
------------- Author: Mabs
05 December 2012
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