Washing Machine

Product Information

Washing Machine is the follow-up to Sonic Youth's 1994 DGC album Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. [1] After Experimental Jet Set, the band decided to take a hiatus from performing live and concentrated on numerous side projects. Band member Kim Gordon played with Julia Cafritz of Pussy Galore in Free Kitten, drummer Steve Shelley performed with Jad Fair in Mosquito, guitarist Lee Ranaldo played with free jazz drummer William Hooker and singer and guitarist Thurston Moore released his first solo album, Psychic Hearts. [1] Moore and Gordon also had their first child, Coco. According to Moore, their daughter had provided a different perspective for the band: "I'm more focused and level-headed. There's a sublime awareness factor of your spiritual place in the world. I feel more at ease with myself... Babies are little Buddhas. They're completely great". [1]

a b Christgau, Robert (October 24, 1995). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. a b "Sonic Youth". Ultratop.be. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014. a b "Washing Machine". Dutchcharts.nl. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014.For more information on songs (including lyrics, who played what, when the songs were first and last performed, and other trivia), please visit the Song Database. a b Schnipper, Matthew (May 9, 2019). "Sonic Youth: Washing Machine". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019 . Retrieved May 9, 2019. a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Washing Machine – Sonic Youth". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. Recorded between Jim O’Rourke’s departure and Mark Ibold’s arrival, Rather Ripped is perhaps the only one of Sonic Youth’s late-period albums with Kim Gordon primarily on bass guitar. And it has held up well as the most popular and immediate album of the band’s last decade, with propulsive yet melodic songs like “Incinerate” and relatively few extended instrumental passages. “Dig the way SY’s oddly tuned guitars chirp and chime where they used to gnash and grind,” wrote Tom Sinclair in an Entertainment Weekly review that compared the album’s sound to The Byrds. This brings us to the obvious question: why would a band at, or near the apex of its powers and prowess, want to become a different entity – and one with no history or expectation? It is a sad fact of life that even a history of achievement and innovation can result in tremendous amounts of pressure, and that even circumstances that are objectively good do not always guard against a profound ennui. Sonic Youth had a desire to escape those burdens even as they were fully coming into their own. Whether the desire was half-joking or half-serious, they saw a need to change things up. Washing Machine gave them the chance to evolve from a band viewed as mostly ‘punk’ to one that was considered mostly ‘indie’ in sound if not in label affiliation.

Second CD is exclusive material from France Inter recorded at Elysee Montmartre in Paris, France on September 12, 1995. Washing Machine is the continuation of Sonic Youth’s 1994 Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. After the Experimental Jet Set, the band decided to make a hiatus from performing live and focusing on several side projects. Moore and Gordon also had their first child, Coco. According to Moore, their daughter provided a different perspective for the band. Though not executed quite as extremely as on the previous 2 albums, Lee and Thurston's guitars are once again isolated to their own speakers -- Lee is in the left, Thurston is in the right. a b c d e f g h "Washing Machine". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on August 31, 2012 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. We tend not to follow through on these urges though, as tempting as they may be. In the end, our loved ones and our responsibilities – and a fair amount of fear of the unknown – keep us rooted in our assigned times and places. The thought of starting over simply becomes a bit too much to take on, so we sigh, indulge in entertainment, or food, or illicit substances (to each their own), and our head hits the pillow in the hopes of a better tomorrow.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Kot, Greg; Leland, John; Sheridan, David; Robbins, Ira; Pattyn, Jay. "Sonic Youth". Trouser Press. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. Jenkins, Mark (October 13, 1995). "Looking Up To Sonic Youth". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019 . Retrieved June 4, 2018. The Diamond Sea". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012 . Retrieved July 6, 2014. a b Ali, Lorraine (September 24, 1995). "Fall Album Roundup". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. Kind of an underrated album in the SY canon, but it just might be my favorite. It's nothing they haven't done before, and I'm not sure what to make of the spoken-word song "Skip Tracer," but there are a lot of brilliant moments here.

That A Thousand Leaves was void of “classic song ideas” might have fueled some critics’ disdain for it in ’98, but much of the record has aged well in the past 20 years. “Sunday,” an undeniable gem that marries Sonic Youth’s dual tendencies toward melody and experimental spinouts, was an early single, paired with a Macaulay Culkin-starring music video directed by Harmony Korine. “Sunday” also received the commercial radio treatment, its original five minutes chopped to three. The truncated version sadly omits the song’s most interesting passage: a mess of squeals and gasps from Moore’s and Lee Ranaldo’s guitars around the three-minute mark. As their gnarled instruments unspool, Moore deadpans: “With you, Sunday never ends,” just before the lights dim and the song is snuffed out. Outside this emphatically on-brand excursion, Thurston Moore seethes with defiantly snarky tough love ( Junkie’s Promise), but also coos sweetly ( Unwind). Lee Ranaldo slays in his semi-featured role as a vocalist (the dreamy Saucer-Like and the nebbish spoken word tough-guy-ism of Skip Tracer). Kim Gordon offers breathy declarations ( Becuz), and punkish snarls ( Panty Lies), while also displaying a well-calibrated fragility to embody a teen girl through the sprechgesang plea for an honest relationship with her mother ( Little Trouble Girl). a b c d e Moon, Tom (October 19, 1995). "Washing Machine". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 28, 2012 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. I played this album while cutting the lawn earlier today - a hot, sunny, relaxing Saturday afternoon - and the contrast between the suburban calm and the nervous tension for God-knows-what was particularly affecting. It's almost like limbo, this album; I kept thinking: am I seriously here, cutting a suburban lawn on a sunny day, while in some distant land people's shells are being shelled to pieces? Weird, man. More confusing now than anywhere I've ever been to.

107 Reviews

Kot, Greg (September 29, 1995). "Sonic Gold". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 . Retrieved June 26, 2016. a b "Washing Machine - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. a b "Washing Machine". charts.nz. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019 . Retrieved July 14, 2014.

a b c Gordon, Kim (February 2015). Girl in a Band: A Memoir. Dey Street Books. ISBN 978-0062295897. Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea". MTV. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014 . Retrieved July 6, 2014. a b "Sonic Youth". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014.

It was so great to be out of NY recording somewhere else. Things were relaxed there . We ate a lot of barbeque from Payne's. I can't believe the record ever got recorded. It's one of my favorite's. Coko was about 8 months old. She met her first Elvis impersonator there. - KG" a b c d e Davis, Erik (December 1995). "Sonic Youth: Washing Machine". Spin. Vol.11, no.9. pp.118–119 . Retrieved June 7, 2014.