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Track Listings
| Disc: 1 |
|---|
| 1. Edges - Sonic Youth |
| 2. Six - Sonic Youth |
| 3. Six For New Time - Sonic Youth |
| 4. + - - Sonic Youth |
| 5. Voice Piece For Soprano - Sonic Youth |
| 6. Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth |
| Disc: 2 |
| 1. Having Never Written A Note For Percussion (James Tenney) |
| 2. Six (John Cage) |
| 3. Burdocks (Christian Wolff) |
| 4. Four (John Cage) |
| 5. Piano Piece #13 (George Maciunas) |
| 6. Piece Enfantine (Nicolas Enfantine) |
| 7. Treatise (Cornelius Cardew) |
Product Description
Amazon.ca
The fourth release in Sonic Youth's series of experimental excursions, Goodbye 20th Century could be a stubborn broadside against the critics that lambasted the Youth's last proper album, A Thousand Leaves, for being too safe. No danger of that here, though; Goodbye 20th Century is a tribute to the Century's avant-garde artists, reprising tracks by the likes of John Cage, Yoko Ono and Christian Wolff. So, far-out is definitely in--tracks vary from a sprawling, thirty-minute take on Cage's eerie, hyper-minimal "Four" to a thirteen-second cover of Yoko's "Voice Piece For Soprano"--essentially, Thurston and Kim's daughter screaming three times into the microphone. The most interesting track of Goodbye 20th Century also comes as a CD ROM film--a cover of George Maciunas' "Piano Piece 13 (Carpenter's Piece)", it consists of the Youth hammering nails into the keys of their studio piano. Sadly, though, even they don't seem to be having a lot of fun. Goodbye 20th Century is not for the faint-hearted. --Louis Pattison
Product Description
As a farewell to a century of musical innovation, Sonic Youth devote a double album to covering legendary avant-garde recordings such as John Cage's "Six," James Tenney's "Having Never Written a Note for Percussion," and Christian Wolff's "Edges." As a further token of gratitude, Sonic Youth had other avant-garde musicians such as William Winant collaborate with them on these covers. The result is a minimal album of silence occasionally interrupted by strange dissonance that quietly reaps noisy havoc on your mind. The many collaborators make Goodbye 20th Century a curious listen -- certainly not your standard Sonic Youth album. Actually, it's not too far removed from the other SYR EPs, especially in terms of production sound. But anyone looking for standard fare here is going to be greatly disappointed. These aren't songs -- they're compositions and they're performed as such. Alt-rock this is not. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By filterite
Format:Audio CD
Well this is one Sonic Youth's more experimental releases ( if you hadn't gathered by now ) and it's fair to say that this is a challenging listen. You'll need to keep your wits about you and a sense of humour to contain this on first listen. It's quite possibly one of those " gets on your nerves " sort of album at first albums. But give it time and you appreciate the album that it sets out to be. You're not going to absolutely love this but you can enjoy it for what it is or yank it out of your stereo system and criticize Sonic Youth as bulls**t poseurs. It all means the same thing - nothing!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By s.r.nickells
Format:Audio CD
why should you own this album is the question to be asked here. If you come to SY from the grunge years(goo and especially dirty) then forget it. this is a long (2cds at 70m+ each) album, and there is a lot of peices that at first glance appear meandering, theres no 'songs' on it per se, much less guitar abuse. there is however, a lot to be found if you can have patience with it.
one peice, a 30 minute rendition of john cage's four6 stands out in particular. it reminds me of how zen buddhists train zen disiples by confusing and disorienting them till they finally 'get' zen(maybe the zen practitioner cage had this in mind?). this peice confused me greatly until i put the cd on to keep me awake after a sleep less night. suddenly every slight change of direction, tonality became beautiful, whereas before its constant apparant lack of focus annoyed me.
the idea of an avant garde covers album could mean an album of concept over tunes, but here the concept of the peices and the practice of each are so well married that you rarely notice the seams (with the possible exception of christian wolff's burdocks)and for the long suffering SY fans, we have the vocal mike feedback of reichs pendulum music, and the tidal wave noise of tenneys having never written a note for percussion.
a must buy for those with open ears to ideas.
one peice, a 30 minute rendition of john cage's four6 stands out in particular. it reminds me of how zen buddhists train zen disiples by confusing and disorienting them till they finally 'get' zen(maybe the zen practitioner cage had this in mind?). this peice confused me greatly until i put the cd on to keep me awake after a sleep less night. suddenly every slight change of direction, tonality became beautiful, whereas before its constant apparant lack of focus annoyed me.
the idea of an avant garde covers album could mean an album of concept over tunes, but here the concept of the peices and the practice of each are so well married that you rarely notice the seams (with the possible exception of christian wolff's burdocks)and for the long suffering SY fans, we have the vocal mike feedback of reichs pendulum music, and the tidal wave noise of tenneys having never written a note for percussion.
a must buy for those with open ears to ideas.
Format:Audio CD
A very bizarre, unconvential, punkish, release from Sonic Youth which is both one of their most trippy but in a different way from previous releases...rather than combining gritty alternatvie rock, left-of-center lyrics, and extened guitar dissonace for deep cosmos psychadelic tripping..this is something all the while different, like they'd stopped midway on their trip and spent a couple lightyears landing on a planet, and a cople galaxies exploring it..what I mean is the album is a collage of various artists playing random instruments for however long they want, which can either annoy you or trance you deep into the world they are exploring...
Hard to pick certain tracks for they seem to fit in the same category of punkish ambience...I listened to this entire thing twice over while writing stream-of-conciousness passages for a novella. This is very good for that, and even if you don't want to write down whatever passes by yr. purty little head, then just see it...let the music warp you in like a good drug, it let's your mind wander thru a series of complex and complicated dreams (or nightmares)...there are some speaking parts. Kim does her own interpretation of Goldilocks & THe Three Bears in the first track, Renaldo narrates another track with scarce freeform poetry. Can't remember names, in this case why should it matter?
Anyway, you'll either love or hate this cd. If you want to expereince SY at their most popworthy get Washing Machine or Goo or Dirty... these are easily their more accessible, then get artier with Daydream Nation and anything beforehand and A THousnad Leaves and NYC Ghosts & Flowers...then this cd will be able to entertain you. If you are are already into highly experimental music such as Mr. Bungle or Pixies, then get their whole collection or atleast half of it...yadayadayada...
Enjoy the clashing sounds of xylophones, guitar dissnonace, cartoonish noise, vocal mumbling, violins, spacecraft sounds from above, and any other ambient zigzags that can't be formed via this record 54 50 50 40-3- =22= 2=2= 2=2=
P.S.: Even Goo, WM, and Dirty aren't all that popworthy...Washing Machine would actually fit in the artier section, it's very complex beautiful most jo average music jerks wouldn't be able to withstand a 2o minute Diamond Sea.
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3.6 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
lost me as a fan
i used to love sy. during the washing machine tour they played the academy friday night, saturday afternoon for matinee and saturday night. i was at all three shows. Read more
Published on Mar 10 2003 by Daniel J. Hagerman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far above anything else of Sonic Youth
This is a brilliant tribute to some of the most important musicians of the last century, made in a way that only a successful pop outfit could manage. Read more
Published on Mar 9 2002 by Robert Davidson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rockist Revision of Modernist Canon
Worth getting for the Yoko Ono composition alone. Now that is something I never thought I'd say.
Published on April 29 2001 by Michael D. Kittell
1.0 out of 5 stars
No Focus
Sonic Youth has, of course, always pushed the envelope for music in terms of structure, tonality, and harmony. (Dissonance can, after all, be beautiful. Read more
Published on Dec 16 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hello 21st Century.
To the fellow who's review contained this statement: "In any event, it would seem laughable that anyone could draw any connection between Sonic Youth's interpretations and... Read more
Published on Feb 20 2000
3.0 out of 5 stars
chaos is the future
Like most others, even as a long time fan, I was quite blown away by this, it being the 1st time I'd really questioned waht my heroes were doing. Read more
Published on Feb 4 2000 by Funkmeister G
3.0 out of 5 stars
Do sonic youth take themselves seriously anymore?
what the hell? a lot of this is painful to listen to. i dont understand why theyre doing this. sonic youth is the best band in the world and it seems like theyre just messing with... Read more
Published on Jan 13 2000 by Phil Maher Forcefield
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goodbye 20th Century
Perhaps one of the riskiest works by Sonic Youth lately, the efforts behind "Goodbye 20th Century" have paid off well. Nonetheless, there are a few mishaps. Read more
Published on Jan 2 2000
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goodbye 20th Century
Goodbye 20th century is the fourth installment of Sonic Youths self produced EPs, and in a way it deserves its title. Read more
Published on Dec 14 1999 by Dec880@hotmail.com
4.0 out of 5 stars
For DayDream Individual Only
I'm not going to try to pretend I'm sure I understand what these cd's are all about (SYR1 thru SYR4), but apparently they are supposed to be vague, non-musical interpretations of... Read more
Published on Dec 13 1999 by Gary J Young
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