Washing Machine

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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. 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. Tantalising overreach, the catchiest hooks this side of Murray Street, and a heaped helping of ‘Kim Power’– Washing Machine is one of Sonic Youth’s more underplayed, but underrated works a b "Sonic Youth". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014. Excellent record, but before we get to that I'd just like to throw it out there that you guys don't know what the hell you want. Some of the people who go apeshit for "The Diamond Sea" (even though, let's be honest here, that cut doesn't really have anywhere to explore after the nine-minute mark and just turns into some pleasant-but-not-really-mind-blowing noise ambience from thereon) are the same people who outright dismiss A Thousand Leaves, which was like a whole album of "Diamond Sea"s — with ideas that actually kept coming through the long song lengths! I daresay Washing Machine might have the more favorable reputation because it's not a very challenging album: most of the songs are fuelled, rather slowly, by mechanical three-note hooks and throbbing one-chord crescendos, and though that isn't a bad thing by any means (and it usually works quite poignantly in these songs) it isn't as impressive as the damn-near symphonic interplay of Leaves. "Washing Machine" and "The Diamond Sea" are terrific achievements of guitar interplay, but compare their noisy catharses to the noisy catharses of "Wild Flower Soul" or "Karen Koltrane" and they seem almost phoned-in.

a b c "Sonic Youth". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on July 9, 2014 . Retrieved April 19, 2013. a b "Washing Machine - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 20, 1996. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014 . Retrieved June 22, 2014. The final movement begins with the crash and burn guitar chord at the end of Untitled and Skip Tracer sees a wonderful introduction to the great Diamond Sea. Second CD is exclusive material from France Inter recorded at Elysee Montmartre in Paris, France on September 12, 1995.

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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. 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. 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.

a b "Washing Machine". Dutchcharts.nl. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014. The album was released the following week, after which they embarked on yet another tour in October/November. This time around, the venues were comfortable theatres and clubs, but the set list variation was not affected. While on a 2-day, 3-show stop in NYC, they performed "The Diamond Sea" on another TV show, "The State". The sonic tour wheel did not stop spinning -- an Australian/New Zealand tour in late December took them into the new year, followed by a brief tour of some new territory (Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Phillipines, and Hong Kong) with the Foo Fighters and the Beastie Boys. Less than 2 months later, they were on the road again, for the first real Washing Machine European tour, in March and April. Upon their return home, they made another TV appearance, their first on Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien. They did not, however, play current single "Little Trouble Girl", instead they tore through a furious version of "Junkie's Promise". After 2 more stray shows, they slowed down a bit -- though they did make their first of 3 consecutive annual appearances at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, on June 16th, 1996 in San Francisco. They performed only 4 songs, the inseparable "Bull in the Heather"/"Starfield Road" combo, "Saucer-Like", and a lengthy version of "The Diamond Sea" (which was the standard set closer at virtually every show in '95 and '96). In August '96 they travelled to Hungary and Israel for the first time, and finished this 6-date tour at the Reading Festival in England. After one more show in Spain in November, Sonic Youth's extremely busy 2 years of touring was finished, and the band took a well-deserved break from serious touring in 1997, free to focus on their new studio and a slew of new recordings.

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. Kot, Greg (September 29, 1995). "Sonic Gold". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 . Retrieved June 26, 2016.