murray street was pretty good, i agree, but still it cannot compete with the older albums dirty, goo or sister. my problem with sy is that they do not seem to evolve into a direction i find exciting (whereas yo la tengo do for example). the songs on murray street are too long, too composed i find. too civilised in a way. they don't surprise. i should listen again to it and write about my impressions. something i have never done.

concerning black dice i did follow your suggestion and bought beaches and canyons. i liked it but only listened to it two or three times. my girl-friend really hates it. it is a challenging album whereas the last albums of sy (except the syr albums) where not. most of the syr albums were challenging but too experimental (without being innovative) for my liking. though i didn't listen to them a lot, i must admit. i hope i will be able to write something on beaches and canyons soon. it is an intriguing difficult album for sure.

i am a little bored by music right now. maybe it has to do with two banal things. i hardly listen attentively to music at the moment. firstly my cheap dvd player (the sony cd player skips tracks) in the living room has a terrible metallic sound (are there any dvd players which sound as good as cd players? i can only branch one cd/dvd player into my receiver). and secondly i spent most of the time in the kitchen anyway where we have a shitty philips cd/radio/tape stereo. the kitchen is the only place where we smoke in the house and i don't succeed in giving up. a lot of the stuff i write about i hear as mp3 on the laptop. that is really bad.

sorry for this lame comment.

it's not lame, it's clear. i hope you'll find the love for music again soon. i just recently bought a dvd player: NAD. it was on offer for €199, plus it fits into my NAD set (i don't want to sound like a hifi-nerd...). i'm very happy with it, the sound quality is excellent. my parents are satisfied with their Marantz player, so there you have two suggestions.

sonic youth. i listened to the new album once, so impressions are still premature. let's say it has its moments but overall it's the weakest in a long time. there's a serious lack of urgence that lies like a blanket over the album (clumsy metaphor i know...). there's too much blueprint sy on many of the tracks. the strongest moments are the ones you've mentioned already, although i also enjoyed "unmade bed", yet even that feels like it could've been much more. if you go pop, go all the way. maybe my opinion will change, but i have serious reservations.

black dice. girlfriends don't like it, as a rule. :-) also, cats don't like it. they're intruiged by it but run like hell when the drums come in. i've seen it happen. there have been two 12" releases since then: Cone Toaster, which is a terrific take on a 4/4 dance-track, heavily mutated of course. b-side is a remix of "Endless" (of B & C), which is gorgeous, maybe even better than the original. the second 12" appeared earlier this year, called Miles of Smiles. less "harsh" still intruiging and beautiful, side b's great as well, apparently a live-favorit. recently the forthcoming album, Creature Comforts, has leaked. i've heard it but am quite dissapointed thus far. it's a bit boring. maybe it has something to do with getting a new drummer, or rather, the departure of the previous drummer, as there is a serious lack of dynamics. certainly not a very challenging album, in my opinion.

sorry for this extremely long comment. it's just my enthousiasm... :)

thank you for the dvd player suggestions and your long comment. i hardly ever get comments and too often they are short and vacuous (god i am really great in inciting people to comment here, aren't i?). i am listening to beaches and canyons right now. would ambient noise be a fitting two word description? i think i wrote before that i find it very organic.

to be honest i haven't really made up my mind about unmade bed. it sounds the most un-sonic youthy of all songs i know by them.

ambient noise, with an organic feel. :)

also, i find the title very accurate, images of (desolate) beaches and canyons (with vultures) are easily sparked through listening to the album.