Washing Machine

Product Information

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. 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. 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.

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. a b c d Browne, David (September 25, 1995). "Washing Machine". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014.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. a b "Washing Machine - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014. At this point in history, the NYC stalwarts had enjoyed nearly a decade of ever-flowing goodwill from both critics and audiences. They had released eight albums since the early eighties, and had not made a major misstep. The band had exactly the right mix of street cred, je ne sais quoi, and authentic cooler-than-thou attitude to transform them into a four-headed juggernaut relatively early in their career. And yet, they toyed with the idea of becoming someone else. a b "Washing Machine". Dutchcharts.nl. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014.

Second CD is exclusive material from France Inter recorded at Elysee Montmartre in Paris, France on September 12, 1995. The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 20, 1996. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014 . Retrieved June 22, 2014.

Release

Say what you want about Kim, who gives the band substance, and Lee who gives the band consistency and at least one great song an album, Thurston Moore is the heart and soul of this band and gives the band every single ounce of coolness that emanates from The Diamond Sea, and Washing Machine. a b "Sonic Youth". Ultratop.be. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012 . Retrieved July 14, 2014. 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. 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.

This is a bait of a record which is able to hook anyone forever to the heavenly machinery of these noise jacobites. Never before had they combined the poetics of the most immense electricity and the industrial aggression. The refreshing and dream breeze against the unchained tempest. Every person on earth has, at some point, wanted to be someone else. We’ve all had one or more of those days – the ones that make you want to drop all of your emotional baggage in a deep, deep lake and abscond to a place where you become an unmeasured quantity; no history, no relationships by which to be defined, no preconceived notions that expose your bullshit and describe you to a T. 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.

Kot, Greg (September 29, 1995). "Sonic Gold". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 . Retrieved June 26, 2016. a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Washing Machine – Sonic Youth". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014 . Retrieved June 7, 2014.