https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sonic-Youth-Disappearer-Traci-Lords/6798070658?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=102498433

So I’m not gonna give my life story or anything but I recently started ketamine infusions for drug resistant depression. The place I go lets you wear headphones and choose your own music to listen to, usually suggesting that you listen to soothing music as it’s a dissassociative experience. After 3 sessions of doing that, I wanted to try something a little different: Listening to my favorite album by my favorite band. I felt like Sonic Youth was a good ketamine band because their music is so free, and I felt like Washing Machine would be a “safe” album to listen to (It’s not too noisey compared to their early stuff, and I know it pretty well so I can anticipate the experience).

I can’t remember many of the exact thoughts I had during the experience, like I said, ketamine is a dissociative drug with hallucinagenic effects, but things didn’t really take off until like halfway through the title track (which imo was a really interesting place for the effects to start). I’m no expert on the drug itself but I’ve learned that music, especially music you know well and can anticipate, REALLY affects the experience. Washing Machine as an album was kind of a leap from the chill post grunge/post punk stuff I usually listen to in my sessions, but it was nice to really feel the experience. Again, I don’t have many cemented memories from it but listening making my way through the album while getting ready to hear The Diamond Sea was intense to say the least!

So yeah, I understand this isn’t something I can just “recommend” to people to do, you can’t just buy a bag of ketamine at the gas station (well, actually some places you probably can), but if anyone out there meets the niche of someone who is undergoing ketamine treatments and is a SY fan, maybe try this out!

PS: As mentioned, this was my fourth session and my dosage was increased quite a bit, so the session was EXTREMELY intense sometimes. I thought I might’ve died at one point but hey, just an average trip and again I love this album so it was worth the shot!

Looking on Equipboard/sonic youth's website, and I see Thurston used a phaser around this time, and I think that is kind of what a phaser sounds like when feeding back. Does anyone know if this is right, or have more information about the making of this particular song in general?

If you are to make a suggestion, please take in to account that I am familiar with post punk music, noise rock and generally experimental music.

Really hoping to get a chance to meet Thurston and get some of my albums signed, he’s the only member of the band I haven’t met yet and I’ll be going to both of his events on Sunday and Monday.

Hey! I bought 2 tickets for the event this Sunday (12/1) at 92NY but the friend who was supposed to tag along with me cancelled. If anyone was interested in going but hadn’t yet picked a ticket up, I’d be happy to give you my extra. I’d appreciate getting what I paid for it back but I’d honestly rather the ticket not go to waste over anything else

Edit: ticket has been claimed!

Hi everybody,

I used to put on shows in Memphis for 20 years and I was fortunate enough to host Sonic Youth, not just once but twice. Both times were complete luck. I wrote about these shows when I chronicled my top ten favorite shows that I put on in my old hometown. There's video, audio, a few pics and news stories within.

The first show was when they were in town recording "Washing Machine" on Apr. 7, 1995.

The last show was when they were in town opening for Pearl Jam. They brought Eddie Vedder with them to guest perform.

Hope you like it!

Much excite!

https://sonicyouth.bandcamp.com/album/hold-that-tiger-2

Weirdly enough, my favorite song from them as I never really cared for the noisy stuff. Already know about Schizophrenia, which is another favorite of mine. Any other recommendations would be great, don’t have to be from this band specifically

… is underrated! When I see people or journalists making lists of their favourite Sonic Youth albums, this one consistently comes out at or near the bottom. Why?

I hear this as part of the era continued with Murray Street (in fact, we can hear themes developed in ‘Rain on Tin’ in both ‘Hits of Sunshine’ and ‘Karen Koltrane’), as in more clean, textural, psychedelic and expansive, though there is more harsh experimentalism à la classic SY on this album than in their later work.

Though I’m a fan of Kim in general, I find some of her contributions here to be among the weaker points of this album - however I might be missing the point, as I’m starting to feel that the balance between harsh, uneven noise and melodic twinkliness might be the defining characteristic of this record. It starts and ends with dissonant guitars and yelling, with moments of mellow beauty unfolding at a leisurely pace in between. It’s almost like two very different records interpolated, pulling at each other. This can be read either an as inconsistent listening experience, or as an essential part of the record’s feel and concept.

It also contains some very beautiful songs - ‘Wildflower Soul’, ‘Hoarfrost’, ‘Hits of Sunshine’, ‘Snare, Girl’, ‘Karen Koltrane’, and of course ‘Sunday’ are among my favourites from the band.

What are your thoughts on this album?