Friday, March 12, 2010

Review #82: Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex (1983)


CONFUSION IS SEX

Year: 1983
Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres:
No-Wave, Noise
Label:
Neutral Records
Tracks:
9
Length:
35 Minutes (Long)
Style:
Mysterious
My Rating:
6/8

Sonic YOUTH? More like Sonic OLD, now! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOHOHOHOH
OHOHOHOHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH
EHEHEU HUHUHUHUHU YEAH. ANYWAYS I AM GOING TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS RIGHT NOW. SONIC YOUTH ARE SO OLD THAT THEY'RE OLDER THAN MY PARENTS. AND THEY'RE PROBABLY OLDER THAN YOU. AND THEY CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER DINOSAURS. IT IS SAID THAT WHAT MAKES SONIC YOUTH'S MUSIC SO WEIRDLY GREAT IS THE INFLUENCE THAT EARLY DINOSAURS IN THE STONE AGE MUSIC SCENE HAD ON THEIR MUSIC SUCH AS THE STOOGASAURUS, OFTEN LED IN PACKS BY IGGYUANADONS. AND SO IT WAS NEW YOIK IN THE EARLY NINE-TEEN OCHOS when THE NEW YORK NO-WAVE SCENE WAS STILL EXISTENT IN ITZ ORIGINAL FORM WITH OTHER BANDS SUCH AS THE CONTORTIONS AND TEENAGE JESUS & THE FREAKS. SONIK YOOTH KAME A LITTEL LAIT'R THAN VEE OVER 1'S BUTT VAY WARE JUSH ASS IMPORNTANT AS THE OTHER 1'S AND HALPED GENERALLY EXPAND PUNC ROKC.

AFFTER THARE 1ST ALLBUM JUSH KAL'D "SONIK YOOTH", SONIK YOOTH DECIDAD TPO RLS ANTHER REKERD N EET WUZ KALLED "CONFUCIUS IS SEXUAL INTERCOURSE", PROWDLEE DIZ PLAYUING THARE LUV 4 CONFUCIUS DA FAMUS JERMAN FULLOFOSER. NAUW IT'Z TIME TO STUP TLKN LK A FKNG RTRD N RVW TH DMN ALBUM.

1. (She's In a) Bad Mood
The guitars sound like ringing bells. The bass is ominous. The lyrics are only "She's in a bad mood/But I won't fall for it/I believe all her lies/But I can't fall for it". The beat is highly varied and interesting. Hell, they get these guitars to sound like pianos in the end. Maybe they are actual pianos. But Sonic Youth was pretty weird back then so they probably just sprinkled some of their magic Sonic dust of Youth on their guitars to give them special Sonic Magic. Thurston sings this one.

2. Protect Me You
It's probably like, "Protect Me AND You" or "Protect Me, You!", but they forgot to add in that extra word or punctuation mark or somethin' like that. It's even slower and more depressing than the song before it. Kimmy Gordy sings this song. The lyrics are very depressing as well and seem to be chronicling the struggle of a young girl to survive throughout various stages of her life. Like metamorphosis. Like, the 10-year-old is just a lil' tadpole, and the 18-year-old is a full-blown Frogotron-5000(tm). She asks the "demons that come at night" to protect her.

3. Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog
Two songs een one! The first one is "Freezer Burn". It's a droning, creepy, ambient piece with creepy, droning, ambient noizes going on around your ears. It eventually goes into the next song, "I Wanna Be Your Dog", which is a cover of the '60s punk-before-punk classic by the Stooges. It is taken from a live recording, so, the quality is a lot less clear than the other songs, but definitely still listenable. Kim sings. A very fun song.

4. Shaking Hell
The song is mainly driven by a quirky bassline accompanied by breezy, mystical guitars and a somewhat uptempo beat. Midway through the song, it changes to a slower, clamer piece with Kim Gordon on the vocals, singing about a girl who has lost her virginity and innocence. It ends somewhat abruptly. End of Side 1.

5. Inhuman
Begins with clanging, clattering, anarchic noise. Thurston sings this song. Really cool beat, accompanied by pounding, shrieking guitar noizes. The bassline is really cool. My favorite song on the album.

6. The World Looks Red
Another one on the album I really like. Throbbing, high-pitched guitar accompanied by swooping, floating-round guitars. The beat is somewhat fast for the album. Thurston sings, and his vocals are great here. The lyrics are pretty trippy and bizarre.

7. Confusion is Next
Once again, I love this song. It's a slow, crazed song involving Thurston's thoughts on what humanity must do to become free, involving such beautiful self-instructions such as "take your tounge and stretch it out..." -- Pure genius. Pure genius. SONIC TOOTH!

8. Making the Nature Scene
Another one with Kim Gordon singing the lyrics. The lyrics sing about how the city and civilization have forgotten of the past of humanity as a part of nature and encourages humans to "make their own nature scene".

9. Lee is Free
This is an instrumental, so there are no lyrics or vocals. Just more sonic droning and clanging. So, to be unpretentious about this, I cannot say that I necessarily enjoy this track that much. It's interesting for a minute or two I guess, though.

SO THAT WUZ CONFICIOUS IZ SEXUAL INTERKKKOURSE. IT WUZ THARE L'ASS'T RELEEESE AWN NEUTRAL REKKKERDZ AND THEN THEY WENT ON OTHA LA'BELZ AFTER THAT SUCH AS HOMESTEAD RECORDS N' THEIR OWN LAYBULL KALLED ECSTATIC PIECE (OR IZ IT CALLED EXTATIK PISS?""). EYE THUNK DIS REKKKERD IZ PRETTY LEGITTY BUTT IT DUSN'T REEECH DA FULL POTENTIAL I THUT THEY REEECHED IN DA LATE '80S N EARLY NUEVEZ . THIIIS ULBUM IZ DARK, MYSTEERIUS AND WEEIRD, BUT IT'Z VERY GOOD N DESCRIBES A DARKER SIDE OF HYOOMUN EGGZISTUNCE THAT SUM PEEPULL HALF TRUBLE PERSONICFYING.

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