Hey Upper East Siders… Tripwire here. Your source for the juiciest indie rock gossip on the internet. Earlier today sources confirmed that Sonic Youth would debut a brand new acoustic version of EVOL’s 1986 track “Starpower”—a track bubble-gummy as the Ciccone Youth get—on our favorite Monday night party jam, Gossip Girl. COINCIDENTALLY this item leaked mere days after the news that Gossip Girl is writing a big ass naked menage a trois into the script, which will hopefully be scored by Kim’s lethargic singing—because for bourgeois New York teens, menage a trois are about as fascinating as breathing, and just as common. Then again, since Sonic Youth are well into their 40s and the only people who might be pumped at having something so sexually adventurous and vanilla-y as a threesome are the parents, we think we figured out the plot: Dan’s dad Rufus knew Sonic Youth in the ’90s when he was in that grunge band. Maybe they were on Lolla together, but Sonic Youth DEFINITELY hated his band as they were gross corpo inventions of the Candlebox variety instead of organic basement scuzzbuckets like Mudhoney. But here he redeems himself by doing it with Lily and… Vanessa? Blair’s mom? The maid? A mailorder bride? AT THE SAME TIME! STARPOWER! ZOOM!

Sometimes in our RSS-haze we forget that “indie rock” wasn’t always so fashionable. In fact, if you go back to early nineties, the style was a lack of style, and not in some “I’m going to wear this because no one would think that I would actually wear this” sort of way. (Look at you Mom jeans.) Rather, it was earnest, as if all indie rockers of the ’90s merely woke up, saw their jeans and put them on. It was honest. It was real. Often, it was pretty ugly. While the slacker style has surely come back into play by kids whose first CD was Bush Sixteen Stone, it just doesn’t feel as “authentic” as it did back then. Times have changed kids, but the classic t-shirt, Levi’s and All-Stars will never die. It just will never look as cool as it did on these dudes.

You could even be a fat dude in shorts and that was cool…even in Europe! (Fun fact, pretty sure Ira Kaplan has been swapping between the same two t-shirts since Yo La Tengo began in 1984.)

As Pavement demonstrate, your clothes did not have to “fit,” let alone be “form fitting.” Also note, white long sleeve tee. God I miss the ’90s.

Sonic Youth wear coats. Long leather jackets, black and purple nylon ski parkas and denim jackets with leather collars.

As for video fashion, Chavez may have put it all out on the table when they shot their video for “Break Up Your Band” on a trans-gender hosted talk show featuring suburban moms, stripping firemen, kimono clad rickshaw drivers, loin cloth covered dudes in bear masks, and a bevy of gigantic collars.

Something tells me Veruca Salt will opt against the floral crop tank top when they inevitably reunite. (Notice the gold microphones. Oh, Glastonbury.)

Lou Barlow in Germany in 1995 looks like my fifth grade Earth Science teacher in Germany in 1995.

On the other hand, J. Mascis looks pretty much exactly the same.

As per the band’s website, Sonic Youth has been forced to reschedule some dates on its upcoming west coast tour due to guitarist Lee Ranaldo’s wrist fracture, which supposedly occurred during a (possibly) gnarly game of tennis. The new dates are as follows:

01.04.10 Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater
01.05.10 Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theater
01.07.10 San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
01.08.10 Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater
01.09.10 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

Tickets for the original dates will be honored and refunds will be made available at the point of purchase for those unable to attend the rescheduled dates. Two of the band’s appearances will NOT be rescheduled, namely the September 26th show in Santa Barbara and the October 4th set at Austin City Limits.

Sending our thoughts to Lee Ranaldo and his wrist….. NOW.

In further Gossip Girl news, Sonic Youth is slated to appear once again on the cult show about the elite of Manhattan’s Upper East Side; the band will be featured on the fifth show in the upcoming season in a “very special event” performing “Starpower” off of 1986’s EVOL. Last season, Thurston Moore and former Be Your Own Pet frontwoman Jemima Pearl collaborated on a cover of the Ramones’ “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” for the show, and Moore used Gossip Girl as a backdrop while playing solo shows last year.

Story by Samuel Duke

Dinosaur Jr. are old. You can see it in J. Mascis’s hair, once a seemingly never-washed curtain of stringy brown that has turned a greyish white. Drummer Murph, once the band’s resident hippie, is bald, and Mascis and bassist Lou Barlow both have, gulp, kids. But as of today they are in the midst of a grueling tour routing through Japan, Europe and the US to support their new (and second since reuniting in 2005) album Farm. Can we even call it a reunion anymore now that we’re on the second record? Maybe not, but considering the fact that Mascis and Barlow (well, mostly Barlow) spent the better part of fifteen years hating each other’s guts, it still seems like a gift that they have an official and regularly updated MySpace page. And that they’re an almost better band than they were before.

Who knows how to explain this. The years have made Barlow and Murph better players, and Masics’ obsessiveness has waned, putting the others at greater ease. But they’re not exactly best friends. “We don’t take field trips,” Barlow tells me. “The music is really where the chemistry I enjoy with them is.” He’s calling on release day from Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and daughter, and on this morning, is probably cranking out a ton of phoners while the band are between gigs at the Troubadour. When I ask how the two months of Farm sessions felt at Mascis’ home studio, he says, “I like making records, but I think the way Dinosaur does it, fun isn’t really a part of it.” But fun is most certainly a part of listening. The band’s greatest assets—Mascis’ gushing open chords and couchsurfer whine, Barlow’s steady hand, Murph’s barely capable drumming—are not hard things to love. They are not difficult noisemakers, they are what amounts to a punk rock Crazy Horse with lyrics about feelings that don’t sound wussy.

The first time I heard Dinosaur Jr. was in “Video Days,” Spike Jonze’s 1991 skateboard film that is regarded by some as The Godfather of the genre. Their cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” played during Rudy Johnson’s part. Since that moment, Dinosaur and skateboarding were inseparably linked in my brain, both regarded as gilded nuggets of Gen X slackerdom. So when their new video for “Over It” hit the web, with Mascis on a board and Barlow and Murph on BMX bikes, shredding LA street scenes like pros, I think my medulla wet itself. And yet, Barlow seems nonplussed. “The video was definitely a nod in that direction,” he says. “I’ve never ridden a skateboard in my life. J was sort of the first person I knew who sported it and I never actually saw him ride, I just saw him carrying it. At the hardcore shows we would go to, people would be doing it, but to me it always seemed forced. ‘Like, OK dude, you’re trying to ride up this wall?’”

This saltiness must make them who they are. If they were too eager, too nice, too “right on,” it wouldn’t be the same. They would be like Sonic Youth: still putting out okay records but also doing questionable things like appearing on Gilmore Girls and making deals with Starbucks. Dinosaur would never do that, mainly because they don’t care enough. They just want to play. Loudly. When I ask if making records is, at this point, a means to an end to play live, Barlow is quick to answer in the affirmative. “For now it is. If we go make another one, maybe we’ll tweak the way we work.” This is crazy to me, that one of the best records of the year exists ostensibly to keep them from getting bored on stage. I want to say it cheapens things a little, but if it means we can continue to hear new Dinosaur music, and have it be this good, I couldn’t care less.

Sonic Youth

The Entrance Band

For the ultimate indie band, Sonic Youth sure do have some capitalist sensibilities.  From the Letterman performance to the Pitchfork TV broadcasts to the cover of the new Signal To Noise, Sonic Youth’s PR staff has been flexing some serious muscle surrounding the recent release of The Eternal.  We’re waiting for limited edition Sonic Youth tea cosies at Ikea.

Now Sonic Youth is announcing a radio show that’ll be aired on XM and Sirius.  From July 6th through the 10th, the band will be hosting a two hour nightly broadcast featuring hand picked tracks of artists that influenced Sonic Youth’s sound as well as backstories behind classic Sonic Youth tracks.  In addition a “best of Sonic Youth” show will air on the 11th and 12th.  Full details and links available here.

Check the Fender site for all the specs, if you’re so inclined. And now a statement from the artists:

“When Fender came to us with an offer to make signature models of our Jazzmaster guitars we jumped at the chance. These are the guitars that have defined the sound of Sonic Youth for more than 20 years. Although we love all guitars, Jazzmasters are the ones we’ve modified and perfected for our uses over the years. With massive input from our great road crew, we’ve come up with a Thurston Jazzmaster & Lee ‘Jazzblaster’ that fully reflect the current state of the guitars we play in 2009. In fact, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on these axes – the prototypes of our Fender models have already been thrust into action during the recording of our latest album, The Eternal, and have already begun to acquire the scrapes and scarz of live performance. These guitars rock Sonic style!”

(via P4k)

Sonic Youth’s latest, The Eternal, is out next Tuesday on Matador.

The former makes sense, but the latter? How many people out there have been clamoring to shred their way through “Between The Bars” or “Waltz #2″? “Needle In The Hay”?

Activision has just announced that Guitar Hero 5 is ready to hit streets in September and Rolling Stone is confirming exclusively that, in conjunction with a slew of other songs and bands soon-to-be revealed via an online scavenger hunt, tracks from Kings of Leon, A Perfect Circle, The Bronx and perennial Heroes Weezer will also be included.

Photos and words by Rez Avissar

Photo note:
Frustrating night for photos. Bad/static lighting job for most of the night, overpowering red lights for entire sets (the bane of a live photographer’s existence), Sonic Youth not playing for long enough for me to catch a killer close-up of Thurston Moore thrashing. I was forced to do some Photoshopping to try and repair the pics, and meanwhile saving up for a better low-light lens. As consolation for going through all these, I snapped some candids of the band right as they walked off stage, discussing with No Fun organizer/curator Carlos Giffoni whether or not to go back out for a second encore (All friends: “That ending was perfect! Leave it at that!”).

Each band played for twenty minutes. Yellow Tears was the unexpected surprise of the night, winning over everyone in the room with their meticulosuly warped sample manipulations and sounds. Out of all the bands, here’s one that took the twenty minute time slot and really found inspiration, breaking into sweat and taking off their shirts, and getting genuinely into it. The stage was illuminated by a single bright red light bulb. The best part of the set was the member who kept striking a large scrap of metal and sending it through various effects processors, throwing it onto the ground and making a spectacle yet wrenching some pretty freaking insane and wicked sounds from it. Their energy was welcome and the crowd response was thunderously approving from the sold-out crowd. A dude on the L train was raving about them on the way back, displaying the record he bought of theirs; I have a feeling he’s not the only one.

Also in tow were Blank Dogs, who played a full-band, fleshed out and developed indie set, far more song-based than anything else that night. Sons of God: wow, check out the shots of those guys. They had two very whacked stage performers/contorters who kind of dominated the show. The music itself (and the show, too, a little) reminded me of Excepter, with their unpolished, spontaneous, often random but distinctive sound. Mattis was a fucking MADMAN. Bardo Pond killed, in a quiet way. I felt as if I only got a taste of them, though. They need much more space, much more time. I wonder if they usually get heavy? Not tonight.

The chatter before the show was that Sonic Youth were playing seated and unconventionally. This caused understandable groans among the attendees. Instead of playing the faves or any Sonic Youth material at all, tonight they joined the pack of rattly, rough-edged noiseniks, almost blending into the pack. Thing is, Thurston and co. do these kind of gigs all the time. In a past write-up I wrote ”I’d pay ten bucks to watch [Thurston Moore] assault the fuck out of a guitar for a half hour any day of the week.” This rings true, but…. this set was twice the $$, and they played for even less time. With Lee Ranaldo absent (no, sorely missing), Kim’s vocals were a welcome addition to the guitar mangling. Several times, including the powerful encore, it came together perfectly. However, we all would have been happy if they treated us to a gritty rarity for an encore, or at least played to us for more than twenty minutes (incl. encore)? These gripes are valid, right?

I should add, however, that I haven’t been to a proper Sonic Youth gig yet, so take that into account. Can’t wait to see them play a full real set later this summer at United Palace. I promise better photos then. Also look out for their new record, due soon.

[Pulse Emitter]

[Mattin]

[Yellow Tears]

[Sons of God]

[Blank Dogs]

[Pedestrian Deposit]

[Toral Yeh Tremaine]

[Bardo Pond]

[Sonic Youth]

Ok, this is less of an exclusive (I think we got it up first), and more about me begging to post a track from Nisennenmondai’s upcoming long player (although only 5 songs, it’s 44 minutes) Destination Tokyo. Well, my persistence payed dividends, because today we can share with you the title track. This is the best thing I’ve heard all week.

I’ve been following this three-piece, all-girl Japanese noise-pop group since first witnessing them at CMJ 4 years ago. Yet, due to language barriers and the fact they live half way around the world, communication — let alone getting the chance to see them perform again — has been nearly impossible. So when it was announced that their records would be made available for worldwide consumption by the venerable Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound, I was filled with a pleasant satisfaction. At least I would get easy access to their music.

Legendary tales of them playing shows in Japan with the likes of Hella, Lightning Bolt, Battles and No Age have built their credo to near-legendary status. Prefuse 73 has been talking about them for years as well, quoted in Dazed & Confused as saying, “John Stanier from Battles had told me they were sick. . . They started to play and the drummer was as big as my hand. She started to play 16th notes on her hi-hat for about 15 minutes. Next thing you know, these three tiny diminutive women were making us look like idiots because they were so incredible.”

Consisting of Sayaka Himeno (drums), Yuri Zaikawa (bass) and Masako Takada (guitar), Destination Tokyo will be their second official release outside of Japan — their fist being a combination of their Neji andTori EPs on one disc. And while glimpses of their frenetic, post-punk past can still be heard, Destination Tokyo sounds more clean, and more minimal and repetitive than the EP collection. As the press release would like to boast, it “could be described as a mix of the groovy krautrock of Neu! and New York 1980’s no wave/disco created by bands such as Sonic Youth, DNA, and ESG, infused with elements of the instrumental Black Flag of The Process Of Weeding Out and the avant/post-punk of This Heat.”

Destination Tokyo will be released worldwide on August 11, 2009.

Nisennenmondai – “Destination Tokyo”

Here’s your second really good reason to head down to Austin this year: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys have been announced as headliners for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, October 2-4 in Zilker Park.

The three-day, eight-stage festival will also feature Kings of Leon, Thievery Corporation, the Dead Weather, Ghostland Observatory, Sonic Youth, Bon Iver, Passion Pit, Arctic Monkeys, the Decemberists, Girl Talk, Phoenix, School of Seven Bells and Dan Auerbach among the 130 bands and artists booked.

You can get three-day festival passes for $185 (no service fees), plus check out VIP package options, here. Headlining band Pearl Jam will also be appearing on the Austin City Limits TV show while they’re in Texas — the public television series was the inspiration for the festival eight years ago.

Austin City Limits Music Festival Line-Up
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Ben Harper and Relentless7
Thievery Corporation
John Legend
The Dead Weather
The Levon Helm Band
Ghostland Observatory
Sonic Youth
Mos Def
Toadies
Flogging Molly
The B-52s
Lily Allen
Citizen Cope
Arctic Monkeys
The Decemberists
Coheed and Cambria
Andrew Bird
Girl Talk
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Phoenix
Bassnectar
Bon Iver
!!!
The Avett Brothers
The Airborne Toxic Event
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Clutch
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Grizzly Bear
Heartless Bastards
Passion Pit
White Lies
Dan Auerbach
The Walkmen
The Scabs
Reckless Kelly
Devotchka
Blitzen Trapper
The Virgins
Here We Go Magic
Eek-A-Mouse
K’ Naan
Asleep at the Wheel
Dr. Dog
The Raveonettes
The Knux
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
State Radio
Los Amigos Invisibles
The Felice Brothers
Federico Aubele
Raul Malo
Daniel Johnston
Poi Dog Pondering
Brett Dennen
Rodriguez
Henry Butler
Preservation Hall
Sam Roberts Band
The Greencards
Sara Watkins
Walter “Wolfman” Washington
David Garza
John Vanderslice
Zac Brown Band
Todd Snider
School of Seven Bells
The Dodos
Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
Alberta Cross
Deer Tick
Bell X1
Alela Diane
The Wood Brothers
The Parlor Mob
Rebirth Brass Band
Marva Wright
Terri Hendrix
L.A.X.
Lisa Hannigan
The Low Anthem
Sons of Bill
Suckers
Sarah Jaffe
Cotton Jones
The Henry Clay People
Papa Mali
Jypsi
Vince Mira
Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights
Mimicking Birds
Jeffrey Steele
Jonell Mosser
Leatherbag
Keith Gattis
Damien Horne
Sarah Siskind
Dexateens
Nelo
Danny Brooks
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
The Soul Stirrers
The Durdens
Palm School Elementary
The Gospel Silvertones
Diaconos
Quinn Sullivan
Ralph’s World
Q Brothers
Milkshake
Telephone Company
Loose Cannons
Lunch Money

As is our want, we’ve flipped the script here at The Singles Collection and in the spirit of timeliness, this week we’ll be featuring seven-inches that were exclusive to last Saturday’s Record Store Day (our newest all Sacred Bones feature will now run next week). Now, some of you may be listening to these as you read this, others may have unfortunately been shut out, while other still may have no idea these singles, or Record Store Day for that matter, even existed. At any rate, we’re only scratching the surface of the exclusive platters that were available on the 18th (for a full list, go here), and we hear some stores may even still have stock on some of these titles, so if anything strikes your fancy, best get a googlin’.

To kick things off this week, we’ve got a pair of split singles from Matador featuring the kings & queen of the alternative universe, Sonic Youth aka Sonik You*h. The first split features another icon, Beck, in a mutual appreciation style love fest which finds them covering each others’ songs — SY tackling “Pay No Mind” while Beck takes on “Green Light”. As you might imagine, Thurston & Co. thoroughly rough up the Mellow Gold sleeper, injecting it with their patented off-key/kilter harmonies/harmonics and some skuzzy meta-ooze thrown in for good measure. On the flip, Beck takes the EVOL track and turns it into a lovely, acoustic cloudburst that, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear was one of his very own.

The second exclusive RSD jam from Sonic Youth is their split with Memphis’ favorite son, Jay Reatard. For his part, Jay’s track, “Hang Them All” is a scorcher, a blink-and-you-missed-it track that bubbles with skittering synth and a clap-trap rhythm reminiscent of the Blood Visions-era. It alone is worth the price of admission, and certainly bodes well for his upcoming full-length. The SY track, “No Garage” is a rehearsal space jam that, well, sounds a lot like you’d figure a Sonic Youth rehearsal would. Which isn’t to say it’s bad, but it’s essentially instrumental meandering with a nice, Kraut-y groove that eventually denigrates into their trademark squall of loping distortion and ear-piercing feedback. Both of these splits are, ostensibly, sold out, but stores with extra stock seem to pop up daily, so make sure to keep a close watch if you don’t want to pay eBay prices.

The Sub Pop stable did their part and released a handful of limited 45’s for RSD, the best of which is the Obits‘ “I Can’t Lose” b/w “Military Madness”. For those not already familiar, Obits are Rick Froberg from Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu’s new project, and while their sound doesn’t really deviate too much from either/both of those outfits, it’s still new Froberg jams so who are we to complain? “I Can’t Lose” is less dissonant/angular than we’re used to hearing him, yet it roars with a heads-down fury and undeniable hooks-a-plenty. On the flip, their take on Graham Nash’s “Military Madness” flips the original on its ear, injecting it with a venomous core that’s both touching and destructive in equal measure. Copies of this still seem to be kicking around places like Reckless Records, so if you need some more Froberg in your life, you know where to go.

Lastly this week, we’ve got one of the lost gems from RSD, the super limited Kim Phuc & Centipede E’est split on Dear Skull Records out of Pittsburgh. These were primarily only available in the Pittsburgh area, with some other notable stores (Permanent Records in Chicago, Academy in NYC) getting the remaining stock to give away to punters who came out early and purchased vinyl. We’re not sure if this is going to get a proper release or not, but it truly deserves one as the two tracks here are absolute stunners. On the A-Side, Kim Phuc’s “Rustbelt Noose” delivers all the spit-crusted-psych-punk power you’ve come to expect from them, and has now officially taken the mantle as the greatest KP song yet. Not to be outdone on the flip, Centipede E’est offer up “Stingray”, an epic space-rock jam that’s ebbs and flows with terse psych-grooves and sky-melting crescendos. These are absolutely gorgeous, all hand-numbered out of 200 and featuring fantastic screened covers. We’re not sure if they are still available anywhere or not, but we’d suggest trying Paul’s or Wicked Discs in Pittsburgh if you are trying to track one down.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our truncated look at some of the Record Store Day exclusives, and make sure to also keep an eye out for others like the Slayer “Psychopathy Red” 45 and the totally awesome Jesus Lizard 9×7″ collection Inch as they’re both totally worth your time and hard-earned loot. Also make sure to come back next week to read about the newest batch of gems from one of our favorite labels, Sacred Bones Records.

Sonic Youth has had lots of interesting adventures lately, but this one might just take the cake: being trapped inside a huge, metallic, futuristic-looking fish bowl (with John Paul Jones, no less) while playing music for a dance show at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Gilman Opera House.

As we told you back in December, Sonic Youth teamed up with the former Led Zeppelin bass player to perform the music for the Merce Cunningham number. The Village Voice said that the contraption from which the musicians (Sonic Youth, Jones and composer Takehisa Kosugi) played “designed by architect Benedetta Tagliabue, did an entertaining job of upstaging Cunningham’s dancers, despite their 1967-season Star Trek costumes.”

The dance show is Merce Cunningham’s “Nearly Ninety”, and if you don’t know Mr. Cunningham the scoop is that he’s actually 90 years old. So the title works like that. The New York Times gives a more through review of the performance, calling the bandstand “an ugly science fiction cross between various Marcel Duchamp works (”Nude Descending a Staircase,” “The Bride and the Bachelors”) and some “Star Wars” battleship.”

The whole thing probably would’ve been pretty weird all on its own, even without the possibility that the band could initiate lift-off sequences at any moment.

Back in February we told you Sonic Youth would be releasing their 16th album, The Eternal, on June 9. Now, the first single for the album, which incidentally is the first track on the album, which incidentally is the band’s first with Matador has been released. And what better way to celebrate our affinity for the world’s preeminent major label indie band than to stream you the new single?

Starting the track off with the trick of ambiance to your ears, the song quickly moves from the feel of discordant noise, to the classically grungey garage feel that we know and love Sonic Youth for having. In the short 2 minute track, Sonic Youth managed to create a kicking track, as Gordon’s sharp vocals are perfectly laid and blended over the distorted sounds of the guitar and bass. Incidentally (if you’re counting, that’s three incidents), the band has also enlisted the services of Mark Ibold (Pavement) for bass on some of the tracks on The Eternal, including “Sacred Trickster”.

Sonic Youth – “Sacred Trickster”

ATP are also giving event goers a special deal on tickets for this years Nightmare Before Christmas party — man, we love recession-specials. Attendees have the opportunity to purchase an early bird special for the event. Everyone who purchases a ticket for seven days until 9 a.m. on April 24 (or until the ticket allotment runs out) will get 20 euros off of their ticket.

Nothing can induce a potent combination of nostalgia and rage like the time-honored top 100 list. All the major music magazines have come out with at least one or two, and Rolling Stone has about a one-per-month quota. But this latest one comes from a slightly unlikely source — Amazon. Apparently they don’t just sell you music. They might actually know a little something about it, too. Maybe.

The Amazon list came equipped with a read-this-before-you-write-a-strongly-worded-letter clause, listing all the requirements and stipulations the Amazon music editors placed on albums worthy of the list.

The term “Indie Rock” is undeniably tricky. We challenge anyone to definitively define what is and what is not indie rock–you will fail. For the purposes of compiling this list we’ve decided to use a combination of hard and fast rules and gut instinct. Our hard and fast rules are listed below, but as for gut instinct—you just kind of have to know. For example: John Oates put out a rock record called Phunk Shui on an indie label, however, in no way should Phunk Shui be mistaken for indie rock. Likewise, Black Flag put out many seminal punk albums on SST, but we’re not talking about punk or grunge or classic post-kraut-rock, we’re talking about indie rock. Are Black Flag really indie rock? Not to our ears.

Here are the hard and fast rules:
• One album per artist.
• No EPs or singles, this list is about albums.
• No greatest hits collections or compilations of previously released tracks.
• Nominations must have been originally released on an independent label. Albums released on indies which were later acquired and/or re-released by majors are allowed (like Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, originally released by a pre-1989 major label merger Enigma Records).

With the only one album per artist rule, there are definitely a few that make you scratch your head — why Death Cab’s We Have The Facts instead of Plans, why does Sufjan Stevens fall higher than Bright Eyes, and both of them higher than Arcade Fire’s Funeral, which is higher than Husker Du?

But when it’s coming from Amazon, we know two things that bring us solace. No. 1, it’s an online marketplace ranking indie records, and thus any discrepancy should be taken with that proverbial salt grain. No. 2, the only reason something like this exists on a site like Amazon is to boost sales. And any outlet that wants to boost sales of indie rock? Pretty much okay in our book.

You judge for yourself. Here’s the top 20, you can see the full listing here.

20. I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One – Yo La Tengo
19. Kill the Moonlight – Spoon
18. Give Up – The Postal Service
17. Dig Me Out – Sleater-Kinney
16. No Pocky for Kitty – Superchunk
15. I See A Darkness – Bonnie “Prince” Billy
14. We Have The Facts and We’re Voting Yes – Death Cab For Cutie
13. Michigan – Sufjan Stevens
12. Daydream Nation – Sonic Youth
11. 69 Love Songs Volume 1 – The Magnetic Fields
10. Bakesale – Sebadoh
09. Either/Or – Elliott Smith
08. Surfer Rosa – Pixies
07. If You’re Feeling Sinister – Belle & Sebastian
06. Slanted & Enchanted – Pavement
05. Imperial f.f.r.r. (Deluxe Edition) – Unrest
04. Exile In Guyville – Liz Phair
03. Spiderland – Slint
02. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
01. Bee Thousand – Guided by Voices

They list as their influences bands from an amalgam of genres and musical spectrums, but when you hear The Splinters play, it all makes sense. They are Sonic Youth meets The Shangri-Las, The Breeders meet The Evens. They are Ashley, Caroline, Lauren and Courtney. They are from Berkeley. And they’d like to rock for you.

They caught our attention at SxSW with their mix of garage rock, girl-band, riot grrrl, folk and alternative. Plus, their debut EP comes in a hand-decorated cover slip with original art by members of the band — no two are alike. It looks like at this point you can only nab copies at one of their gigs, but we’ve got a track from the EP for you to check out. Enjoy.

The Splinters – “Splintered Bridges”

This was a different kind of show from the beginning, and it was more difficult than most shows to get press into. However, I decided to trek out to Brooklyn’s isolated Glasslands, as Eric Copeland is one of my favorite noisemakers and I wanted to see what Thurston Moore and Carlos Giffoni (No Fun’s organizer/curator) would treat us to (plus Glasslands is a choice place to see a show).

I arrived just in time to catch Copeland setting up. My feelings on his set went back and forth. Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson called Copeland a “sonic dumpster diver” which is a pretty much perfect description of his solo work. DJ-style, Copeland deftly blended one song into the next, hunching over his pile of gear and sometimes picking up a mic to ..do what he does over it. I myself happen to be a musician and after seeing his band Black Dice several times, I still have no idea how he or the Dice make their sounds — from the audience perspective it’s all focused knob twiddling. It wasn’t too thrilling to watch.. made me think of this breed of noise shows in general and the name “No Fun.”

During the set I began asking myself why I can’t appreciate this stuff live as much as on record. I began to wonder if this kind of music is inferior to more straightforward music styles, especially in the live setting, but tracks like “Hermaphrodite,” “Alien in a Garbage Dump,” and the delicious “Green Burrito” (which I wish he played) as well as countless Black Dice tracks, have soundtracked many glorious subway rides and hazed-out walks down 8th Ave. Yet here I am standing before one of the best noisemakers around feeling shades of ennui setting in. Copeland and Dice’s music is quite visual and the performance would have been helped by something other than the house visuals. Still, it was cool to hear his aural colleges in this environment, and cranked up.

[Eric Copeland]

What can I say? Thurston is a bona-fide king, a god, and I’d pay ten bucks to watch him assault the fuck out of a guitar for a half hour any day of the week.

[Thurston Moore and Carlos Giffoni]

Up next was Emeralds. I’m trying to get into the practice of hearing at least something by each band I am going out to see, but I didn’t have much luck looking for their music online and didn’t find out much more than that they’re apparently an improv band from Ohio. Turns out it’s three dudes with a bunch of analog gear and an effects-treated guitar. After five to ten minute calm drone, I quickly wrote them off.. it’s not that they couldn’t have pushed it further, as they did manage to squeeze some pretty cool sounds out of their equipment (synthetic waves and flying saucer sounds conjuring some sort of warm electronic lagoon) but I wished they did something a bit more interesting. Then, out of nowhere with a single arpeggio it began to peak… warm psychedelic textures emerged and spun around, and the chatter in the room died down. Very pretty stuff, true to their name.

[Emeralds]

[Glasslands]

[No Fun DJs]

Sweet sixteen is quickly approaching for Sonic Youth — June 9 will mark the release of the band’s first LP with new label Matador, their sixteenth career album, The Eternal.

The album (with cover art by the late guitar great John Fahey) was co-produced by John Agnello, who also co-produced the band’s last album, 2006’s Rather Ripped. The heavily-Twittered recording process saw a few firsts: former Pavement member Mark Ibold also joined the band in the studio for the first time after playing and touring with the band for a good while, and for the first time, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo share lead vocals on a few tracks.

Even with a new album coming out, they’re not resting on their laurels. Besides Gordon’s fashion endeavors, the band also recently got together with former Led Zep bassist John Paul Jones and composer Takehisa Kosugi to write the soundtrack for a dance piece for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, debuting at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April. Matador is releasing a 7″ single of SY and Beck covering each other as part of Record Store Day festivities on April 18, and they’re performing at the No Fun Fest at Music Hall of Williamsburg in May.

If you buy the album through Matador’s Buy Early Get Now program, you’ll get some bonus features. Check out the track listing below.

The Eternal track listing
01. Sacred Trickster
02. Anti-Orgasm
03. Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
04. Antenna
05. What We Know
06. Calming The Snake
07. Poison Arrow
08. Malibu Gas Station
09. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn
10. No Way
11. Walkin Blue
12. Massage The History

In the grand tradition of selling out, Sonic Youth bassist and singer Kim Gordon has gone into business with Urban Outfitters, making her Mirror/Dash line of clothing available for the masses at the clothing stores starting Monday. We understand if you want to leave now to camp out for your place in line.

Gordon originally launched Mirror/Dash in September, no doubt drawing on her experiences with X-Girl, and unleashed into the world the Hardy Jacket. It’s not all that different from most other jackets, except that you have to surrender your first-born child to buy one. Or $415.

So now it seems Mirror/Dash clothes will be a little more financially accessible. Sigh of relief breathed here. The announcement was made via Sonic Youth’s MySpace blog this week. But as Pitchfork reminded us, this isn’t the first time SY has gone corporate, or even the first time they’ve gotten in bed with Urban Outfitters.

In a New York Times interview, Gordon said, “We’re actually trying to do something a little less trend oriented, a little more classic, that might appeal to someone say who used to shop at Urban [Outfitters] but wants something slightly less young looking. And we would like to appeal also to the usual Urban customer as well.”