the most overrated band ever

yes, it is true... sonic youth is the most overrated band on the face of the earth. throughout all of time possibly, but that would mean having to rate them against every band in the 60's and seeing as how i wasn't there and all, it makes it a rather difficult thing to gauge. personally, i enjoy sonic youth and i am not saying that they are not a noteworthy band nor would i dare say that they are not one of the most influential bands of their time. firsts are important things however; the first time your kid makes a drawing you don't throw them a 15-year long parade over it.i think that their first few albums kinda suck. i understand that the landscape of music at that time was much different and that is why this album caught on the way it did. i don't find it completely worthless, but to sum it up nicely, i own it on cassette. the first self titled album and the sonic death albums are also not very engaging. it sounds like your boring stoned friends playing guitar after they first read naked lunch, yawn.things start to take a change with bad moon rising, not a great record but the elements that come together for, what can only be deemed as "the golden years", first start to emerge. once again, i own this one, (or at least at one point in time i did) on cassette.evol through goo are fucking awesome. a lot of people like to go on about the "trinity" of sister, daydream nation and goo, but i think not only is that gay, (and one of the points that while these records are good, they are in no way shape of form mystical or godly) but it is a real error to leave evol out. there could be a good argument that evol is in fact better than sister, but i leave you to make that call yourself.it might sound slightly dismissive to simply state that these are some of the most influential records of the 80's, but that is what they essentially amount to. those records would go on to play a hand in the creation of so many more sounds by many different, and great, groups to come out in the next 16 years and quite likely beyond. however, while great in their own right, sonic youth has been riding the heralds of them for the rest of their career.i've always found myself at odds with sonic youths artistic angle, that being that they have always considered themselves to be artists before musicians. their claims that goo, (which is quite possibly their best work) was their comment about pop music as always rubbed me wrong. they had been gravitating towards a more standard format for years and the closer they came to it, the most successful they became. it has always seemed as though they have been far too art school to admit that they enjoy making records that aren't exclusively commenting on music. if this were the case, and goo's success was nothing more than a successful fleecing of the public, then why would the years that follow continue with records that seemed little more than goo re-written several times over and poorly at that?which brings us to, oh i dunno, lets call them "the toilet years"... dirty has some good songs on it, but as an album it just fails to reach the mark, by about 1000 yards. compared even to dirtys low standards, experimental jet set, trash and no star is probably the most boring, self-filating piece of garbage that was released by an indie rock band. technically, they didn't even tour for this record and i can see why. they had to keep that bad mojo going so they could write an almost bigger piece of shit record, washing machine, (i say almost because i have never been able to listen to either record long enough to compare the two.) now, if goo was your "comment on pop music" then why make three more records, one of which is far more radio ready than goo ever could have been, making the exact same comment? perhaps sonic youth was experiencing some sort of artist echolalia.it is also interesting to note that as sonic youth becomes more commercial, the arsenal of side project explodes during this time. as they have always been into putting their dicks in many bowls of mashed potatoes as possible, about this time shit just gets wildly out of hand. whether it is their public apology for making such shitty sonic youth products or their art school apology for playing to the market, it really is the equivalent of sonic youth fan fiction.. written by sonic youth.with each record after this time period, starting with a thousand leaves until the newest rather ripped, (what a terrible name by the way, if they wanted to make some art, they should have made it sound like an andrew wk record, that would have been hilarious) each record has always been billed as, sonic youth's triumphant return to form, (read, sonic youth doesn't suck anymore!). but as far as the next four records go, (thousand leaves, nyc ghosts and flowers, murray street and sonic nurse) sonic nurse what the only one that was more than just some generic sounding sonic youth record.when i first heard rather ripped, the first couple of songs were okay, but it wasn't anything new. i say this without any expectation that each record should "blow my mind" or "freak me out" but you can make good work without phoning it in. i think they finally got it back for the time being on this one. i actually found myself playing certain tracks over again and actually finding it fresher than anything they have done in years.while this is a welcome return, it still fails explain how they have managed to remain the indie darlings they are after after putting out nothing but shitty or marginal records for the last 16 years. they have sold out ever chicago show they have played since sister and through out the ugliest moments in their career. sonic youth, you bloated sagging matinee idol, your gastro bypass and botox have served you well. here's to you aging as gracefully as possible in the future, you overrated snobs.and that is with that cover art? sheesh!