Tag Archives: Sonic Youth

Ravels in Review Friday

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You’ll be happy to know that dinner last night was delicious: tilapia, brussel sprouts, and potatoes; and a good time was had be all. (I know you were anxious about my entertaining abilities.)

As it is finally Friday, it’s time for a Ravels in Review post. I think the week certainly started out on a good note with a long-overdue introduction.

If anybody had a chance to check things out in Chelsea, let us know. Hopefully I’ll follow that gallery list myself! Today is 70 degrees and sunny–what could be better?

Happy Friday all!

Merce Cunningham’s Nearly Ninety at BAM

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So this is your very dance-uniformed reviewer thanking her lucky stars that she brought her camera with her last night. I wouldn’t know how to describe what I saw properly. I caught the sold-out production of Nearly Ninety arranged by legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cunningham is a legend, but not one I had heard of when I bought these tickets months ago–I came for Sonic Youth.

As you can see in this short video, this was no Sonic Youth concert, but it was a interesting and exciting collaboration. I enjoyed it, but let me say that the experimental music did not strive to be harmonious and the dance was at times slow. The glittery spaceship-like set that the musicians played on and the black and white costumes were great. But check out some snippets for yourself and see what you think. And don’t hesitate to enlighten me!

Sonic Youth: A Case of Art and Rock n’ Roll

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There used to be few things cooler than expiremental guitar band Sonic Youth. Despite the unfortunate fact that years pass regardless of one’s coolness, Sonic Youth has remained vibrant and interesting. I don’t even mean that in a senior citizens way. Recent activities include: Sonic Youth Etc.: Sensational Fix, an multidisciplinary and collaborative art exhibition, and playing along with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to choreographer Merce Cunningham’s latest project at BAM.

So in addition to rocking out, they’re doing art. Or as their press release documents, exposing the band’s historical connection to the art world:

“By the early 1980s, an alternative scene emerged in downtown New York City in which music and visual art were tightly connected. Both the raw and rebellious attitude of punk and the atonal, violent guitar music with abstract lyrics of no-wave inspired artists like Robert Longo, Richard Prince, Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon to play in bands, while performances by these ‘art-rock’ bands were held in exhibition spaces and so-called ‘art lofts’…. The natural crossover between art and experimental music, as was apparent in those days, laid the foundations for the multidisciplinary activities of Sonic Youth. “

Sensational Fix is in Europe until 2010. (It won’t be coming to New York as far as I know.) However, there is a great looking catalog. The 720 pg. book is limited to 600 copies and includes two 7″ records, each one recorded by a different member of the band.