Album thread: Sister
 

I make this with many messages, because this gossip throws me out when my writing takes too long time and when I log in again, there comes irretating invalid thread message.

This was my first Sonic vinyl. I had Goo, Daydream Nation and Dirty on cassette before and I thought it was time to buy an LP from this very exciting band that I have listened about two years. I chose Sister because I had heard that it was made in old equipment. I ordered it from the shop that was in maintown. I was then just moved away from home. I lived in hall of residence. That belonged to the school where I had just started studies. There was only one room and I had a roommate. This hall of residence was very old building and it had kind of atmosphere that fitted well in that record.

I have loved Sister from the very beginning, when Steve´s drums came out from the loudspeakers!!! It is very hard to me say what is best Sonic record, but if I have to, it is Sister. Maybe partly one reason is the sounds of that record, I love every record made in Sear Sound. Maybe it´s also the glamour of that time. I had just started my own life eventhough it wasn´t easy all the time. My girlfriend lived in other town and we saw only weekends, so in a week I had kind of free feeling. There were lots of great bands in that town that time, so I went to the concerts almost every week. So the time was also musically very inspirous.

I love every song of that album, Hot wire is not the strongest Sonic song but it definitely belongs to that album! The other great albums that I bought (with my study loan : )): Dr John: Gris Gris, the Stooges: Fun House, Gun Club: Fire Of Love, Joy Division: Substance, Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath, Todd Rundgren´s Utopia: Same, Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit. I also recorded the Birthday Party´s Junkyard album and some ep:´s from the band on cassette that time.

Dr John?

I hardly liked the album when I got it.
But, it's actually one of the best things sonic youth ever did.
You got the crazy song structures, lots of Philip K Dick inpsired lyrics going on. Even the albums title is a Philip K Dick reference
Dr John is the gris gris man. Is there a problem?

No problem at all. Just funny to have that record in that list.

yes, dear Mortte, the sound is like the electricity is going thru the guitar strings, it's like amplified bees, especially the nexus of Catholic Block, Stereo Sanctity, and Tuff Gnarl. what a sound.

To me it´s very natural, that I listened all those records those days. I think they all have something very primitive and dark, something very powerful. They gave me very much hope to the future because my mood was then also very dark. I felt somebody else had also experienced same things and lived through these things.

Yeah that is a pretty unusual album. I expected more of a blues or boogie woogie vibe (because Dr John used to play guitar for Professor Longhair) but it's more.. voodoo/cajun/eerie/almost sorta toms waits mystical feel

And: Sister Reissue PLZ! I thought it was coming after the DDN one.. It really should have. ya know?

ORG (original recordings group) were supposed to be reissuing this and Bad Moon Rising but for some reason the date is getting pushed back everywhere.

Their site was down for ages and updates of that got put back and then they just put the old one back up 2 months after taking it down.

I have tried to contact them before but their service is lame and they do not respond to enquiries. Shame really as the other SY reissues and the Nirvana stuff was great quality.

Don't hold your breath....maybe RSD 2011 by the time they get their finger out.

I AGREE! I have always thought that Dr. John, Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits and Nick Cave have something in common.

Fantastic album, even though I must agree that Hot Wire My Heart is a bit of a bore.

You checked out Bad Moon Rising? If not...DO IT NOW!

I love Rather Ripped!!! (By the way, there isn´t nowadays any Sonic Album that I don´t love!)

From John Agnello's Facebook...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...364e1d9b99 b7

Also it must be said: '87 Sister tour was one of the best of their entire career!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnKPejHJRtU

One of the most atmospheric records of all time. The artwork, the production of it, everything. I still recall very clearly hearing it for the first time. I was hanging out at a friend's house around 15 years ago and his sister's boyfriend had it on vinyl. I kept playing it over and over again...

CiS and BMR are still my faves but Sister is the album where I think their main currents (punk, psych, a-g, bubblegum) fuse the best. It never sounds contrived. All their albums after Sister, it was easier to seperate into the 'Lee', 'Thurston' and 'Kim' bits but Sister has a quality where all their personalities are there but interact almost seamlessly. Except on HWMH which, I agree, sounded like a Thurston thing the others merely played along to. Overall, ironically, it might be their least schizophrenic album.

EDIT: Thinking about it, it might be my all-time fave album cover too. Definitely their best one.

Sister is still my fav!

Well, for once I won't be able to blame Agnello for the dead drum sounds.

Yeah, Sister is fantastic. And the artsy collage album cover was the icing on the cake. It's a bloody shame what that's been reduced to over the decades! Censorious buggers!

Are you sure? Sometimes remixing has caused horrible things to the original sounds (as it happens in the eighties or nineties to the original ZZ TOP-Records).