Confusion Is Sex Sonic Youth

Confusion Is Sex Sonic Youth

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Confusion Is Sex

by

Sonic Youth

<>
I bought this album and SWANS Filth in '85. It made me rediscover the US underground.

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CD in jewel case with 6 panel folder. Manufactured by Sonic Youth's goofin' label.

Includes unlimited streaming of Confusion Is Sex
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Vinyl LP w black + white insert/poster.

Includes unlimited streaming of Confusion Is Sex
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

(She's In A) Bad Mood

05:35

Protect Me You

05:26

Freezer Burn

03:38

Shaking Hell

04:06

Inhuman

04:02

The World Looks Red

02:42

Confusion Is Next

03:27

Brother James

02:50

Making The Nature Scene

03:01

Lee Is Free

03:26

Originally slated to be a 7” to follow up their self-titled debut, Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Sex blossomed into the band’s first album: a brain-bludgeoning, completely fried endeavor of dissonance and disarray, a perfect soundtrack for running from a chain-wielding gang near the SIN Club.

This was the sound of 1983 New York City, nothing like the jangly roots of college radio rock starting to formulate in Athens, Georgia. It sounded like no one else on Earth, for that matter. The raw, Wharton Tiers 8-track production is dark, the Kim Gordon- scrawled cover figure art of Thurston Moore is dark, Lee Ranaldo’s back cover photo-collage and Catherine Ceresole’s crumpled-xeroxed images that adorned the inside are dark. It’s an album that moves Sonic Youth forward from their first EP almost by devolving backwards into true ugly, lo-fi primitivity.

The bareboned arsenal of junkpile guitars and implementation of alternate tunings was growing, and so were the songs that matched the individual attributes of each instrument: certain ones groan and growl a specific way that the band started to realize itself could become the compositional germ of a song.

Herein is the threshold of a new explosion of the band’s creativity, replacing the comparatively cleaner buzz of the Sonic Youth EP with guitars that spew fractured, uglier chunks of sound everywhere, held down by menacing minimalist basslines (actually played by Thurston on half of this LP, and for the only time ever on “Protect Me You,” Lee) and the brutal-yet-controlled metronomic drumming of Jim Sclavunos, augmented with replacement drummer Bob Bert’s notable bashing on “Making the Nature Scene” and grotty no-fi live rendition of “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

Hearing the crashedwindow intro of “Inhuman” and subway-brake screech of “The World Looks Red,” you can attest that while Sonic Youth’s guitars are not quite yet being utilized in the totally controlled, lyrical fashion seen later on albums like Evol, Daydream Nation et al., they were well aware of the colors and tonalities that were unfolding and the possibilities presented.

Also, they were getting a grasp on adding colors to the chaos with tempered, simmering moments like Gordon’s “Shaking Hell” and Renaldo’s chimy, home-taped “Lee is Free.” “Making the Nature Scene” and “The World Looks Red” even toss in glints of hip-hop vocal approach way ahead of its time, albeit through a blender.

While its confrontationalism might have put off some critics, time has rewarded Confusion with a truly distinctive air and atmosphere in the Sonic discography, enough to have Moore declare it his fave along with the band’s swan-song The Eternal. - Brian Turner

released February 1, 1983

SONIC YOUTH is:

Kim Gordon

Lee Ranaldo

Thurston Moore

Jim Sclavunos

drums on DOG and Nature Scene-- Bob Bert

Engineer: Wharton Tiers

Assistant Engineer: John Erskine

recorded at Wharton's Studio in 8 tracks

except Dog -- rec. live at The Pier, Raleigh, NC, during the SONIC YOUTH/SWANS Savage Blunder Tour--Nov. 1982

and: LEE IS FREE--recorded at Lee's on cassette

Produced by Sonic Youth w Wharton and John

insert photo by CATHERINE BACHMANN

cover photo by ROLI MOSIMANN

all design by SONIC YOUTH

VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO CATHERINE AND NICHOLAS CERESOLE WITHOUT WHOM THIS RECORD WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE!

Tags

experimental

jim sclavunos

rock

thurston moore

alternative rock

experimental

indie rock

kim gordon

lee ranaldo

noise rock

post-punk

New York

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Live In Kyiv, Ukraine 1989 ,

In/Out/In ,

Live In Austin 1995 ,

Live In Dallas 2006 ,

Live In Copenhagen 2000 ,

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Evol ,

Rarities 3 ,

and 44 more .

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Sonic Youth Archive is a home to SY recordings including official, unreleased, self-released and stray SY recordings.
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Guitar

Thurston Moore &

Lee Ranaldo

Vocals

Thurston Moore

Bass, Vocals

Kim Gordon

Drums

Robert Bertelli

Vocals

Kim Gordon &

Thurston Moore

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Confusion is Sex is Sonic Youth’s first full-length studio album, released in 1983 on Glenn Branca ’s Neutral Records.
At this point in their history, Sonic Youth had a rather complicated relationship with their drummers. When Richard Edson left, they tacked up drummer-wanted fliers around town, a request which only one person answered. His name was Bob Bertelli, but he’d shortened it to Bob Bert . Bert was a…
Confusion is Sex is Sonic Youth’s first full-length studio album, released in 1983 on Glenn Branca ’s Neutral Records.
At this point in their history, Sonic Youth had a rather complicated relationship with their drummers. When Richard Edson left, they tacked up drummer-wanted fliers around town, a request which only one person answered. His name was Bob Bertelli, but he’d shortened it to Bob Bert . Bert was a heavy-handed rock drummer who’d been out of practice for years before the no wave scene inspired him to pick up his instrument again. As a result, he was rather sloppy and unskilled in the beginning—however, the band liked his primitive style, so he was in.
Soon, the band embarked on a tour of the midwest with Swans (one they called “ Savage Blunder ”). It was a short, tense, poorly-attended affair. Relations between the two bands, congenial at first, grew quite strained by the end, thanks in no small part to Swans frontman Michael Gira ’s confrontational, authoritarian ways. Bert in particular found the trip to be a unique ordeal; a non-smoker, he spent countless hours driving from stop to stop in the poorly-ventilated van as both bands smoked copiously. Plus, his skills were slipping behind as he frequently struggled to keep up with the band onstage. The group grew frustrated with him and shortly after finishing the first leg of the tour, Bert was fired over the phone by Gordon.
After one more false start, the band settled on Jim Sclavunos as Bert’s replacement. Sclavunos had quite a bit more technical finesse than Bert did (though he certainly didn’t share the band’s admiration for hardcore punk).
The band was eager to get the followup to their first EP recorded, but funds from Neutral were stuck in limbo. The band, thankfully, managed to befriend a wealthy Swiss couple who gave them a sizable loan to begin the sessions. Ranaldo found the studio, owned by Wharton Tiers (a friend of his who’d drummed for Rhys Chatham , who’d convinced his landlord to let him build a makeshift studio in the basement). The shoestring-budget studio, dubbed “Fun City,” gave the sessions a ramshackle, lo-fi quality that really brings out the crude, savage passion inherent in this material.
The original plan was to record a single for the song “Confusion is Next” —then Glenn Branca heard the results and promptly gave Sonic Youth the go-ahead to make a full-length album. Said Thurston Moore of the sessions: :
For my money, that was our purest record, in a way. We did it cheap and fast and it captured the sound we had and where we were emotionally.
However, tensions grew once again as Sclavunos failed to capture the savage ferocity the rest of the band had admired in Bert. During the recording of “Making the Nature Scene” , the band grew frustrated again and briefly entertained re-hiring Bert. Sclavunos (on edge as it is thanks to a worsening problem with speed and acid) took serious offense at that suggestion and stormed out of the studio, quitting the band—thus, Bob Bert was re-hired. The band kept him on through the sessions… then for a couple of shows. Then, a couple of shows turned into a European tour and Bert was in for the long run.
The album was released in February 1983 to a largely indifferent critical reaction, which rather irked the band . The consensus seems to have warmed a bit over the years, though, with Allmusic proclaiming it “a cornerstone of Sonic Youth’s career [and] their true opening salvo toward underground heroism.”

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Is Discontinued By Manufacturer
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No Product Dimensions
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12 x 12.6 x 1 inches; 8 Ounces Manufacturer
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Goofin Records Original Release Date
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2016 Date First Available
‏
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August 20, 2016 Label
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Goofin Records
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