r/sonicyouth • u/_Jub_Jub_ • 1d ago

Can someone succinctly explain the SY bassist evolution to me plz?

So I’m a major Sonic Youth fan, have been since high school, but I’m also fairly young and didn’t pay attention to the band when they started their mid 90s-2000s lineup changes.

I’ve read GIAB and Sonic Life, so I know that around the time of Experimental Jet Set, Kim focused on being tbe band’s third guitarist moreso than a bassist, and stayed that way. But, of course, songs like Bull in the Heather and The Diamond Sea had bass on them, before they ever adopted a 5th member.

I also think that around the SYR era, Jim O Rourke played bass sometimes? And was kind of in the band? And so was Mark Ibold until they disbanded? This is where my knowledge wanes; I have no idea what years after ‘94 who was playing what instrument. If someone could give me a short timeline or just info on what band members played what during and after (and a bit before) the SYR era, I’d appreciate it.

TLDR: Dumdum fan wants a timeline of the members and what instruments they played, as specific or general as you’re willing to get. Thanks!

18 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/Barilla3113 1d ago

O'Rourke was a full member of the band from 2000 until 2005. He'd play bass when Kim played guitar and vice versa. Ibold was then their bassist from 2006-11.

As for who played bass on the pre-O'Rourke records when Kim had guitar parts, Kim. Unlike other Alternative bands Sonic Youth embraced post-production very rapidly. One person can play multiple parts and you just overlap the tracks in mixing.

3

u/JuliusDiamond 1d ago

Didn't Thurston play bass on a couple early SY tracks? Can't remember which ones but seems like that happened?

3

u/asktheages1979 15h ago

Yes, a number of them. Refer to these, which were done carefully by an obsessive fan who studied their parts and arrangements for years, to the point that the band has included all his analyses on their own site:
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/

2

u/asktheages1979 1d ago

Wait, what's an example of a song where Kim plays both a complete guitar part and a complete bass part? I thought Sonic Youth generally kept the records fairly faithful to what they could reproduce live.

1

u/_Jub_Jub_ 1d ago

Oh, I actually didn’t know they utilized post-production like that. I mean, I knew they would do more than two guitar tracks on songs, I guess I just didn’t add up that they had entire guitar lines dedicated to parts they feasibly couldn’t plag live as a 4 piece. Good to know, thanks!

10

u/asktheages1979 1d ago

I'm not sure that they did tbh. If you look at the tunings page that someone else linked, or the tab archive at http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/ , It seems fairly clear who's playing what. Dirty is a good album to refer to because all three parts are clearly separated in the stereo field - generally Lee is left, Kim is centre, Thurston is right. On "Swimsuit Issue", you can hear them all playing guitar, with no bass part that I can identify. On "Theresa's Sound-World", it's pretty clear that Kim is playing bass in the centre. I think they might have possibly layered some additional feedback but there aren't complete bass and guitar parts from Kim. And Dirty was one album where Butch Vig pressed them to accept more post-production stuff than they were used to. I'm not sure what the other poster is referring to, honestly - I don't think SY were ever into post-production to nearly the extent that a lot of other alternative bands (e.g. MBV) were.

3

u/asktheages1979 1d ago

Or compare "Drunken Butterfly" and "Wish Fulfilment", which both have three guitars (though Kim's playing is more limited on the latter), with "Shoot" and "Sugar Kane", which both have two guitars plus bass, with all the parts crystal clear each time.