| SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 16, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | March–August 1999, NYC | |||
| Genre | Modern classical, harsh noise, experimental | |||
| Length | 105:42 | |||
| Label | SYR | |||
| Producer | Sonic Youth, William Winant, Jim O'Rourke | |||
| Sonic Youth chronology | ||||
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SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century is an album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It is a double album of versions of pieces by avant-garde composers, performed by Sonic Youth and collaborators.
SYR4 featured works by avant-garde classical composers such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, Steve Reich and Christian Wolff, played by Sonic Youth and several collaborators from the modern avant-garde music scene, such as Christian Marclay, William Winant, Wharton Tiers and Takehisa Kosugi.
Unlike other entries in the SYR series, SYR4's liner notes were written in English.
Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's daughter Coco Hayley Moore, about 5 years old at the time of recording, provided the vocals for "Voice Piece for Soprano" on disc 1.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Edges" | Christian Wolff | Wolff, Jim O'Rourke, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Takehisa Kosugi, Thurston Moore, William Winant | 16:03 |
| 2. | "Six (3rd Take)" | John Cage | O'Rourke, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 3:03 |
| 3. | "Six for New Time (For Sonic Youth)" | Pauline Oliveros | O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Moore, Winant | 8:06 |
| 4. | "+–" | Takehisa Kosugi | O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 7:01 |
| 5. | "Voice Piece for Soprano" | Yoko Ono | Coco Hayley Moore | 0:17 |
| 6. | "Pendulum Music" | Steve Reich | Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Moore | 5:55 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Having Never Written a Note for Percussion" | James Tenney | O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 9:09 |
| 2. | "Six (4th Take)" | Cage | O'Rourke, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 2:10 |
| 3. | "Burdocks" | Wolff | Christian Marclay, Wolff, O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 13:12 |
| 4. | "Four6" | Cage | O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant, Wharton Tiers | 30:01 |
| 5. | "Piano Piece No. 13 (Carpenter's Piece) (For Nam June Paik)" | George Maciunas | Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Moore | 3:58 |
| 6. | "Pièce enfantine" | Nicolas Slonimsky | Ranaldo, Winant | 1:28 |
| 7. | "Treatise (Page 183)" | Cornelius Cardew | O'Rourke, Gordon, Ranaldo, Shelley, Kosugi, Moore, Winant | 3:25 |
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century was released on CD and vinyl. The vinyl version had a slightly different track order, due to the side length constraints of the format. The first disc of the CD edition contained a QuickTime video of a performance of "Piano Piece No. 13 (Carpenter's Piece)", which showed Sonic Youth nailing piano keys down one by one.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
| Alternative Press | [2] |
| Robert Christgau |  [3] |
| Entertainment Weekly | C+ [4] |
| NME | 7/10 [5] |
| Pitchfork | 8.5/10 [6] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [7] |
| Spin | favorable [2] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.5/5 [8] |
SYR: Goodbye 20th Century received mixed reviews from critics, but most praised the group's efforts at popularizing and reinterpreting the composers' works. The album placed second in The Wire 's annual critics' poll for record of the year. [9]
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City and formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was also a member of the band from 1999 to 2005, and Mark Ibold was a member from 2006 to 2011.
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Lee Mark Ranaldo is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.
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Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music and classicist.
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Sonic Youth is the debut EP by American rock band Sonic Youth. It was recorded between December 1981 and January 1982 and released in March 1982 by Glenn Branca's Neutral label. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth lineup with Richard Edson on drums. Sonic Youth differs stylistically from the band's later work in its greater incorporation of clean guitars, standard tuning, crisp production and a post-punk style.
Confusion Is Sex is the debut studio album by American noise rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in 1983 by Neutral Records. It has been referred to as an important example of the no wave genre. AllMusic called it "lo-fi to the point of tonal drabness, as the instruments seem to ring out in only one tone, that of screechy noise".
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Bad Moon Rising is the second studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on March 29, 1985, by Blast First and Homestead Records. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, including references to obsession, insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism, and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans.
The Eternal is the fifteenth and final studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 9, 2009, by Matador Records, their first and only on that label. It was their first studio album in three years, making it the band's longest delay between studio albums.
| Studio albums | |
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| Extended plays | |
| Live albums | |
| Compilation albums | |
| Other albums | |
| SYR series | |
| Singles |
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| Video albums | |
| Books about Sonic Youth | |
| Side projects | |
| Related articles | |
