[Soundtrax]

hi! i've always been wondering why sonic youth never much experimented with other signatures than 4/4 (apart from their avantgarde stuff that has no signature at all)... (steve has for over 20 years remained on drumming the same drum parts - bass, bass, snare, bass) do they even have 3/4 song? well, but thats not what i meant...i was wondering why do you think they never tried to experiment with 5/4, 7/4 or 11/4 or something even more complex, since they are so much into experimenting... i think it would be interesting to hear that from sonic youth...

[Neongod]

If a group can make good songs without playing in 11/4, it's not necessary IMO. Plus, I seriously doubt there's any time signature at the end of the Diamond Sea.

[terminal pharmacy]

i guess they find it superflous to what they are already doing musically. i personally don't want SY to become some sort of avante prog rock band.

[John Violence]

What about Candle?

[Everyneurotic]

because they don't feel like it?

or maybe because they are not the dillinger escape plan

[Soundtrax]

ok, you got the point.. and John Violence is right that Candle in some parts isnt 4/4, but dont you think sometimes that steve shelly can't make up much else than ("bass, bass, snare, bass" loop) kinda druming? I mean, I still like sonic youth, but i just sometimes wonder how their music would sound if .... ? you know...

[top 40 squeeze]

Originally Posted by Soundtrax

ok, you got the point.. and John Violence is right that Candle in some parts isnt 4/4, but dont you think sometimes that steve shelly can't make up much else than ("bass, bass, snare, bass" loop) kinda druming? I mean, I still like sonic youth, but i just sometimes wonder how their music would sound if .... ? you know...

Oh man, I could really rip into you hard right now about how wrong you are about Steve's drumming. Goddamn that man can drum. Everything from hard stuff, to really delicate arhythmic textured stuff. I mean listen to fucking schizophrenia and tell me that what he does on the toms during the middle section isn't the most perfect, simple, and dynamic drumming that could fall under those great harmonics and crazy chords thurston and lee are playing. One of my favorite drum moments ever. Stever doesn't show off, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have chops. He's not a wanker. Not at all. Different time sigs would be cool. I'd love to hear a sonic waltz, but I don't think that's the way they approach their song writing (thinking about technical aspects first), and drumming should always be in service to moving the song, or as a texturizer or a tendorizer.

Not to mention, his drumming in the Crucifucks is punk drumming at its best.

But yeah... I guess a little more time signature exploration would spice things up... I mean I doubt it would hurt.

Come on people, step up to the plate and lets change the thread to one about how great Steve's drumming is. The Nurse record/tour particularyly showed off how amazing Monsieur Shelley was. The movement he created on New Hampshire and Stones in particular made them rock 1000x harder than they sounded on the record.

[Sn@ke]

hey soundtrack...check this thread at the old forum, Steve posted there about that stuff:

http://www.sonicyouth.com/bboard/fan...opicID=1726979

[nicfit]

"Come on people, step up to the plate and lets change the thread to one about how great Steve's drumming is. The Nurse record/tour particularyly showed off how amazing Monsieur Shelley was. The movement he created on New Hampshire and Stones in particular made them rock 1000x harder than they sounded on the record."----top 40 squeeze is right, just have a look (and a listen,hopefully) to paper up exit live....steve is AMAZING..

[m^a(t)h]

To answer your question:
In the middle of Early American when Kim is doing her vocals one of the guitars is playing the little arpeggio in 3/4 and then afterwords it moves to 4/4 for the machine-like noise.

[Sheriff Rhys Chatham]

Can't you make any measure a 4/4 measure.

[m^a(t)h]

You mean just switching it to 4/4?? Of course, but that wasnt the point of the post, the point was to say that it has a 3/4 time signature in it.

[Sheriff Rhys Chatham]

Originally Posted by m^a(t)h

You mean just switching it to 4/4?? Of course, but that wasnt the point of the post, the point was to say that it has a 3/4 time signature in it.

I wasn't refering to what you said, just time signatures in general.

[m^a(t)h]

Oh, well then the answer that question would be yes, in theory I think you could, but it would be very impractible and trivial to do so, it would only make everything twice as hard to understand.

[Sheriff Rhys Chatham]

Im kinda old with theory but of had lets say 6/4 timing could you go:

1/4 = quarter note.
l = bar

1/4 - 1/4 - 1/4 - 1/4 l - 1/4 - 1/4...then finish the measure

[m^a(t)h]

Yeah, its just that the accent (which you usually would be at the beginning of the measure) would be in the middle of the second bar. It all comes down to accents on the beat, any thing can be in any time but people use the accents to tell them what the signature is.