Search - Sonic Youth :: Hold That Tiger

If you care

Sebastien Langlois | montreal | 05/23/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"the japanese typing on the cover means "my mother went shopping". I just tought i should let you know."

A loud, discordant, and brilliant live set.

Sebastien Langlois | 11/23/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In 1987 Sonic Youth were the pronounced masters of alterna-chic. They were also, as "Hold That Tiger" reveals, one of the most raucous and genuinely perverse little noise guitar bands on the American scene (alonside the Pixies and Big Black, of course). Although their early no-wave desire to produce music as caustic as listener's eardrums could cope with was well and truly over, their cascading rifts, psychedelica posing and typically punk project to destruction (deconstruction?) all commodified sounds placed them ahead of almost every band on the planet. To know of them or, better still, to play before/after them, was to be somebody, to feel within your bones that there was a bliss unobtainable in the Reagan-nation. This album, with its fiery renditions of 'Death Valley '69' and 'Expressway to Yr Skull', has Sonic Youth at their peak. Playing almost all the tracks of their 'Sister' album (arguably their best alongside 'Daydream Nation'), this is a barrage of untuned and unmelodic soundscapes that few can match. Nothing is perfect, however, and the problem with a live Sonic Youth album is always that the sheer fierceness and complexity of their music can often flood more mellow numbers such as 'Beauty Lies in the Eye'. The CD is certainly well-recorded (we have the veteran Wharton to thank for that), but in some places texture has clearly been suppressed by trashing. Otherwise, highly recommended, especially considering the four (!!!) covers of Kim's favourite band the Ramones, including a blistering rendition of 'Beat on the Brat'."

Middling sound -- great performance

Michael Cluff | Galloway, NJ USA | 03/28/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Audiophiles read no further: you aren't going to hear every chiming overtone in the hiss and mud slathered on this CD. However, it chronicles Sonic Youth belting out a breathtaking show at a (the?) high point in their career. Their live version of "White Kross" absolutely destroyed me when I saw them back then (at the tiny 9:30 Club in DC); this recording comes as close as I'll ever get to reliving that epiphany. Never mind the negative reviews below -- the straight-up Ramones encore is the only iffy moment, and even then it's pretty fun."