I am patiently waiting for my vinyl to come. avoiding any other way to listen to it beforehand. order status says it was shipped. so i wonder how much longer do i have to wait.

My record store says "will deliver within 1-2 weeks". Fuck. I know it can be even longer time for the earlier experiences.

It's brilliant.

It is brilliant. I look forward to more of us having it and discussing. I think it is utterly gorgeous.

Got great news today! Record store has shipped my vinyl, so that means I will get it next monday or tuesday!

Got my vinyl today. I love it!

I got my copy (vinyl) couple of days ago. Interesting stuff and very nice companion album for Made In USA.

I hope they dig more their archives and release all kinds of interesting stuff.

Got it! And yes, it´s so great! The music is mostly round the main theme of Made In Usa, but they vary it much more and very interesting way than in Made In Usa. My favourites are Ambient Guitar/Dreamy Theme and Scalping, the ones that are most different as the soundtrack. In ambient it´s like they would have been listened Floyd´s Astronomy Domine intro and thought "we could make a jam around this". Dreamy is more made in usa -mood.

Just wonder why they haven´t released this before. Well, they´re not still released the third peel session which is also so great (and not in youtube anymore!). Hope they will release some Peel Session album someday (the first session is not also released as whole).

Well, third Peel session information about youtube seem to be wrong, it´s there again. Great!

Very good stuff! Glad to have a new SY record to listen to.

I would kill for a peel session album like the pixies did.

Incidentally, last year I came across an ultramint ultrasealed copy of 4 Tunna Brix for about 20 bucks including shipping. A lil' awesome something to mildly counterbalance the degenerate amount of coins I've spent in other rarities...

Well, 'Made in USA' is gorgeous and this is a good complement... but itself doesn't have entity (except the first long track maybe); anyway I hope all the unreleased stuff (exist yet?) surface little by little, or 'new' SBD tapes, I'm sure there are still hidden gems around there and a live box with that would be the holy grail for me.

I think you´re right. As huge SY-fan I have been really excited about Spinhead, but really never will recommend it to first album to someone who has never listened SY. My son said yesterday "this is really boring, that same stuff all over again".

I'm still waiting for my vinyl to arrive...ordered through Amazon.ca to avoid the extra shipping and exchange rate. But now that it's taking forever for them to get their stock I'm kinda wishing I would have ordered it directly from here.

still have not got my vinyl either. just wondering, is there a download voucher with vinyl release as well?

it comes with a download for an mp3 copy of the album

so finaly I got my copy and heard it for the first time in full. always excited about new or unheard SY material. In case of SY and few others it has to be proper "listening experience ritual", right time, right mood, coup of whatever, you know what I mean.

1. Ambient Guitar & Dreamy Theme - opening goes forever and to me it doesn't feel very ambient more likely "noisey", but at 9th. min. mark where the ambient starts and I can hear very primal indication of main theme riff. very loose composition that second half. 16 minutes of SY 86' impro? wow.

2. Theme With Noise - this represents everything what SY means to me...well almost. beautiful riff. improv. dissonant. sad. detuned. I can listen to this forever it seems. still blown away by this riff like 15 years ago when I heard it for a first time /Moon In The Bathroom which seems to be in much faster pace/ (g, i can not believe it has been 15 years now). very interesting to hear it in this "reherseal version". I have to mention Lincoln's Gout, Coughing Up Tweed, Pre-Poured Wood, Smoke Blisters 3 & 4, O.J.'s Glove Or What as well. main theme right? this one is the probably best.

3. High Mesa - another dreamy and bit loose composition but drums on this one hold everything steady and together. faster and angrier mood then first two tracks. unheard..very nice. what exactly Mesa means?

4. Uknown Theme - Ha! add another version of main theme. love it.

5. Wolf - do not know what to say.. short sweet strumming with nice ending.

6. Scalping - starting off with typical murky sound of that era and continue all the way throughout the end with few drum hits finish. my walls vibrated from low tones, I had to put the volume down. very similar sound to the ending of Expressway.

7. Theme 1 Take 4 - main theme yet in another coat. nice steady short drumming on this one. love it.

that is it? too short I am hungry for more. I think I will have another go.

love the sound of the EVOL era guitars.

Good review greenlight!, 'Mesa'=Table, in spanish... in other languages or metaphorically I have no idea... a 'high mesa' is like those on the bars (http://img.edilportale.com/products/...7276a18b6a.jpg) so it's a song for getting drunk... like many others in SY discography ;)

I agree, 'Evol/Made in USA' have an unique atmosphere in their catalog (next to 'Bad Moon Rising' maybe, both dark, dense, special...), love it.

It's pretty goddamn glorious. I've been playing it a lot, luxuriating in the Xmas morning feeling of having a new Sonic Youth product to look at and listen to. I did the same thing with Smart Bar. It takes me back.

I'd rather have something like this than more vinyl reissues of albums with no bonus material. I mean, yeah, reissues of Murray Street-Rather Ripped are cool and all, but I don't need more copies of albums I've owned and loved for 10-15 years.

Spinhead is glorious though. Not in the way a proper SY album is, but in a strange, almost eerie time capsule way. I just love it.

Agreed totally

sonic youth would have sounded better in this day and age if it wasn't for the nasty lame divorce.

now the questions is: when will Dale and Buzz provide the evil papers to each other?

lulz

have listened to it for a second time. I must correct myself. riff from the Dreamy Theme sounds like the one from Hairpiece Lullaby 1 & 2 doesn't it?

and so final mix of Made In USA demos from Echo Canyon sounds so much richer than the one on Made In USA released in, when was it, 95?

High Mesa equals Thought Bubbles? that is why I love those unreleased demos and rehearsals most. it is so interesting to see difference from "jamming state" and final version. brilliant. same goes for Dirty deluxe.

My copy arrived yesterday and I've listened once, really enjoyed it. I was concerned this was just gonna sound like Made in USA b-sides and outtakes and.. at times it does kind of sound like that but there were a few surprises as well.

Also, I like the sustained atmosphere of this piece and I like the fact that it's a lot more minimal as a whole. I didn't really like the bluesy rock pieces that Made in USA had, kind of break the dreamy atmospheric flow...

Thurstons take on Johnny Marr at the end of wolf is intriguing + lots of tremolo throughout. macbeth is in high mesa and unknown theme.