• Song:

    Shes In A Bad Mood

  • Artist:

    Sonic Youth

SHE'S IN A BAD MOOD

tab by chris lawrence

tuning both guitars: EEEEGG#

that tuning is not confirmed, though its pretty close to what
thurston strums on live versions. i don't think lee is in the
same tuning as him, but it works well enough to use for this
tab. 2 low E's, 2 E's an octave higher, and G/G# at the 3rd/4th
fret of the middle E's.

i think they utilize some sort of feedback tape for certain
parts on this song, the humming whirring noises heard during
the intro and outro... because they're replicated precisely
on live versions.. but i don't know!

on the record, thurston is mixed mainly in the left and
lee is mainly in the right.

THURSTON INTRO: strum all open strings...

when the band kicks in, Lee strikes this chord w/ heavy distortion:

G#------
G-------
E---0---
E---0---
E---0---
E---0---

thurston keeps striking the open strings then turns to droning away
at the open strings or behind the bridge (or, as thurston used on
the LP version, a cowbell!).

at 0:44 it sounds like Lee picks these open strings, in a tuning
like EADECD (not what i've tabbed the rest of his part in, i'm
just mentioning it...):

D-----------------------
C-----------------------
E-------0---------------
D--------------------3--
A--0--0------------2----
E---0------------0------

i opted not to tab his part in EADECD becuz he uses a different guitar
on this song than on confusion/world on an '83 video i have...

the rest of lee's part is tabbed in EEEEGG#...

the whirring noises start around a minute in, lee keeps dronin'
his low E's...

thurston doesn't play during his verses.

lee strikes the open E's after thurston sings "she's in a bad mood"...
he lets them ring out and feedback...

after the first verse, thurston comes back in wailin' away at
the open strings again, then moves to more cowbell action (or behind
the bridge, or whatever...)

lee strums these notes furiously (listen to LP for changes):

G#------------------------
G-------------------------
E---0------0-----0-----0--
E---0------0-----0-----0--
E--14-----10-----7-----5--
E---0------0-----0-----0--

about 2 minutes in, thurston briefly rapidly picks the G# and G strings
and then the humming tape (?) starts again...  lee keeps banging the
low E's during this section.

verse same as before, with extra nasty feedback.

post-verse jam same as before.

about 3 minutes in, lee starts trem picking the open strings
while thurston starts working his way up the fretboard with 
his cowbell. lee then moves to just striking his strings, 
probably with a drumstick or something, very percussive, not
melodic.

thurston just keeps running that cowbell higher and higher...

lee just does random skronk up the neck as the song reaches its climax.

some humming bell sounds come in just after 4 minutes in...

then at the end when the drums/bass stop, lee just bangs the open
strings percussively while thurston gets as far as he can go with
the cowbell. and then it ends w/ lee's open strings sustaining.
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