Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2366: Sonic Youth – “Skip Tracer (Germany, 1996)”

May 20, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Rockpalast, 1996

. . .

The third time I saw Sonic Youth in concert was May 16, 1995 at the the godawful Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. They were opening for R.E.M. on the Aneurysm ’95 tour, that tour after 75% of R.E.M. almost died on their 1994 European tour. Rox & I went to this the night after an absolutely amazing Wilco show at Slim’s. I guess I got a bunch of time off from work to do all of this.

Of course, being the opening band — and playing “The Diamond Sea” in its entirety as well as “Washing Machine” — meant that Sonic Youth only played 7 songs total, which was definitely a choice. That said, they definitely went over better than they did when then opened for Neil Young in 1991.

Certain Songs #2365: Sonic Youth – “The Diamond Sea”

May 19, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Washing Machine
Year: 1995

. . .

In a way, it was inevitable that Sonic Youth would eventually record a song that was nearly 20 minutes long. But what wasn’t inevitable, of course, was that said 20 minute long song — OK, fine, 19:36 to be precise — would be so good, especially since the last two-thirds was nearly guitars circling each other with perfect interlocking swirls, the audio equivalent of that sea of diamonds before eventually noisying everything up.

Certain Songs #2364: Sonic Youth – “Little Trouble Girl”

May 18, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Washing Machine
Year: 1995

. . .

Washing Machine was recorded in Memphis, and it’s possible that being out of their NYC comfort zone in the laid-back South contributed to some of the looseness of the record. Also contributing: the fact that Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore were the proud parents of their first child, Coco, who made the trip to Memphis with them.

In any event, in her memoir, Girl in a Band, Kim says that being a new mother got her thinking about The Shangri-Las, resulting in the loose, laid-back “Little Trouble Girl.”

Certain Songs #2363: Sonic Youth – “Washing Machine”

May 17, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Washing Machine
Year: 1995

. . .

As well as contributing “Superstar” to the Carpenters tribute, Sonic Youth put out an album in 1994: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. I didn’t like it, which surprised me so much, I kept listening to it in the hopes that I might change my mind.

However, I didn’t have that issue with the follow-up, 1995’s Washing Machine, which featured not one but two of the longest songs they’d ever record: “The Diamond Sea,” which we’ll drown in a couple of days from now, and the Kim Gordon-sung title track.

Certain Songs #2362: Sonic Youth – “Superstar”

May 16, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: If I Were A Carpenter
Year: 1994

. . .

Like Matthew Sweet, Sonic Youth were reliable contributors to various tribute and/or fund-raising compilation albums in the 80s & 90s. To the point where their Discogs page lists 344 appearances on various albums going all the way back to 1981. And while it made sense that they showed up on tribute albums to Captain Beefheart and Neil Young, they also did a Beach Boys cover in 1990.

And given all that, plus the tremendous “Tunic (Song For Karen),” it made sense for Sonic Youth to participate in one of the most audacious reclamation tribute albums of all-time, 1994’s If I Were A Carpenter.

Certain Songs #2361: Sonic Youth – “JC”

May 13, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty
Year: 1991

. . .

I mean, I guess that I could have picked the songs on Dirty that weren’t full of sadness and/or anger, but here we are.

At the very end of 1991, just as Nevermind was beginning to conquer the world, Henry Rollins and his roommate and friend Joe Cole were coming home from a Hole concert at the Whisky-A-Go-Go were accosted by armed men outside of their apartment in Venice Beach, CA.

Certain Songs #2360: Sonic Youth – “Chapel Hill”

May 12, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty
Year: 1991

. . .

One of the earliest songs written for Dirty, the Thurston Moore sung “Chapel Hill” was actually debuted during the 1991 The Year That Punk Broke shows, and like several songs on the album, it was based on a real incident.

And it’s also a thematic link between yesterday’s song, “Youth Against Fascism,” in that it’s an overtly political song, name-dropping one of the most evil politicians who ever lived — Jesse Helms — and tomorrow’s song, “JC” in that’s it’s about an unsolved murder.

Certain Songs #2359: Sonic Youth – “Youth Against Fascism”

May 11, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

. . .

One of the reasons Dirty is my favorite Sonic Youth album is that it was their most overtly political album. After all, in 1992, we were entering our 12th year of conservative misrule, and even though all of the political hardcore songs decrying the corruption and war and scandals that were natural outgrowths of that misrule hadn’t made any kind of difference, it didn’t mean that people would stop trying. Thus, “Youth Against Fascism,” a title that might have seemed a bit much in 1992, resonates even harder 30 years later.

Certain Songs #2358: Sonic Youth – “Sugar Kane”

May 10, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

. . .

Look, I know it was always a fools errand to hope that a band as experimental as Sonic Youth would ever fully break through to the mainstream, even in the wake of Nirvana. That said, I was a fool pushing 30 in 1992, and at the time I thought that “Sugar Kane” could have been that song. I mean, it felt like anything could happen!!

I mean, yeah, you’d have to chop a couple of minutes out of the instrumental section in the middle, but the verses & choruses of “Sugar Kane” are as pure pop as Sonic Youth were ever going to get. And I mean that as a compliment, as “Sugar Kane” is probably my second favorite Sonic Youth song — after “Tunic (Song For Karen)” of course — give or take a “Teen Age Riot,” or “Skip Tracer” of course.

Certain Songs #2357: Sonic Youth – “Teresa’s Sound-World”

May 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

. . .

A lot happened between the the 1990 release of Goo and the 1992 release of Dirty. And I mean a lot a lot. First off, they toured with Neil Young, a long time hero of both Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo. This was the first time Sonic Youth opened for someone of Neil’s stature, and it was during the tour for Ragged Glory, perhaps the noisiest album Neil ever made.

And while Neil’s crew gave the band problems at first, to the point where they wanted to leave the tour, Neil — who apparently loved “Expressway to Yr. Skull” — and helped them out.