Goo

Certain Songs #2356: Sonic Youth – “Disappearer”

April 29, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Goo
Year: 1990

. . .

One thing I think I always knew, but just now came to the forefront of my consciousness is just how evocative many of the song titles on Goo were. I mean, “Mary-Christ,” “Mote,” “Cinderella’s Big Score” and “Titanium Expose” are all A+ song titles, evoking images and sounds even before you actually hear the song.

As is “Disappearer,” which — compared to the previous three songs from Goo I’ve written about — seems like it might be a deep cut, but was actually the second single from Goo. And while I always thought that “Disappearer” was about being kidnapped by UFOs from the perspective of the UFOs, that was because I really didn’t listen to Thurston Moore’s lyrics, which were kinda buried in the mix,
Quite literally, the only words I knew were these:

Certain Songs #2355: Sonic Youth – “Kool Thing”

April 28, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Goo
Year: 1990

. . .

There is, of course, a lot of backstory surrounding what was Sonic Youth’s first single and video for their evil major label. And my favorite detail is Bon Jovi, but we’ll get to that.

It’s not really surprising that as experimental noisemakers, Sonic Youth would like some of the harder-slapping hip-hop songs that were showing up in the second half of the 1980s, especially the big beats and loud guitars Rick Rubin added to those early Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and Beastie Boys albums. Not to mention how Public Enemy quite literally brought the noise on It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the other revolutionary album from 1988.

Certain Songs #2354: Sonic Youth – “Tunic (Song For Karen)”

April 27, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Goo
Year: 1990

. . .

Not only is “Tunic (Song For Karen)” my favorite Sonic Youth song, I think that — with the exception of “Alex Chilton” by The Replacements — it might be my favorite tribute song any musician recorded about another one. And “Tunic” has a much higher degree of difficulty: after all, in 1987, there was a natural crossover between Replacements fans and Big Star fans.

Not so much with Sonic Youth and The Carpenters three years later.

Certain Songs #2353: Sonic Youth – “Dirty Boots”

April 26, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Goo
Year: 1990

. . .

And so while Sonic Youth spent their first decade bouncing from indie label to indie label to indie label, after Daydream Nation was released, they followed in the footsteps of peers like X, The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and most recently, R.E.M., and signed with a major label. While that trio all ended up at Warner Bros or their subsidiary Sire, Sonic Youth went with DGC, the newest label formed by David Geffen.

Yes, the same David Geffen who once sued Neil Young for the sin of not making what Geffen considered “Neil Young Albums,” but of course I’m assuming that as the underground burbled above the surface, Sonic Youth had ironclad artistic freedom in their contract — which they threatened to test by considering naming their debut Blowjob? but wisely changed to Goo.