Sonic Youth

Certain Songs #2370: Sonic Youth – “Peace Attack”

May 27, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Sonic Nurse
Year: 2004

. . .

At some point in the early 2000’s, Sonic Youth came to an unspoken agreement with their fans: the really really experimental stuff would show up on their SYR series, and their Geffen records would feature more song-oriented stuff. As the decade progressed and everybody — including their fan base, natch — got older, those final few records were consistently good, but with the rest of the world long having caught up with them, and a zillion 90s bands having borrowed liberally from their initial innovations, they weren’t ever going to be perceived as anything but elder statespeople.

But they were still Sonic Youth, and they were still great, and every single one of their 2000s records has its pleasures.

Certain Songs #2369: Sonic Youth – “The Empty Page”

May 26, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Murray Street
Year: 2002

. . .

In July of 1999, 27 of Sonic Youth’s guitars got stolen, along with a bunch of equipment and merch. And of course, these were the pre-tuned, utterly-fucked up guitars that they’d been using for years and years at this point. And while the 27 guitars that were stolen was a blow, it wasn’t a killing blow. And they responded with NYC Ghosts and Flowers, an album that I didn’t like — and infamously received a 0.0 in Pitchfork, which, no — which felt like the experimental side of their music had totally overwhelmed their ability to write songs.

Certain Songs #2368: Sonic Youth – “Hoarfrost”

May 25, 2022 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: A Thousand Leaves
Year: 1998

. . .

The fourth time I saw Sonic Youth in concert was on May 24th, 1998 at the Fillmore in San Francisco. They were the headliners that time, and with the exception of the encore, where they pulled out “Death Valley ’69”, pretty much the whole show was from their brand-new album, A Thousand Leaves. Oh, and “Anagrama.”

That said, A Thousand Leaves had only been out for a couple of weeks when I saw the show, and while I respected what they were doing, since I hadn’t seen them since 1991, I would have appreciated “Sugar Kane” or “Washing Machine” or even “The Diamond Sea.” But they had other things in mind. On the other hand, I ended with the coolest of all my cool Fillmore posters.

Certain Songs #2367: Sonic Youth – “Anagrama”

May 23, 2022 by Jim Connelly 1 Comment

Album: SYR1: Anagrama
Year: 1997

. . .

As a way to slake their collective thirst for continuing to record more experimental music with out sullying their “commercial” career, in 1996 Sonic Youth established Sonic Youth Recordings, aka SYR.

In 1997, Sonic Youth released two records on SYR: SYR1: Anagrama and SYR2: Slaapkamers met slagroom. As a fan, I dutifully bought both of them, though I don’t think I realized that one of the running conceits of the label was that each record would be titled and have liner notes in a different non-English language, a conceit that ran through the label’s entire history.

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.