Sonic Youth

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

May 12, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dirty
Year: 1991

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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

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

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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

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

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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

Album: Dirty
Year: 1992

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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.

Certain Songs #2356: Sonic Youth – “Disappearer”

April 29, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Goo
Year: 1990

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Certain Songs #2352: Sonic Youth – “Kissability”

April 25, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Daydream Nation
Year: 1988

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The first song on side four of Daydream Nation — and the last song before the prog-bating Trilogy of songs that closed the record — was Kim Gordon’s anti-casting couch screed, “Kissability,” which was both the shortest (not counting the answering machine recording with effects “Providence”) and the most intense song on the album.

Certain Songs #2351: Sonic Youth – “Candle”

April 22, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Daydream Nation
Year: 1988

One of the cool things about Daydream Nation was that there are a lot of musical motifs that Sonic Youth repeat, only each time those motifs are slightly different. More than one song opens with lazily strummed guitars before the noise kicks in, or maybe they work weird time signatures during the opening instrumental parts, or maybe those opening instrumental parts go on for a very long time. Or in the case of “Candle,” all of the above!