Sonic Youth -‘Goo’ (Geffen, 1990)

I first heard this when I was about fourteen, about six months after it was released. I’d never heard a note of their music, but an older friend played it to me one night. It was played with a variety of other stuff – Jane’s Addiction, The Cure, bits of Pink Floyd that weren’t ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ and impacted on me quite sufficiently. I’d got the Sex Pistols and The Clash albums a month before; within a month I’d hear Disintegration and The Queen Is Dead.

Did I know the word ‘alternative’ as in ‘alt-rock’ then? I must have done, or at least, was becoming aware of the concept. I knew what ‘indie’ meant -and this was in a pre-britpop sense. This wasn’t jangling guitar music -I’d seen The House Of Love on Top of the Pops doing ‘Shine On,’ had a taped copy of The Sunday’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic – nor was this heavy metal either. This was a pre-nevermind world and I was ripe for having my mind opened.

I bought a copy – on cassette, since replaced with a second-hand vinyl edition a few years later, a couple of months later. Many people have raved about different aspects of the album -contributions from J.Mascis and Chuck D (both of whom I was only vaguely aware of, at the time), songs like ‘Kool Thing’ and ‘Tunic.’ The song that blew my mind was the opener ‘Dirty Boots.’ I didn’t have a clue what they were on about – I may naively have assumed that ‘Jelly roll’ was some sort of desert -ha! but boy, was it a fabulous noise. ‘My friend Goo’ -‘My friend Goo says hey you!’ another great track that opened side two. ‘

Perhaps what also appealed was the parent-baiting that lay therein, or the potential for it. ‘Mary-Christ’ as a title alone sounded faintly blasphemous in an oddly alluring way (useful when your dad’s a minister, you’re thought of as a geek and to top it off you sing in the school choir and dare to enjoy it). Then, of course, was the cover. ‘I stole my sister’s boyfriend. It was all whirlwind, heat and flash. Within a week we killed my parents and hit the road.’ Did I wish my parents dead? Of course I didn’t, but when you’re stuck in England’s smallest county, NME is your lifeline to the world (no internet then, remember) even cartoon nihilism helps numb the pain.

It was also a sense of the pre-internet way in which music was often found out about by word of mouth. You might read about things in NME (or Melody Maker, for that matter), but at this time Radio 1 was hopelessly conservative musically, and would never have played this on daytime radio. To a young adolescent mind, hellbent on reinvention (and desperately craving acceptance), this music seemed a way through. To be seen to be listening to music outside of the Top 40 added an air of difference to you.

Within a very short space of time, ‘alternative’ music and the way of life became more obvious as the marketing men and women realised that as with many things, teenagers with even a little bit of money to spend would spend it in order to reinvent themselves. But cynicism aside, I’m proud that much of this album was my entry into a world of ‘other’ music.

Sonic Youth -‘Dirty Boots.’ mp3

Sonic Youth -‘Tunic (Song For Karen).’ mp3

Sonic Youth -‘Kool Thing.’ mp3

Hear the whole album at Last FM.

Sonic Youth -‘The Eternal.’ (Matador)

And so it comes to pass that in 2009, two of the most important bands of the last thirty years, The Fall and Sonic Youth are signed to independent labels. Both of them have been there before, of course, but given that it was Sonic Youth signing to Geffen which led to Nirvana signing to them…it’s arguable that had this not happened, guitar music over the last twenty years could have turned out very differently. With the majors panicing big time (hint: focus on your artists and not your shareholders), we see The Fall signed to Domino and Sonic Youth signed to Matador. How will this shape the next decade or more?

Record company issues aside, every release from Sonic Youth feels like An Event. This is their first studio release since 2006’s Rather Ripped, although being Sonic Youth there have been other projects in the meantime, including Thurston Moore’s Trees Outside The Academy, Kim Gordon’s side project Free Kitten’s Inherit, and of course the ongoing SYR releases, including the weird and wonderful J’accuse Ted Hughes. Sonic Youth, rather like the aforementioned Fall, have managed to straddle the difficult gap between underground credibility and mainstream acceptance, difficult at any time, but even more impressive over the course of nearly thirty years. It’s quite fitting that previous members include Jim O’Rourke, collaborators have included Lydia Lunch, Chuck D and Merzbow and that the fifth member for this record is former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold. All of which is topped off by the fact that the cover art was done by none other than John Fahey.

The approach for this album has been that instead of writing and rehearsing a cycle of songs in one time period, instead they have composed two or three tracks one weekend and recorded them the next. So this impressive abum has come together over the course of a month.

Opening track ‘Sacred Trickster’ which has been doing the rounds for a month or so now as a free mp3, is a good example of the album in a nutshell. Combining hardcore influences with a proper, y’know, song, in the course of a little over two minutes it maps out the course of the rest of the album rather like a manifesto. There are the usual allusions to pop culture and the counter-culture: ‘Anti-Orgasn’ is inspired by the story of berlin’s 1960s model/activist Uschi Obermaier and the gang at Kommune 1, for example.

Sonic Youth came out of New York’s early eighties No Wave scene, and over the course of their career, some albums have been more accessible than others. the first album of theirs I heard was 1990’s Goo, which featured trademark guitar motifs but is fairly accessible. Other works like Goodbye 20th Century threw people. To these ears, the Eternal is prime Sonic Youth, in that it features experimentation but is accessible. After several listens I find myself comparing it favourably with albums like Sister and the seminal Daydream Nation.

Like I said earlier, every release from Sonic Youth feels like an event – not because they are a band trading on past glories and people are wondering if they have finally produced a really decent album for the first time in decades, but, rather, because they’re that exciting, that creative, that damn good, that we have to hear and investigate it. Will it win over people who have previously been detractors? No, because Sonic Youth are not that kind of band. But it will appeal to long-term fans, and hopefully, prick the ears of those who have not heard them before.

****1/2

Sonic Youth -‘Sacred Trickster.’ mp3

The Eternal will be released on matador on June 8 in the UK and June 9 in the US.

Sonic Youth website
/Sonic Youth myspace

Excellent, excellent, excellent. I have been waiting for something along these lines for ages, and finally, on the last day of my holidays, it appears.

Sonic Youth’s new album The Eternal will be released on June 8 (June 9 in North America). It’s one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year, not just here at 17 Seconds, but across the blogosphere in general.

Matador, their new label, have just released this very day the first track from the album. It’s the opening track on the album, and it’s brilliant. ‘Sonic Trickster’ is prime Sonic Youth and I’m very excited to hear it. It has been described as “a 2:10 out-of-the gate hardcore matinee track with Kim singing salutes to French painter Yves Klein and Western Massachusetts noise artist Noise Nomads.” I can’t wait for The Eternal.

Sonic Youth -‘Sonic Trickster.’ mp3

For more on Sonic Youth check their official website, their myspace, and their site as part of Matador Records.

In case you’re interested -and why the hell would you not be! -this is the tracklisting for the album:

1. Sacred Trickster
2. Anti-Orgasm
3. Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
4. Antenna
5. What We Know
6. Calming The Snake
7. Poison Arrow
8. Malibu Gas Station
9. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn
10. No Way
11. Walkin Blue
12. Massage The History

The album art was done by none other than John Fahey, btw…

The year I was fourteen (1990-1991) was not a great one. Let’s just say I hit adolescence, with all the pain, angst and trouble that brings. However, I’m still in touch with some of the people I became friendly with during that time, and as a secondary teacher (High School teacher for US readers) I can at least reassure those I teach that it will get better.

If there was one thing I got out of that miserable year, it was my introduction to ‘indie/alternative’ music -and this was in pre-Nevermind times. For my fourteenth birthday, I got the Rolling Stones’ Hot Rocks 1964-1971, The Sex Pistols’ Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols and erm, The Clash’s Cut The Crap (yeah, I know, but I didn’t have someone to advise me). Bought for me on cassette (this was 1990, remember) by my long-suffering mother, but requested by me, this was the start of it. Then the following month, staying with a friend in London who was a year or so older (and that’s significant when you’re in your teens), played me Jane’s Addiction’s Ritual De Lo Habitual and Sonic Youth’s Goo.

From it’s cover alone, with it’s pop art sleeve and the droll ‘I Siole my sister’s boyfriend. It was all whirlwind, heat and flash. Within a week we killed my parents and hit the road’ this was something else. Then I heard ‘Dirty Boots.’

Sonic Youth -‘Dirty Boots.’ mp3

In time, of course, I heard other Sonic Youth albums, particularly Sister and Daydream Nation.

From Sister (released in 1987)

Sonic Youth -‘Schizophrenia.’ mp3

From Daydream Nation (released in 1988)

Sonic Youth -‘Rain King.’ mp3

Whilst on holiday in Italy last week, it occured to me that I could do a Sonic Youth cover versions posting. I know I’ve posted these first two here before, but they really are classics:

Sonic Youth -‘Superstar (the Carpenters cover).’ mp3 (This can be found on the Various Artists If I Was A Carpenter album. This dates from 1994).

Sonic Youth -‘Into The Groove(y) (Madonna cover).’ mp3 (This was originally a 7″ as Ciccone Youth (Jeez, do I have to spell this out? Ciccone was Madonna’s maiden name) and then released on the Ciccone Youth’s The Whitey Album, which is still available, and on the 1995 Sonic Youth compilation Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love.

Sonic Youth -‘Hotwire My Heart (Crime cover).’ mp3

(I don’t know much about Crime but their original version of this track came out in 1976, and they were part of the seventies New York Punk scene. This can be found on the aforementioned Sister album)

Finally I mentioned the Daydream Nation album earlier. This has recently been re-issued with fantastic sleevenotes (yes, this is why I buy albums as opposed to just downloading them. Plus I have a concentration span of more than two seconds) and a second disc of live performances and four cover versions:

Sonic Youth -‘Within You Without You (The Beatles cover).’ mp3

(This was originally recorded for an NME Charity compilation, Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father to raise money for the then fledgling UK charity Childline. A whole host of artists, including The Fall doing ‘A Day In the Life’ covered songs from The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band Perhaps most famously, was the double a-Side of Billy Bragg doing ‘She’s Leaving Home’, and Wet Wet Wet doing ‘With A Little Help From My Friends.’)

Sonic Youth -‘Touch Me Me I’m Sick (Mudhoney cover).’ mp3

(This was a cover of the seminal mudhoney single, in this case recorded for a split Sub Pop single with Mudhoney covering the youth’s ‘Halloween’ (from Bad Moon Rising on the other side).

Sonic Youth -‘Computer Age (Neil Young cover).’ mp3

(This was from a 1989 compilation called The Bridge, in which various artists covered Neil young songs and the proceeds went to The Bridge school in California, whihc Young has long been a patron of. The album also feaures Loop doing ‘Cinnamon Girl’ Flaming Lips doing ‘After The Goldrush’ and Psychic TV doing ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ (which of course would be covered a year or so later by saint etienne in a radically different form again))

Sonic Youth -‘Electricity (Captain Beefheart cover).’ mp3

(Cannot claim any knowledge about this. Any info gratefull received etc..)

All these tracks are available so if you like what you hear then please go and buy them. If you are looking for starters on how to get into Sonic Youth, I suggest you get the compilation Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love, Goo, Daydream Nation and Sister. If you buy Evol, make sure you get it on vinyl, it literally lasts forever…

Sonic Youth’s official website is here, whihc has even more mp3s.