Sonic Youth on a Rainy Day

It's a rainy day in Southern California and I'm in my smelly-ass room listening to Goo and attempting to workout. Besides Wu-Tang, there is not other musical group I like listening to in the rain. That's kind of a weird juxtaposition, right?

My first encounter with the band came via The Simpsons (honestly, I can never seem to go a day without a Simpsons reference). They kept stealing food from Peter Frampton's cooler at "Hullabalooza." Being eight years old at the time I didn't know who any of these people were. I also didn't get that "Hullabalooza" was a parody of "Lollapalooza" (why would an eight-year old get that reference?).

"God. Homer Simpsons wrecks my pig Cypress Hill steals my orchestra, and Sonic Youth's in my cooler! Get out of there, you kids!"

Of course, it wasn't until years later that I realize who and what they were.

It was only about three years ago that I started listening to Sonic Youth. I started with Daydream Nation. If you haven't listened to Daydream Nation and you have somewhat of a penchant for noisy, art-rock bands then this is the album you want to start with. It's not their first album (it's their 5th) but it's the most cohesive album at that point in their career.

That album hits you like a sock full of pennies on the side of your head from the very beginning. Once I heard that melodic guitar intro and Kim's seemingly nonsensical yet deeply insightful ramblings transform into that chaotic mess of hypnotic distortion I knew that I was in love. "Teenage Riot" spoke to me like no other song I had ever heard. "Everybody's talking 'bout the stormy weather/what's a man to do but workout whether it's true?" That line seemed to perfectly encapsulate all my frustrations at that point in my life. Some of my favorite songs include: "Silver Rocket", "The Sprawl", "Total Trash", and "Hey Joni." If you don't want to check out the entire album just download those songs.

Then it was Dirty.

How can you ignore that adorable fuckin' album cover. Whereas Daydream Nation stays with you like a red Kool-Aid stain, Dirty is more like, uhm, a grease stain? Ohay, that'll do. What Dirty lacks in power (because DN is one powerful fuckin tour-de-force) it makes up for in sheer inventiveness and polished musicality. Honestly, I like it more than Daydream Nation. That might have to do with the fact that it's more polished and less noisy. I'm not a big fan of noise-rock. Unlike DN I would recommend you listen to the entire album.

Here's one of my favorite songs on there--Drunken Butterfly

I'm currently listened to Goo. So far I haven't listened to it enough times to share my full opinion on it. I'll let it sit for a while then come back and write something on it. Hopefully. I tend to make a lot of promises on this blog that don't come true. But it's 2011 now. Time to come correct.

Here's a picture of the Goo album cover

This post was supposed to be much longer but I got tired of typing.

Lates.