Sonic Youth OP10

I don't like any of their other songs.

Schizophrenia
Wish Fulfillment
Rain On Tin
Sympathy For the Strawberry
Karen Revisited
Mote
Eric's Trip
Hey Joni
Self-Obsessed and Sexxee
She's In a Bad Mood

"I Love Her All the Time" and "Star Power" are great too.

"my god we're so gifted, my GOD we're so GIFTED."

but come on: first songs on sister, daydream nation, washing machine, murray street, goo, dirty... plus the first song on SYR1, which is surely the greatest sonic youth song ever.

"Superstar" (Carpenters) - Less about underlining the weirdness of the original than tuning into and playing up the song's wistful lost romance, and the guitar noise adds to the song's beauty rather than distracts from it. (Video is AWEsome, too.)

"Ca Plane Pour Moi" (Plastic Bertrand) - I think it's all in French, but I'm also sure they slip a canny reference in there to "R.E.M."

"Personality Crisis" (New York Dolls) - I like how in their covers they play around with gender: Thurston often handles the girl songs (i.e., Carpenters, Madonna), while Kim often takes on the masculine ones, sometimes even making an issue out of it (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). Here she reimagines the Dolls as fronted by Moe Tucker, basically.

"Is it My Body" (Alice Cooper) - One of the few instances in SY music where Kim's ugly scream tactics really work--possibly, I admit, because of the changed context here. (Their Thurston-sung cover of "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is also good.)

"Into the Groovey" (Madonna) - I'm surprised this holds up so well. At the time, I couldn't make up my mind about it. I thought it was brazen, but also kind of smarmy. 17 or so years removed, I don't hear the smarm so much (compare it to that terrible Lords of the New Church sendup of "Like a Virgin" released around the same time). Now, the thrill of the performance, and yes, the very IDEA of it all ("Hey, we're covering Madonna--isn't this cool!") comes through loud and clear. In their own kind of fucked way, they actually get the beat right, too (skip their cover of "Burning Up," though).

"Addicted to Love" (Robert Palmer) - Along with the gender mixups, another thing that unites some of their covers is how they sample parts of the original--an incredibly effective tactic in "Into the Groovey" and "Personality Crisis" (maybe less so in their Beach Boys cover). This is more than a sample--it's basically Kim Gordon singing over a karaoke track of the original, an impossibly silly idea that works. It's possible she has her nose turned up toward Palmer, but she fights his corporate male oppression here not by critiquing or throwing up on it, but by exaggerating the song's lewd appeal (played to hilarious and grotesque effect in the video).

"Bubblegum" (Kim Fowley) - Not familiar with the original.

"Hotwire My Heart" (Crimes) - Ditto.

"Beat on the Brat" (Ramones) - Two Ramones covers that I'm aware of (also "Today Yr. Love, Tomorrow the World"), both played pretty much straight up. This is notable for Thurston's belligerently snotty vocals.

"Simpsons Theme Song" - Got it off Soulseek (along with most of these and more).

(Others to search: "I Wanna Be Your Dog"; "Within You Without You"; "My New House"; "Computer Age"; "Ticket to Ride"; "Burning Farm"; "I Know There's an Answer"; "Touch Me I'm Sick"; ......???)

True confession: Confusion is Sex was the second SY album I ever owned, and I bought it pretty young (13? I bought Daydream Nation at age 12), before I knew that much about music. SY's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" was the first time I'd ever heard that song. I loved it to death back then, loved the Stooges versh even more when I discovered that, but now I'm completely fucking sick of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (it's the "I Will Always Love You" of downtown hipsters) and in my old age I don't even consider it a particularly good song.

The only good ones that don't sound all penetrated I can think of are Starpower and Through The Breeze.

Scratch the "being taken seriously" though.

I love the cover of "I Wanna Be Yr Dog". What's wrong with it?

Kim Gordon sounds great on "Shoot", when she sounds vicious not horny per se. That was the song to totally sell me on SY. Unfortunately she only really sounds like that on that song.

From about EVOL onwards, with the possible exception of the relatively lame "Murray St", the greatest art-rock band in history.

Steve Shelley on many songs from "Sister" to "Dirty" used to get some crazy Keith Moon style action working on the drums, which really brought up the intensity level.

Some of the music on their later albums is enjoyable, but it is real ethereal, stoner and spacey. Not neccessarily a bad thing, but they used to be able to tap into some high power lines.

I haven't seen them live in over 10 years, mind you that they are more likely to play the middle of Germany than the U.S. these days. Considering the three times I saw them play were about as intense a concert experience I ever had (esp. the show in Bloomington w/Redd Kross), I would be tentative to see them again to ruin the memory as they might be as jolting as the Cocteau Twins considering their later records.

It was nice though; they were showing video footage of NYC and I was feeling really homesick at the time.

Kotton Krown
Candle
Shadow of a Doubt
Skip Tracer
Washing Machine
Karen Revisited
Teenage Riot
Schizophrenia
Sweet Shine
I Dreamed I Dream

anagrama
i dreamed i dream
karen koltrane
disappearer
shadow of a doubt
catholic block
hey joni
total trash
bull in the heather
dirty boots

although, on another day i'd just say the first ten tracks from daydream nation.

There is no fucking way. If you like Sonic Youth and you don't like Suzuki-era Can, we are not even going to be friends. No way. Forget it. You have failed.

Not my fault that the Fall CD's are taking some time to burn to my iTunes.

1. Schizophrenia
2. Diamond Sea
3. Shadow of a Doubt
4. Expressway To Yr Skull
5. Death Valley 69
6. Sugar Kane
7. Starpower
8. Incinerate
9. Unmade Bed
10. Superstar

Although I really like that moment when Thurston throws lit firecrackers into the studio during "In The Kingdom #19," causing Lee Ranaldo to scream in horror during his vocal take.

Star Power
Kotton Krown
Schizophrenia
Pacific Coast Highway
Shadow Of A Doubt
Tuff Gnarl
Making the Nature Scene
I Love Her All the Time
Justice Is Might
Kissability