Sonic Youth

Its safe to say that everyone who knows me......knows that SY are my all time favourite band. Not because I listen to them all the time, or know every post-washing machine song word for word, but because of the way they affected me in a pretty impressionable time in my life.

When I was getting into high school, everything was Nirvana for me. I was at this party for grade 8 graduation and one of my pals handed me a cd with a baby floating in a swimming pool, and what ensued was total obsession.....an obsession shared my many many kids at my school. Sometime during grade 9, another pal handed me a video called 1991: The Year Punk Broke, and although I'd heard of Sonic Youth and thought they were OK......I was blown away by the fact that Sonic Youth was clearly the 'reason' for the video. Nirvana was just a tag along act on their tour, and I wanted to know why that was.

So that got me curious. After Kurt committed suicide, Spin magazine put him on the cover. Me and all my friends rushed out to get it.

Somewhere in the middle of that mag, there was an advertisement from Geffen that talked about Sonic Youth re-issuing their back catalog. I remember staring at the page in disbelief that they had THAT many albums! How did I not know about this band sooner?

I tore out the page and stuck it to the wall by my bed. I decided at that moment I needed to own all of those records. In those days, it wasn't so easy to collect albums. The record store in Chatham didn't carry anything cool. My friends and I had to hop on a train to Toronto in search of these elusive re-issues. $80 bucks later, we arrived at HMV and pooled all of our dough, buying Daydream Nation, Sister, Evol, Goo, and Dirty. We taped them for each other in true best buds style. I remember I got to keep Daydream and Evol as my own.

Then I joined Columbia House, solely for the purpose of trying to track down the other albums. I found Confusion is Sex, The Whitey Album, Bad Moon Rising, and Experimental all at the same time. This all happened in a 3 - 4 week period so I was truly in SY overdose mode, listening to them every day all day. I remember countless times just laying back on my bed with my eyes closed and imagining the most amazing landscapes and images to try to put the music into perspective. I suppose I could try and sound cool by saying I got stoned to them and heard messages in the music......but I was pretty straight laced at the time. I think one time I was even moved to tears by the beauty of the full on chaos that closes out 'Expressway to Yr Skull', so who needs psychotropic enhancement when guitar tones could alter my perception.

Think about that....how amazing that is, to have people listen to your music and just want time to stand still.......to feel like you put them in a perfect moment. Would I ever make music that had that effect? I suppose thats nothing anyone should consciously try to do. I wonder if SY even realized what was happening behind closed doors with their albums.

Among my group of friends....SY were mine. Nobody truly loved them like I did. So it was something I could be proud of and grab on to. That statement may sound silly to kids growing up in NYC, where I'm sure SY fans are a dime a dozen. But in Blenheim District High School......being a SY fan was an identity. And I felt fearless when they were in my walkman or blasting out of my stereo at home.

I finally scored some tickets during the Thousand Leaves tour......and went with a car-load of friends. I remember hoping I could get close to the stage, and I remember hoping they would sound as good live. I had come to grips with the fact that they probably couldn't re-produce those insane sounds on stage....but I was ok with that. Nobody's perfect.

They ended up playing the whole Thousand Leaves album with Death Valley 69 as an encore.....and if you'd told me that was what I was going to see, I would have been disappointed; wanting to hear 'the classics' probably.

But they were un-be-lievable. They re-created all of the impossible feedback and guitar textures live, to my amazement. They sounded so much bigger and better live than I could have imagined. I don't even remember how it happened, but I pushed my way to the very front. All that stood between me and my idols was a huge mean looking bouncer and a guard rail.

I saw them many times after that, and they were just as amazing every time. They deliver live consistently what many bands can only aspire to deliver once.

I'm sure many people have stories like this about many bands, and they all hold a band near and dear to their hearts like I hold Sonic Youth. Looking back on my devotion to SY and where it has calmed to since Rather Ripped was released......I have no regrets. I suppose my obsession could only last so long....through so many albums. Who knows......maybe I'll dig out some Sy and throw it in Monday morning for the drive to work.

Maybe you should too. Here is a taste to get you in the mood.