Some Songs Considered

“Sugar Kane” – Sonic Youth
(Words/music: Sonic Youth, available on Dirty, DGC 1992) 

At no point in their career could Sonic Youth be described as “timid,” so it’s difficult to compare the band’s different albums in terms of confidence.  Their early records presented an uncompromising band delving deeper and deeper into noise.  A few albums later, noise still filled their songs, but shards of melody (however twisted or jagged they may be) started appearing.  By the time Butch Vig worked with the band on Dirty, Sonic Youth already started to put their spin on more traditional song structures.  Vig helped the band decide when to strengthen the structure underneath the layers of guitar and when to let the song start to bend and buckle under the weight of their noise.  “Focused” might be the more applicable word, but these songs have more of a confident swagger, especially when compared with the band’s earlier output.

“Sugar Kane” sounds particularly self-assured.  The guitar hooks aren’t as big as some of the other bands Vig produced (including Sonic Youth’s labelmates Nirvana), but the main riff is crisper and more defined than before.  Even the bridge has a moment where it feels like a tidied up version of “Schizophrenia” with the odd chords bending behind a drum fill.  Even Thurston Moore’s vocal delivery sounds clearer and more confident.  However, it’s the lead guitar that highlights the difference.   Where it might have hidden itself deeper in the mix, the lead line floats above everything else.  It still has the same twists and turns as before, but it sounds far more melodic than most other Sonic Youth lead parts, even overshadowing Moore’s vocal hook.  In fact, it sounds like a J Mascis lead part – technically complex yet bright and loud.  Like Mascis’s leads, the guitar on “Sugar Kane” deserves the spotlight that it commands.

More on Sonic Youth: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Into the Groove(y)” – Ciccone Youth
(Words/music: Steve Brey and Madonna, available on The Whitey Album, Enigma 1988)

Today marks the release of The Eternal, the sixteenth studio album by Sonic Youth, and I’m impressed with how vivacious this band sounds twenty seven years after the release of their first record.  Sure, their new album doesn’t push as the “golden era” Sonic Youth records, but I’m hard pressed to find a band that puts so much into their craft when they probably could coast.  Let’s face it, Sonic Youth could make a healthy living touring on their old material (think of how well a Daydream Nation tour would do), so it’s admirable to see them push their creative boundaries at all, let alone find it successful.  Having seen the band a few times now, I’ve seen the band’s passion for creating and performing and find it inspiring; I hope to one day hit my stride the way Sonic Youth has and find the inspiration to keep pushing myself for the sheer joy or creation.

I’m drawn to Sonic Youth partially because of the variety of emotions they wring out of their music.  They create these dissonant and jarring bursts of noise, yet their compositions teem with emotions behind this curtain of noise.  Take “Into the Groove(y),” the product of a collaboration with Mike Watt dubbed “Ciccone Youth” – their reinterpretation of one of Madonna’s best singles as a gnarled mess of distortion and darkness.  Immediately, I’m drawn to the sinister feel created by the oddly voiced guitar chords, megaphone-like vocals, and the clanging echoes.  This dark interpretation seems intentional, yet a mischievous joy runs throughout the entire song.  Whether it’s the samples from the original or the way Thurston Moore kind of locks into the song’s rhythmic pattern, it seems like the band truly loves the song.  Once you get past those odd sounds, the group stays faithful to the original’s arrangement, even preserving the tempo.  It’s like the band took a song they liked, took it apart in order to learn about how it’s built, and used some of their own pieces when putting it back together.  This is how a song sounds like a slower, darker dirge while still maintaining the same tempo and melody as the original.  It’s an impressive feat for any band, yet even more impressive when considering this was a side project.

More on Ciccone Youth: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm