Sonic Youth - "Blink" (mp3)
I have mixed feelings about the tracklist that Sonic Youth announced last week for their upcoming compilation, The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities. Though they're my favorite band, SY are also one of the bands from which I learned, in my youth as a budding music geek, that buying overpriced import singles for a couple non-LP songs is usually a raw deal (one hard fought lesson that I'm glad those growing up in the mp3 era don't have to bother themselves with). They definitely have a handful of certifiably good and great b-sides, some of which, like "Genetic," were included on the recent reissues of Dirty and Goo. But more often than not, scouring the band's non-album output turns up a lot of inessential demos, alternate and live versions, along with a few songs that sound like they were written with the specific intent of being b-sides (which, in at least the case of "Razor Blade," is literally true). Still, I think I'd be more interested in this contractual obligation of a release if it was more comprehensive, or at least a double disc, or organized chronologically or somehow thematically. As it stands, though, there are several tracks that I've heard and absolutely consider not particularly worth revisiting (especially "Campfire" and the alternate version of "Diamond Sea"), a few unreleased or unfamiliar songs that could be great but probably won't be, and exactly one song that I absolutely love and am excited about finally getting a wider release.
"Blink" was recorded for the soundtrack of some French film called Pola X in 1999. And on a superficial level, it's not unlike a lot of stuff they were doing in the late 90's, in which Kim mumbled elliptical lyrics over sparse improvisation (see "Contre Le Sexisme" or any number of tracks on the SYR releases), material that by and large I have little affection for. But "Blink" is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of music Sonic Youth has ever made. It's hard to make out exactly who's playing what, but there's at least one acoustic guitar being played, an electric, some kind of organ or harmonium, and a 5/4 rhythm being tapped out on what sounds like the body of an acoustic. Somehow it comes together to form something much more than the sum of its parts, though, at least for me. About a year after the song was released, I was talking to Steve Shelley at a Two Dollar Guitar show, and told him how much I loved the track and tried to ask about how the song was made and everything. But he didn't seem to remember much about it, and I think implied that it's something they just threw together one afternoon and mailed out a DAT of to the film's producers. So for a long time, I felt like even the band didn't realize how great and unique "Blink" is, and its inclusion on The Destroyed Room comes as a surprising bit of validation, a little sign that they remembered it.
I have mixed feelings about the tracklist that Sonic Youth announced last week for their upcoming compilation, The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities. Though they're my favorite band, SY are also one of the bands from which I learned, in my youth as a budding music geek, that buying overpriced import singles for a couple non-LP songs is usually a raw deal (one hard fought lesson that I'm glad those growing up in the mp3 era don't have to bother themselves with). They definitely have a handful of certifiably good and great b-sides, some of which, like "Genetic," were included on the recent reissues of Dirty and Goo. But more often than not, scouring the band's non-album output turns up a lot of inessential demos, alternate and live versions, along with a few songs that sound like they were written with the specific intent of being b-sides (which, in at least the case of "Razor Blade," is literally true). Still, I think I'd be more interested in this contractual obligation of a release if it was more comprehensive, or at least a double disc, or organized chronologically or somehow thematically. As it stands, though, there are several tracks that I've heard and absolutely consider not particularly worth revisiting (especially "Campfire" and the alternate version of "Diamond Sea"), a few unreleased or unfamiliar songs that could be great but probably won't be, and exactly one song that I absolutely love and am excited about finally getting a wider release.
"Blink" was recorded for the soundtrack of some French film called Pola X in 1999. And on a superficial level, it's not unlike a lot of stuff they were doing in the late 90's, in which Kim mumbled elliptical lyrics over sparse improvisation (see "Contre Le Sexisme" or any number of tracks on the SYR releases), material that by and large I have little affection for. But "Blink" is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of music Sonic Youth has ever made. It's hard to make out exactly who's playing what, but there's at least one acoustic guitar being played, an electric, some kind of organ or harmonium, and a 5/4 rhythm being tapped out on what sounds like the body of an acoustic. Somehow it comes together to form something much more than the sum of its parts, though, at least for me. About a year after the song was released, I was talking to Steve Shelley at a Two Dollar Guitar show, and told him how much I loved the track and tried to ask about how the song was made and everything. But he didn't seem to remember much about it, and I think implied that it's something they just threw together one afternoon and mailed out a DAT of to the film's producers. So for a long time, I felt like even the band didn't realize how great and unique "Blink" is, and its inclusion on The Destroyed Room comes as a surprising bit of validation, a little sign that they remembered it.
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on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 12:22 AM.
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