Jams Run Free: The Best of Sonic Youth 1996-2011

disc 1:
1. Wildflower Soul (from A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
2. Reena (from Rather Ripped, 2006)
3. What We Know (from The Eternal, 2009)
4. Incinerate (from Rather Ripped, 2006)
5. Jams Run Free (from Rather Ripped, 2006)
6. Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style (from Murray Street, 2002)
7. French Tickler (from A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
8. Anagrama (from SYR1, 1997)
9. Unmade Bed (from Sonic Nurse, 2004)
10. NYC Ghosts & Flowers (from NYC Ghosts & Flowers, 2000)
11. Theme de Simon (from SYR9: Simon Werner a Disparu, 2011)
12. Sunday (from the SubUrbia soundtrack, 1996)
13. Blink (from the Pola X soundtrack, 1999)

disc 2:
1. I Love You Golden Blue (from Sonic Nurse, 2004)
2. No Way (from The Eternal, 2009)
3. Hoarfrost (from A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
4. Rain On Tin (from Murray Street, 2002)
5. New Hampshire (from Sonic Nurse, 2004)
6. Turquoise Boy (from Rather Ripped, 2006)
7. Free City Rhymes (from NYC Ghosts & Flowers, 2000)
8. Malibu Gas Station (from The Eternal, 2009)
9. Karen Koltrane (from A Thousand Leaves, 1998)
10. Karen Revisited aka Karenology (from Murray Street, 2002)
11. Stil (from SYR2, 1997)

After reading David Browne's Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth earlier this year, I lent it to my friend Mat, who I frequently trade music books with. He mentioned that his familiarity with the band's catalog since 1995's Washing Machine is pretty spotty, and since I consider the second half of the band's 30-year career to be frequently amazing, I was happy to put together an overview for him. I also made the mix into a Spotify playlist, although only 19 of the 24 tracks are on it, since "Karen Revisited" is one of those songs they deemed too long to make available and most of the SYR and soundtrack stuff isn't on there. That makes that version of the mix a bit shorter and more accessible without those instrumentals, but I obviously feel like that's a big part of this period of the band that completes the overall picture.

Of course, I happen to be posting this now, a couple days after the quite frankly devastating news that Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon have separated, and that the future of the band is uncertain. Obviously they've had a good run and they need to do whatever makes them happy in their own personal lives and that's their business. But this incredibly long-running band always seemed to be built on the foundation of a seemingly rock solid marriage, and the idea of that ending is just heartbreaking to me, beyond them being my favorite band that I thought would just be together and making awesome music as long as they're alive.

And seriously, the music I collected on these mixes is awesome, all of it. It may not be Daydream Nation, and it may be a little mellower than their earlier stuff, but I really feel that no band in rock history has made more great music well beyond their first decade together. Using after Washing Machine as the cutoff point was actually kind of cool because I could just start right at the point where they build their own studio and started the SYR series, which I really feel marks an important cahpter for the band. "Wildflower Soul" kicks off the set since it kind of marks the beginning of Thurston's hippie jam phase, which hit its peak with "Rain On Tin" (possibly my favorite Sonic Youth song ever at this point). Although I consider Murray Street and Sonic Nurse the best albums of this period, Rather Ripped ended up with more songs here, since it has so many nice concise, uptempo songs that are easy to drop anywhere in a mix. And even though this selection features a lot of the band's 7+ minute epics, I did want to keep it somewhat accessible for Mat and anyone else whose interest in the band has waned since Dirty.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 9:24 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.