The long-awaited Sonic Youth "not a greatest hits" compilation for Starbucks will finally grace select counters on June 10 (if you are Starbucks-phobic, or just don't live in or near the eight major cities chosen to stock the CD, it will also be available for online order). We're talking 15 Youth classics selected by their famous buddies and one new track cobbled together just for this collection, with each celeb contributing a paragraph or two or three on why they picked the song they did. Will I be buying it? Of course! You can't download liner notes.
Poring over the tracklisting, a few things become apparent:
--The four best choices are "Disappearer", "Stones", "The World Looks Red" (seriously, there's a "the" at the beginning; Mike Gira will have several minor strokes off this) and "Rain On Tin". Three of which were picked by women, keeping in line with the legacy of SY as shaped by Kim Gordon.
--Explanations I'm most looking forward to: Radiohead, Diablo Cody, Dave Eggers, Mike Watt and David Cross.
--Rumored contributors who missed the deadline (I guess): Marc Jacobs (who likely would have picked "Kool Thing" anyway) and Jeff Tweedy. Most shocking non-inclusion: Cate Blanchett, whose husband once told her to hold a gun the way Sonic Youth play their guitars.
--Some of these are depressingly predictable--"Bull in the Heather" and "100%" are so worn that the band can't even push the throttle on them live anymore. Also, I'm gonna try not to fall out of my seat when Diablo Cody's award-winning writing reveals that "Superstar" is in fact the only SY song she's ever heard, and it's a friggin' cover. "Expressway" is as cool as a penguin installing an air conditioner in an igloo, but the Lips covered it live yonks ago. "Teenage Riot"? Hey...obvious pick from an obvious man.
--I'm still kind of bemused over "Kool Thing". Not the fact of its inclusion--we are talking arguably SY's most known original track; the first single off their major label debut; aaaand it still makes the sheep go baaaaa. The stunner is who chose it. I know the members of Radiohead have professed ooooh-hooo crazy love for the Youth in the past, to not only the media, but the band members themselves. But..."Kool Thing"? Really? Not, say, "Inhuman"? Something a little more rickety-rauckity (not a spelling error) and a little less rockin'?
Some have boo-hooed the reality that one of the most influential bands of the past 30 years will be having a greatest (non) hits album released via an "evil" coffee corp. They find it not only depressing, but legacy-denting.
Well, insofar as damaging Sonic Youth's reputation...it's not like Steve Shelley got caught with kiddie porn on his Mac. It's a goddamn CD, all claptrappings aside. You can buy it or not buy it.
About the whole matter being deflating, I'm not sure I entirely disagree with that. I mean, no one picked "Starpower". Shoulda asked James Iha.
Sonic Youth
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