Wish POLLfillment: Sonic Youth's Dirty

This is the least meandering, most direct SY. Personally I like it. Youth against Facisim for me is a killer. OK its repetitive but it is short. "Yeah the president sucks hes a warped fuck" an infantile expression but effective and fun to sing and the last part of the song where it goes into overdrive is great too. Good at a party.

Chapel Hill

sucks hes a warped fuck

Isn't it "he's a war pig fuck" ? Not that it's any more mature, but at least it's a Sabbath reference.

voted Theresa's Soundworld.
i also like the Dinosaur jr-y like Purr, esp. the awesome guitar solo near the end.

Dinosaur has songs as fast as "Purr"?

mmm...The Wagon?!

Chapel Hill is pretty cool, too. Thurston seems to be looking back on USHC here.

Oh yes. I thought he was mispronouncing warped as in war-ped..but what you say makes more sense. I do like it though when the pronounciation of words at the end of lines are changed to fit a rhyme.

"Swimsuit Issue" has my favorite Kim one-liners.

Lot of love coming out here, for a record I thought was generally despised.

I always heard it as "he's a one big fuck," knowing that couldn't possibly be the actual line without caring enough to look it up

We're up to three interpretations, and all of them apply.

I know a lot of 'real' SY fans don't like this one. What is it about it that people don't like? I guess I have heard 'the production' bandied about. Pure snobbery if you ask me. I guess the songs are too direct as I said above. Not enough artful instrumental passages? That's nice and all but a lot of the times on SY records for me those parts just rob the song of any momentum and I start to lose interest. I guess I'm just a simple guy.

am0n what are your faves?

― some dude, Friday, January 29, 2010 1:28 PM

bad moon rising, evol, daydream, sonic nurse. i like pretty much all their stuff, but dirty and jet set just always bored me

I've got a friend who dubbed the little puppet guy on this cover 'Nic Fit'

yah Sonic Nurse is aces

Today I noticed: "Self-Obsessed and Sexee" is a dirtier, better "100%."

I don't like SO & S v. much; same goes for Screaming Skull...they're not bad, but definitely is the point where that album starts going astray for me

(but) ^those two are (definitely)

is that math?

Sugar Kane is kinda corny but I've always loved it.
Old school sy fans hate this record cuz it's the crossover record, I always thought. It was the first one my MTV watching ass bought. My first exposure to them was via the pump up the volume soundtrack, tho, of course.

Can't believe people are actually voting for "Youth Against Facism". Such a lame song.

OK, it's got my vote. FASCIST!

Old school sy fans hate this record cuz it's the crossover record, I always thought. It was the first one my MTV watching ass bought. My first exposure to them was via the pump up the volume soundtrack, tho, of course.

― Trip Maker, Friday, January 29, 2010 2:13 PM (14 minutes ago)

I think you're thinking of Goo, not Dirty?

Hah, Pump Up the Volume for me too! I can totally remember that moment (i.e. listening to that CD for the first time and going "What is that?")

Like many songs on Dirty, Sugar Kane, as corny as parts of it are (just lyircs for me), the fucking instrumental passage in the middle of the song is just so so good, especially when it breaks down after the initial rock-out solo and then builds up again. I am so glad there is a lot of love for Purr here too, I used to put that song on mixtapes mainly cause of how righteous the guitar playing is throughout (and cause I always considered it completely overlooked ...)

first exposure to SY was either:

1) coming across their name in random Nirvana/Pumpkins/Breeders articles
or
2) checking out their albums on some Columbia House booklet

I'm pretty sure that whatever it was, it was def. #2, and esp. falling in love with song titles like Kool thing, Cinderella's Big Score, and Titanium Expose that made me decide to check them out. A grunge outcast in my class lent me his cassette copy of goo; v. different than what I expected--I thought all alternative rock sounded like Soundgarden, STP, and Silverchair (or at least like the Pumpkins and Breeders) but this seemed not exactly quieter, but much more atmospheric, much less upfront with its rewards...I liked Mote, Mildred Pierce, Tunic, and Disappearer (still my Sonic Youth POO) and those still tend to be my favorite songs from that album...

Dirty was creeper rock; it wasn't until a couple of years ago listening to some of the songs that I realized how much I had missed that album, how many of those songs had stuck with me...not every album from that time has that effect...my top 2 albums from when I was fifteen, The Bends and Gish, I can't even hear those anymore...Dirty brings it though.

I think you're thinking of Goo, not Dirty?

dirty their first post-nevermind lp, so the entry point for a lot of kids of my generation, rather than goo.

voted wish fulfillment, but could as easily have been theresa or drunken butterfly

Yeah I think for Brits at least Dirty was the album that really got notice here. I was 15 then so I dunno how much attention they got with Goo but the first SY song I ever heard was 100% on something like 120 Minutes or Alternative Nation

I shd probly listen again (for the first time in like 15 years), Sugar Kane I think.

"Drunken Butterfly" all the way, a 1990s Sonic Youth song that even xhuxk eddy could love.

always liked chapel hill a lot

The beautifully recorded Drunken Butterfly. Actually, evertyhing on the album except for Sugar Kane is good to great.

so divisive!

"shoot"

my favorite 'kim song' of the 90's

"Swimsuit Issue" as much for the brazenly naive/stoopid lyrics as the rolling pummel of the first half and the gallumphing robot crunch of the second half.

bad moon rising, evol, daydream, sonic nurse. i like pretty much all their stuff, but dirty and jet set just always bored me

― ♖♕♖ (am0n), Friday, January 29, 2010 12:34 PM (8 hours ago)

troo

I don't remember liking Kim's tracks that much at the time this came out, but they really stand out for me now, especially "Shoot", which gets my vote

"Swimsuit Issue" as much for the brazenly naive/stoopid lyrics as the rolling pummel of the first half and the gallumphing robot crunch of the second half.

yeah I think Kim does really good with the lyrics in this album, the way in 'SI' the way they set up the dopey lyrics in the first half only for it to culminate in a single line of stark poetry: 'ice women'.

'JC' reminds me of Madvillain, really.

yeah I think Kim does really good with the lyrics in this album, the way in 'SI' the way they set up the dopey lyrics in the first half only for it to culminate in a single line of stark poetry: 'ice women'.

― don't mind me: just exhuming dead horses... (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:06 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for like 12 years i thought she was singing "are swimming," now I think she's singing "us women"

also it's "war pig fuck" duh

for like 12 years i thought she was singing "are swimming," now I think she's singing "us women"

also it's "war pig fuck" duh

― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, January 30, 2010 4:05 PM (6 hours ago)

I think it's "I'm swimming"

Yeah, official site says "I'm swimming," which is how I've always heard it, but lol ambiguity.

lol 100%

They really should have found 3 1/2 minutes to put Genetic on the album. It should have been a single for that much, as it is probably one of the best pop nuggets Sonic Youth made.

Purr

I also always heard it as "I'm swimming".

"Wish Fulfilment" is the best song but I voted for "Shoot" before relistening based on the memory of how exhilarating it was to hear for the first time as a teenager. Listening now, what seemed most striking was how people who were approaching middle age could have recorded something so adolescent.

I assumed that was because they were spending all their time reading Sassy.

ice women: maybe it IS i'm swimming, that's how I heard it at first, but some lyrics page I read said otherwise...

Shoot: this track is great, battered-wife revenge dub, it is kind of adolescent, but still awesome...I'm glad it's getting so much love!

This is really hard - this is my favorite SY album. Ian MacKaye playing 2nd guitar on Y.A.F.! And the Untouchables/"Nic Fit" cover! And "Wish Fulfillment" is my favorite Lee song...

just voted on the strip

dad dream nation

If I was a dad I would do this.

Dad puts on piece for Jetsun Dolma... "alright kids, this is how it's done."

There's the Lee Ranaldo dads, the 'nothing past 1988' dads, the SYR dads..

then there's the us maple dads.. in their minds, sy lost it somewhere after a thousand leaves. at first they settled for the maple, guitar sounds/figures filling the void, and then they realized that the prime 'mape is superior in most ways. You've got the talker dads, who are excitable, and then you have the more seasoned, rock-reared, purple on time. dads, who still need a beat. they probably like Pissed Jeans or something, and zone out on The Field or some bullshit.

(aka the SYR dads)

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/09/08/sonic-youth-brixton-academy-london-december-14-1992/

shelley a monster here

Yeah, that was good!

when i was a kid i stole the 1988 (elle macpherson) and 1989 (kathy ireland 25th anniversary giant edition) sports illustrated swimsuit issues from my local library, which i think made me extra receptive to 'swimsuit issue'

i also stole stephen king's 'IT' and 'firestarter', but only to read and return undetected (except my mom found 'IT' and i got in trouble, or didn't, i don't remember)

I BELIEVE ANITA HILL

Haha this thread is my favorite child

I really hope kids these days are listening to this album and wondering "What the fuck is a swimsuit issue?!"

Idg that one. Isn't the SI Swimsuit Issue as big as it has ever been?

this thread def contains the worst steve shelley discussion on this board

especially with 'rain on tin', one of the more interesting tracks, his drumming is accommodating (serves the music, whatever), but i find it pretty dull

lmao imagine

Probably not coincidental that Bert is the only one of the group who was in a great band *after* SY.

― dlp9001, Monday, August 3, 2015 8:42 AM (four years ago)

Yikes. Here's a selection of bands and artists who Jim (S) recorded/toured with post-SY:

Alex Chilton (1983)
Tav Falco's Panther Burns (1983, 1992-1994)
Lydia Lunch (1984-1986, 1991-1992)
The Cramps (1991-1992)
Congo Norvell (1992-1996)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1994 - present)

Surprised to see Youth Against Fascism place so high. Always saw it as a a cheap concession to Alternative Nation.

A sieg heil-in' squirt
you're an impotent jerk
Yeah, a fascist twerp
it's the song I hate
it's the song I hate

I think I've listened to enough Sonic Youth now to know they're not really my thing, but I adore this album

It was my first Sonic Youth album, so maybe that's the reason it's the one I latched onto. But I probably need to check out more of their albums. Goo felt similar to Dirty to me, if not as cohesive. I did enjoy a lot of Bad Moon Rising.

I was definitely scarred when I picked up Daydream Nation - said by many to be their best - and found it interminable and ponderous instead. This was years ago though, in the days of committing $17 to a CD when you just wanted to try something. It was enough to keep me from exploring their other albums. I should probably make it a point to dip my toes back in now that they're on Spotify.

I really dig that little guitar break in “Purr” (from like 2:40 until the main riff comes in again)… are there other SY things with that particular sound?

Ranaldo's leads in "Stones"? 2:50 in "Dirty Boots"?

Thx... "Stones" is nice. I think there's something almost Pavement-y about that "Purr" gtr, maybe that's why I like it so much

I know this is a basic-ass SY opinion, but "Sugar Kane" is such a great song... prob my favorite of theirs overall (it's a little funny when Thurston sings, "Kiss me like a frog"... I think it puts a different image in my head than was intended).