JAW ON THE FLOOR: Starbucks to Release Sonic Youth Celebrity Compilation (WTF)

If you're going to do a "Sonic Youth's Greatest Hits" CD, this is pretty OTM (except for the omission of "Dirty Boots").

04 Kool Thing (selected by Radiohead)

??????

I find that pretty unsurprising, I think!

Stones is awesome

i couldn't give a toss about sonic youth, but this sleeve is awesome:

http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/50636.hitsareforsquare-lg.jpg?

I CLDNT GIVE A TOSS ABT THAT SLEEVE

Is that guy meant to be a square or not?

anybody else keep reading the thread title like that bank advertisement where the manager robs all the customers? JAWW ON THE FLOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!

this still happens

WOMG ITS LIKE IT CATCHES THE QUINTESSENCE OF STARBUCKS

xp

"alternative rock u guys!!1! o shi, wait it's 2008..."

No square would sit with their hand in their pocket like that, the other hand gently plucking out the opening riff to teenage riot selected by Eddie Vedder

he's having a tug

obv

is that sonic youth man? well turn it up!

,

Fucking hell, that's one monstrosity of a Starbuck's on the cover. Do they host sporting events in there?

http://i25.tinypic.com/20ru2vd.jpg

I mean, really, that's a huge fucking Starbuck's

It really is a great sleeve though. I want to hang it on my wall.

The sleeve looks just a screenshot of a Starbuck's commercial with the words SONIC YOUTH and the title over it. shrug. There are worse CD covers, but this is pretty eh at best.

yeah it's fucking shit.

the basketball-playerless one I mean.

that cover is awesome. 270 Park Ave, the JP Morgan/Chase building

omg

No it's really great. Beautiful photo, even poignant, and finds a pretty slyly funny way to comment on the cultural phenomenon that it's a part of.

why is it funny?

In a deadpan way. Because they're already disappointing and confusing fans by doing a Starbucks comp and they go and actually put a Starbucks on the cover - something that even Norah Jones would never do. And the guy on the cover kind of embodies a certain kind of aging indie kid turned corporate man.

270 is the building the Starbucks is in. the one across the way is 245 Park, also a JPMC building and also housing Major League Baseball.

Right I see. But I still think it's bad.
xp

is chloë sevigny the only celebrity with any commitment to making herself look cooler than aging startbucks cd rack patrons - i mean really

anyone know who actually took the photo?

The dude is probably listening to the Decemberists.

It should be titled-

"Espresso to Yr. Skull"

-- stephen, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 9:45 PM (Tuesday, December 4, 2007 9:45 PM) Bookmark Link

LOL

gabbneb what's your choice?

lol @ op

Jams Run Free, natch

cover is funny

lolz at Sonic Basketball

I can't believe Hurting 2 had to resort to explaining the cover like that (which he/she did exceptionally).

Do you think they requested the Parental Advisory sticker on there? I can't think of any objectionable content in any of those songs (though I don't usually filter stuff that way mentally, so I'm probably forgetting something).

Do you think they requested the Parental Advisory sticker on there?

Maybe for this:

he's got a hard tit killer fuck in his past
- "Tuff Gnarl"

"Parental Advisory : Kids might turn out like Juno"

EURGH

haha

You probably seen this, or linked to it, but for those who do not leave here, ever...

Pitchfork: Is Sonic Youth working on any new material right now?

Thurston Moore: No, no. We kind of need to record a song for this Starbucks record that's coming out.

Pitchfork: For, uh, Starbucks?!

Thurston Moore: Yeah. We sort of devised this idea of a Sonic Youth record where we asked all these different people to choose their favorite song, people like artists and actors and other musicians and what have you. So all these people, from Jeff Tweedy to Beck to Marc Jacobs to Portia de Rossi to Michelle Williams [laughs ], they all chose their favorite songs and wrote a little thing about it. So it's a compilation record of artists choosing songs of Sonic Youth. There's going to be one exclusive song of ours that we'll record, so that's something we have to record.

Pitchfork: So it's going to be one of those things up at the counter along with the biscotti and the disc of Elton John's favorite Christmas songs?

Thurston Moore: [laughs ] Yeah, something like that. I wish Starbucks would ask me to compile a mixtape record.

Pitchfork: That would be ... interesting.

Thurston Moore: I love doing that stuff. But you know, it's so funny, because Starbucks is the new record store, right? [laughs ]

Pitchfork: Yeah. I guess if you're in there buying a four dollar cup of coffee, the idea of throwing down a few more for the CD seems like no big deal.

Thurston Moore: Exactly, or getting the Paul McCartney gift card, you know. It's attractive, in a way [laughs ]. I like these underground bands that only make records and stuff that they sell only at gigs, and it's only available if you go to the gig to their merch table and they advertise it on their site and at different blogs and they'll list all these things like "edition of 50, only available on this little tour we're doing." So if you're a fan you kind of got to go to get the merch.

Well, there you have it. A Sonic Youth album... for Starbucks.

[laughs ]

[all the way to the bank]

I agree that the cover art is making fun of the phenomenon. What I don't get is why. Sonic Youth contracted with Starbucks to produce a CD of their songs to be sold (and not inconceivably, played) in Starbucks. Why does the cover art mock the Starbucks/Sonic Youth customers? Similarly:

Michelle Williams [laughs ],

Sonic Youth asked her to lend her name to this project. Why is he laughing at her? This isn't just sly irony, they're showing a smug sense of superiority and entitlement. The cover art is clever. It's also obnoxious.

There's this new artist Andy Warhol that's becoming really influential these days perhaps you've heard of him

There's nothing mocking, disingenuous, nor revelatory about the cover art that I see. Looks like just some kid after a late night shift inside a huge-ass Starback's that's about to close. It looks just like a Starbuck's ad.

I know it's hard not to see this as high art because of how low album art standards have become in 2008, but christ.