does FUCK YOU sound simple enough?

Ok, so the angle is that I write up the “Sister” experience some other time. This post, obstinately about the Sonic Youth’s ’88 LP “Daydream Nation”, is deeply overshadowed by that earlier LP. Simply put, in one of the hipster circles I ran with in those days (well, it’s still the same circle, despite massive losses and stunning gains and total realignment of focus- jobs, footballers wives, and double kids here and another coming* . That core of six muthafucka‘s, though not crashing in each others dorm rooms and sleeping with each others lovers anymore, still hang. The “Sister” group, I‘ll coin it now- wait, I like “The Sisters” better--yes!!!--that‘s how powerful a shadow that LP casts.), “Daydream Nation” was probably one of the most eagerly waited for LP’s of all time. “Daydream Nation”, a great LP no doubt, just wasn’t “Sister”. Again, “Daydream Nation” is great- put the earlier LP was such a perfect LP that we expected not just the same but EVEN MORE : and we didn’t get it. Impossibly tite rock beyond belief gave way to fat long compositions that meandered and seemed often never to get to the point. “Sister” seemed to be point after point after point, and every point got higher and higher. But I’ll save that when I write up “Sister Nite”, that brave April ’88 nite on the lake which I think still resonates to this day--well, in me, @ least**.

All that negative energy about “Daydream Nation” the day before I’m to experience it in it’s entirety? And it’s shit?? No way. “Daydream Nation” , in its own ways, also lives with me, and is important in social groups that aren’t based on “The Sisters” group.

And, believe it or not, my absolute favourite LP moment of any Sonic Youth thing is on this LP= the “spirit desire” intro, all 1.26m of it, that opens the LP and the song “Teenage Riot”. I’m ritely obsessed with this tidbit, and except for the chance of hanging around with-what, 40 people I know that are going- the chance to listen to/experience/ love that 1.26m of the LP. When I saw them on the initial leg of the “Daydream Nation” tour back in November ‘88, I really don’t remember hearing it. They’ve played “Teenage Riot” maybe 2-3 other times I’ve seen them, but never the “Spirit desire” part. To-morrow. (This is the best ewetube version of spiritdesire i could find-it's ok, but the 1.26m is totally shortchanged- i hope they play it all to-morrow.) Maybe i will have someone ink in "spirit" on one eyelid and "desire" on another, or get out my old lowtop Chucks- one with spirit on the toe, the other with........you guessed it.


But the Lp is more than just that. I like Lee’s “Erics Trip”, the non-freakout parts that sandwich the extended jam section of “Total Trash”, “The Sprawl” “Kissability”, “Hey Joni”, “Rain King”, and seleted parts of “Trilogy“. Wait, isn’t that most of the LP? And it is- but like a sports team loaded with great players that can’t win, something is missing***. “Sister” is missing. I’m assuming all of The Sisters agree with me (look there- a comment button- below!! ), but there are good frenz- whose musical tastes I’ve paid serious attention to and I will be standing next to - who really dig “Daydream Nation” more than “Sister”. Hmmmmmm.

But there are two indelible memories associated w/ “Daydream Nation” that rank with “Sister”. The second one was that initial “Daydream Nation” tour in Nov. ‘88 @ the Metro. So hepped were we, some of us (not me!!) realLy Silly faceD, for that show. And I remember nothing. Nothing @ all. Except for the encore. Opening for the sonics that nite was two bands- and one of the bands, whose name excapes me, had a lead singer who basically just screamed through songs. The opening encore song was “I Wanna be yr Dog” that the Sonics had covered on an earlier LP, and they had the screaming guy take lead screaming. GOD DID THIS BRING IT ALL DOWN. Rarely have I experienced such rampant joy in shoving and pushing and jumping and sweating and THEN the lead screamer stepped on my hand (first row- remember how important that was and how we‘d be so determined to secure that spot-center and front) and stage dived. Wonderful pandemonium that leads me to poetry:

“missing somethings/
the vinyl sides/
apparent all over/
in that wilde live ride.”

And , saving the best for last, or is it the first for last: 1.26m. Stated above , my favourite piece of music from the group is the first 1.26m of “Daydream Nation” : an extended introduction to the opening song “Teenage Riot” (the best song on “Daydream Nation”) where a simple strumming guitar and Kim’s sexy singing still has me obsessed (so easy to click ’play’ on the CD and listen to it over and over and over--bad me!!). But how deeply special that 1.26m is I will reveal here (I’ve said it before, but I know no one remembers it). There was an LU dorm room chock full of my frenz: the famous 5C. It was in a dorm five flites above Lake Michigan-and my memory is of opening the lake windows wide open on a Saturday morning, feeling the cold air rushing around our bodies and the room. We were obsessed with “Daydream Nation” then, and continually played it. For years after, the first 1.26m of “Daydream Nation” - Kim singing, that little lite guitar- always - ALWAYS- brought me back to that room and that time and that cold wind, riffling past us. I had so much desire for that spirit.

So, “Daydream Nation” is here and I am to see it all to-morrow. It’s good LP, there’s many songs (and people--GF‘s going, GF‘s going, GF‘s going!!!) I can’t wait to see. But man, wouldn’t it be kool to once again to hear the bum bum BUMP bum bum bum BUMP of “Sister” holding the day? Listen, we gotta talk to Thurston and Kim and Lee and Michael Myers the drummer. They listen to us. They must know that “Sister’ is the key==wait, I do know they know that--every time I’ve seen them, they always play most of the LP they are promoting- but that now 20y old LP “Sister” ? They always play 2-3 songs from it-They know how good that record is. We know how good that record is. Maybe we’ll get an encore of “White Kross” or “Kotton Krown”. But I guess, for now ‘ “Rain King” on “Silver Rockets” will have to do” ’ .

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Abstract: Although "Daydream Nation" is a good LP, it is nowhere near the piece of perfection that "Sister" is. I'm speaking for the Sisters, but we believe that "Sister" should have the super acknowledgement as one of the very best LP's in this universes concept of art.

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*=Las Vegas put the odds on this child being named “Morrissey” @ 4-1- be it a boy or a girl.

**=There were four of us that nite. Matt Jenke doesn’t have a blog, but Roxx and Blaxx do. Blaxx has absolutely no interest in writing about anything that happens beyond, say, the last week (I‘ve been a Blackolyte for, what, four years now, so I know the topics he writes on) ; but Roxx- if you ever are gonna write about this nite, drop me a line so I can get mine in around the same time. I’m asking.

***=When the Rolling Stones released “Brown Sugar” in early 1970, Phillip Norman, in his great stones book Sympathy for the Devil, wrote that, as great a song as it was, something was missing: “The Sixties were missing” (p 351). And what the fuck’s wit Da Sox there days?? The Sixties are missing? No excuse!

This a new film that's just out- and lo and behold, all The Sister's are repped. Nicely done. Shit, and i thought I was the romantic nostalgic one. Wait, i am.
And an even newer film. I still am.