I Learned It All From You Girl

Busy wasting time/ conducting research on the internet recently I found some pages from Sonic Death, the fanzine published by the members of Sonic Youth between 1990 and 1994 which ran to seven editions. It was written and assembled by the band with Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo especially involved and was riddled with Sonic Youth's DIY, scissors, glue and photocopier, punk energy. There are photos and drawings, interviews with other bands, reviews of obscure, underground 7" singles and albums, letters from fans accusing SY of selling out (they were on Geffen at the time), tour dates and updates, gig reviews, all the things that fanzine culture covered. Here are two front covers, from issue 5 and issue 4, Royal Trux and Sebadoh and much more...

Actual copies of Sonic Death rare as hen's teeth and accordingly expensive second hand- copies at second hand sites are listed at hundreds of dollars/ pounds. Luckily, at Sonic Youth's own website you can download every edition, #1 through to #7 as pdfs. If you're really dedicated, find some low grade paper and a stapler, print them and read as physical artefacts. Even better if you can sneak them into work and run them off there. You can find them here. Time capsules from a vanished age. 

Fanzines and music television were both high points of the early 90s pop culture world. Snub TV was a very fondly remembered  BBC2 early evening programme covering late 80s and early 90s indie with videos, live performances and interviews. It was essential viewing. I had stacks of clips and episodes recorded onto VHS to watch repeatedly at leisure. 

Sonic Youth appeared on Snub on 16th January 1989, thirty seven years ago today (not planned, a totally fortuitous coincidence I noted earlier this week when writing this post). There's a sense no one really wants to be interviewed and Thurston Moore stuns everyone at the end with a quote about punk rock and Sharon Tate that goes way beyond what the interviewer was expecting in a discussion about punk rock...

In 1992 Sonic Youth released Dirty, a double album that followed 1990's major label debut Goo. Dirty is loud and grungy, not sloppy grunge but punky grunge, noisy, experimental and chaotic but also with some very focussed and well arranged songs, produced by Butch Vig. Youth Against Fascism, 100%, Sugar Kane, Drunken Butterfly, Swimsuit Issue are all first rate and Dirty is an hour of Sonic Youth at their 90s best. 

The UK release of Youth Against Fascism came with a version of Dirty album song Purr, one of the earliest songs written for the album, recorded at a session for BBC's Mark Goodier, half acoustic and very fine indeed. 

Purr (Mark Goodier Session Version)