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Re-issuing The Youth
Faces Rocks, Volume 12, Number 2, April 1995.
Sonic Youth have dusted off the cobwebs of their musical vaults gradually releasing re-issues of their entire back-catalog on DGC Records. Three blasts from the past currently available are EVOL (originally recorded in '86 for SST Records), Sister ('81 SST release), and the out-of-the-print Daydream Nation (previously released on Blast First/Enigma), all of which have been re-mastered. Also slated for release in '95 will be the Sonic Youth albums Bad Moon Rising, Confusion Is Sex (plus the Kill Yr. Idols EP), Sonic Youth, and the out-of-print The Whitey Album by Sonic's alter-ego Ciccone Youth.
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore shared his thoughts on the re-issues: "I'm trying to remember -- it was a long time ago -- back in the day when Reagan was king -- oh yes -- and the kids were not yet poisoned by the hydra of fame -- and Flipside magazine was a bible to swear upon -- no one knew except the urchins and the punks -- bands of mighty distinction and rapacious, rebellious swather would trek the land creating a "scene" and laying sweet and bitter seeds of hardcore, experimental and otherwise -- the media and the mayor labels stayed away in confusion and terror -- useless lumbering dinosaurs only there for our troll amusement offering up middle-class carnival fare -- Madonna, Springsteen, Mellencamp... we scurried and created our own devices to further our spiritual intellect -- we blossomed like roses in a stinkpot -- regaling ourselves with monikers such as Saccharine Trust, Swans, Slovenly Peter, Reactionaries, Misfits, Nihilistics, China White, Butthole Surfers, Velvet Monkeys -- oh yes, and we created "homes" and "shelters" for our precious, yet nefarious sensibilities and considered them independent from the boorish major label skum -- yes, thee indie Label was our boat and our steed -- Homestead, SST, Dischord, Touch & Go, 99, Modern Method, Frontier, Unclean, Version Sound, Mob Style, ROIR, RRadical, Poshboy, Smoke 7, Alternative tentacles -- we would ascend to a promised land of skin, brains & guts -- we would not concede to the ploys of a corporate industry even though our accomplices at the college-radio stations and the fanzine-nation at large were readying themselves for advancement into such ill-gotten terrain. O where hath ye travailed dear sirs -- we cry the names of Kates and Farrell and Rollins and Moore and Sommers and Gitter and Cosloy and Cake and we know we've reached a nexus most unusual as Nirvana was achieved before and not after such foray into enlightened realm -- o and the gods come crashing down in confounded authority and we watch sputteringly as Albini once more quakes with devilish glee and the road is traversed with and entity only known as Hole. Sonic Youth were and are the studious microdots gently playing through these years of formative identity, transition and now the playing field of cultural anarchy. They recited prosaic documents along the way and unleashed them accordingly to those with the sensitivity to comprehend and learn. Learning is the key. It's back-to-school time all over the world 1994 -- EVOL, Sister, Daydream Nation, Confusion Is Sex -- essential items to be stuck in any kids locker -- avast ye swords of sonic soliloquy!!!!!!"
- thurston, nyc
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