For nine years, Sonic Youth have slowly been perfecting their feedback rumblings into shorter, tighter arrangements. Over the course of the '80s, they released about five LPs, a number of EPs, and numerous offshoots of their core. In 1990, Sonic Youth release their major label debut, Goo. Not a sellout, but a departure from what they had usually done before. On August 21st, 1990, Sonic Youth were at the Warfield in San Francisco. Before they were to play that night, three guys from Fresno spoke with the band. Former KFSR music director, Steve Leone, was there along with T. James Madison and Dave Windt. The following is that interview.
SL: Well, what's it like to be here in San Francisco?
SS: (chuckle) Ummm, Hmmm...
SL: Have you guys been here before?
SS: Yeah, yeah many times.
SL: Where have you guys played here before in San Francisco?
SS: We've played at the Fillmore several times. I think we've played at the Stone even. Ummm, we've played here a lot.
SL: With the Goo album, you guys have gone more to a straight song-by-song album form, and before, you guys were movin' from song to song in a jam session, like on Daydream Nation.
SS: It was just something different to do. As opposed to repeating yourself time after time. We just wanted to write short songs that rocked. As compared to Daydream's long, drawn out songs kinda soft focused, ya know? It developed a really great mood, but in one way we wanted to change that for this album. Do something different basically.
SL: On "Mary Christ" you almost slip into the next song. It fades off and...
SS: Yeah, it goes into the other song, but we fade it out because that wasn't the take that we kept.
SL: Huh. Were you guys thinkin' about just going into the next song?
SS: It could of happened. Yeah.
LR: We thought about having those two segue together the way we play 'em live, but the version of "Kool Thing" that followed "Mary Christ" we didn't like so...
SS: It would have involved cutting up tape.
LR: When we were putting the album together, we didn't even imagine they were gonna be next to each other like that. And then after it was all done we thought, "Oh yeah, it fades out and then starts right back in." But it wasn't like conscious or anything.
SL: Why are you guys so interested in Karen Carpenter, or was that Kim Gordon's thing?
SS: Well, it's a lot of Kim's thing, but all of us share an interest in her right now. We've been like watching the videos and buying the albums, and listening to 'em.
SL: Why write a song like "Tunic (Song for Karen)?" Is it about, uh... does she symbolize somebody who died in rock-n-roll?
SS: Yeah, and sort of what people put themselves through to be in the spotlight. Also to be a woman in the spotlight. You could go on and on.
SL: Well, how does it feel for you guys to be in the spotlight, now with a record on a major label?
SS Uhhh...
LR I doesn't feel that different from the last few tours.
SS It doesn't feel that much different from what we've always done. Except for people are always asking us, like: "How does it feel now that you're like big stars or now that you're on a major label?" And it doesn't feel like anything. It just feels like...it's like...ya know, there was yesterday, and here's today, and then there's tomorrow. They all just kinda go in a row; It's like there's no big change or anything. Ya know?
A Helpful Key
The Interviewers:
SL: Steve Leone
DW: Dave Windt
TJ: T. James Madison
The Band:
SS: Steve Shelley
LR: Lee Ranaldo
TM: Thurston Moore
SL: How would you say your music reflects New York and NYC? Like the instrumental on "Goo" has a siren and stuff.
SS: Okay, that's a guitar.
LR: Yeah, that's "Buzzbombs Over London 1942." That's the subtitle of that one.
SL: Hanging out with Chuck D [Public Enemy] in the studio, how did that affect your recording of "Goo?"
SS: Hardly at all.
LR: It didn't. He affected it by the fact that he was on the track because they were in the next studio.
SS: See, we were in Greenstreet Studios and we were like in Room A and they were like in Room B. And so you see each other when you're like... when you go out and sit in front of the TV for like fifteen minutes. That's about how much they affected us.
LR: They were there when we did Daydream, too. They were working on their last record then. We've kinda been hanging out with them for a while. We're friends a little bit with Eric Sadler, one of their producers.
SS: It's not like a big cultural exchange or anything. We're very much into what they're doing, but I don't think they have that big of a knowledge or understanding of what we do and like what some of our contemporaries do. Like they probably never heard Nick Cave or Dinosaur or Babes in Toyland. But we know who like Public Enemy and Ice Cube and NWA. We know all about those, so it's like a one-sided cultural exchange. I've got to get some tea. I'll be right back. (Gets up and leaves)
Dave Windt: You've played on Night Music, and you've played at the Knitting Factory, how much of the improvisational jazz kinda stuff...are you...?
LR: Hey Thurston! Hey wants to know about...(laughter because Thurston is pulled away from Kim and the roadies) He wants to know about improv-improv-is-issational jazz. How much it affects us. I thought you might...
DW: You know, with the Knitting Factory, Night Music stuff I've seen you do, and playing with Cecil Taylor, that was great. How much...are you guys going to be doing more of that? Is it an interest?
Thurston Moore: I don't think we're going to be doing any of that.
SL: I think what he means is the improvisational jazz form, where you guys jam for a whole song, like on Daydream Nation.
TM: That's music that you just cant do fly by night. I mean, that's music that people play for like twenty years before they become even close to mastering it. It's cerebral music. Anybody can improvise. You can improvise on the level that like Coltrane 