Eric's Trip

The fifth song on Daydream Nation is the Lee Renaldo classic "Eric's Trip."



Bugged eyed excitement came over me in June 2006 when I saw Sonic Youth in Atlanta on the Rather Ripped tour. Thurston broke out the drifter guitar and I knew what was coming....I could feel it...Lee says "ok my turn, this is eric's trip!"



Eric's Trip is one of the masterpeices that gives Daydream Nation its fortune and glory. This song is one of fur Lee songs to appear on the album, but for years, remained Lee's main staple in the set.

The melodic almost spoken words "I can't see anything at all, all I see is me, that clear enough thats whats important, to see me." So simple, yet so eloquent. Eric's Trip is anthem in itself. The songs takes lyrical inspiration from the Andy Warhol film "Chelsea Girls" following the acid trip of one of the characters Eric Emmerson.

One of the most inventive Sonic tracks. The entire song was written using Thurston's Drifter guitar. It was also during this time the band began to rely more heavily on their equipment. Eric's Trip seemed nearly impossible to pull off without the drifter!

Eric's Trip was the Lee staple from '88-'99, only to be replaced with Hoarfrost and Skip Tracer. The song seemed to be lost forever when the band had their equipment stolen in the summer of '99. After a nearly four year silence, the song returned a few times when Thurston managed to find adn hot rod another drifter guitar. The 2006 tour featured the song in heavy rotation, especially for the Daydream Nation album shows.

Video to come soon!

Videos!

I have been posting the last few blogs from work. The computers all have flash and other media players disabled which will not let me view or post videos from YouTube. Here some videos from the last three posts....Enjoy!

Teenage Riot 2007 Tour

Silver Rocket video 1988

The Sprawl 12-22-2007

Cross The Breeze

The 4th song on Daydream Nation is called "Cross The Breeze."



After the 8 minute opus of "The Sprawl," Daydream Nation is amped up into hyperspeed with "Cross The Breeze." This song is a masterpiece in the sonic catalogue, it features 5 very distinct parts, all with different sections and varying tempos. This song seems like it would difficult to pull off live.But they did, always, even 17 years later....



The song begins the same way it predecessor does, only it launches into a two chord punk riff backed by a galloping drum beat. Is it possible to have a punk song thats over 6 minutes? Does that defeat the purpose? The song can be divided up into 5 parts A B C D.



Here's how it breaks down:

Part A: Intro
Part B: Upbeat intro/lead in main section instrumental
Part C: verse/chorus "lets go walking on the water....i want to know"
Part D: "running cross the breeze"
Part B
Part A

The band began a reginment of labeling ever portion of every song with letters. Kim claimed they would lay them out on the floor, some songs would go up to Z!

Cross The Breeze's multi sectional approach made the song very difficult to pull off live especially with all the time and tempo changes. It was played nigtly on the '88-'89 tour and got some play in 1990 but was not dusted off until 2006 when the band began slowly placing Daydream Nation songs in their set to ultimately be played in its entire form. Cross The breeze shared some extra stage time on all the scattered 2008 dates.

Video to come soon....

The Sprawl

The 3rd song on Daydream Nation is called "The Sprawl."

There are two kinds of Sonic Youtn fans, those that love Daydream Nation and those that think its too long and drags. "The Sprawl" is easily the song that gives the listener the "drag" red flag. After the high powered "Teenage Riot" and sonic-punk "Silver Rocket," The Sprawl takes a nose dive in tempo, clocks in at over 7 minutes, and features 3 minutes of an instrumental outro. Sonic Youth is showing no signs of slowing down if you can make it past this song. It has its finer points. When the band set out to "extend" their jams and songs, the Sprawl HAD to be one of the forst songs set in that direction. Although the track has a "free flowing" feel, it is highly orchestrated and resembles the wall of noise we once loved from the Confusion Is Sex era.

The song features a chorus that repeats in the same place. A veyr pop type attribute for a song of this type."Come on down to the store, you can some more." The rest of the vocals feature a typical sonic youth style of "spoken" word singing. The lyrics sound simple and improvised, in fact they more than likely were even though some of the lyrics were taken and inspired by "The Stars At Noon by Denis Johnson. Favorite line "does this sound simple enough? fuck you! does fuck you! sound simple enough?"

The loose outro is what feels as if the song drags. The layered guitars playing the same drone over and over seem to go on and on until it melts into the next track....then things pick up....

"The Sprawl" ws debuted with the rest of the record in 1988. It was played nightly during the '88-'89 tour but layed to rest until 2007 with the re-release of Daydream Nation.

video to come....

Silver Rocket

The second song on Daydream Nation is called "Silver Rocket."

There is a surprise in  every song. Sonic Youth finally managed to write a "punk" song. Silver Rocket begins with an apreggiated but dives right into a two chord riff. The song is tight, and gets the point across...but then...

In typical Sonic fashion there MUST BE A BREAKDOWN and then a RETURN. Only this time, the sudden onslaught of noise comes at you when you least expect it. Its almost as if the band falls apart only to regain itself in the return to the chorus.

Silver Rocket is an indication that Sonic Youth is not only perfecting their song writing but managing to stretch their legs and "jam" a bit. Daydream represents the culmination of 6 years of musical evolution. Everything that is Sonic Youth from this point is thrown into Daydream Nation, Silver Rocket is pop, punk, noise, art, and attitude.

Silver Rocket was the song Sonic Youth performed for their first ever national television debut on the Night Music show. Don Fleming joins them on keys.

Silver Rocket was played mostly during the '88-'89 tour. It dropped off the setlist until 2000. It then saw periodic plays until 2006, but was being geared up for the 2007 Daydream Nation tour.

Video to come...

Teenage Riot

The first song on Sonic Youth's 5th LP is called "Teenage Riot."

"This song made the band famous whether they liked it or not." - Byron Coley.

By the end of 1987 and a 12 week tour taking the band across America and back to Europe, the band settled into a nest of extreme prolific production. With the creative genius of Mike Watt on their side, the band churned out a full-length LP filled with noises and cover songs called "Ciccone Youth: The Whitey Album." (This record will not be discussed in this blog.) The interim period between Sister and Daydream Nation was to be one of experimentation and writing. Lee Renaldo made a solo record along with Steve Shelley. The band was certain their next record had to match up with the cyber-punk blast of noise that made up Sister, but had few ideas where to take the music other than, as Thurston says, "extend our jams and our songs." A double LP was in thought and future sight.

"Teenage Riot" represents an era of music that ws bursting to be noticed. By 1988, bands like the Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, and Mudhoney all made their mark on the indie scene blasting through small town after small club. The Europeans seemed to the only ones listening, but the pot was too hot and eventually popped. "Teenage Riot" represents an era before grunge was grunge, J Macsis was a guitar god, and Kurt Cobain was just some guy from Aberdeen. "Teeenage Riot" marks the begininng of that era.

The song depicts some slacker type guitar player as the president of the United States. 1988 was a time of change in America. Ronad Reagan finished his 8 year run as President and George Bush was elected in a landslide win. Life was good and plentiful for the band, there was just one problem....they did not have a label.

The powerful juggernaut known as SST had begun to spin its wheels. Many artists were dropped and some never contacted. When Lee was informed SST would need more time and money to release the as of yet untitled record, Lee and Thurston thought it best to seek other options and try to get the record a national release. The European label ENIGMA that had put the first 4 records out in Europe, opened a American office in New York City called Blast First. Within 6 weeks, Sonic Youth had a deal and a distribution through CBS. The same company that put IRS on the map. This widespread distribution which would make the record available in the USSR, Japan, and Australia for the first time, would eventually lead to a major label deal in 1990.

"Teenage Riot" boasts a new tuning Lee rrefers to as a "split G." Oddly, This tuning was rarely used and this song seems to be the only one on the record.

Debuted in 1988 with all the rest of the tunes. Teenage Riot has enjoyed a good run since. It ws layed to rest from '97-'99 but then resurfaced as either an encore or an opener on the 2000 NYC Ghosts and Flowers tour. Since 2000 the song has been played in and out sets. I managed to see them do this one in '04 in the middle of the set, only to find out it had only been played a handful of times on the tour. At a show in 2003, everyone kept yelling for it and Lee said "we played it last night, it was great!" and launched into Kool Thing....funny.....2007 saw the performace of the entire Daydream Nation album. I was there in Chicago to witness the greatness. It was also the first time I had seen the band begin the song with the "spirit desire" portion, which was rarely done in the past.

video to come...

White Cross

The last song on the LP Sister is called "White Cross."

"Burning Inside!!!" Thats a strong start to a song that finishes a record. I have always thought, is there truly an end? Sister represents the idea that music is made for the future and not for the present. The "cybe-punk" mentality used through out the entire record gives the album a used and worn out futuristic sound. It is no wonder "White Cross" is the last song on the record.

The lyrics are simple and short, which is often a quality that the band uses, allowing them to explore the music more. It doesn't much lyrical content to make this song work:

Burning inside
I cross myself but if it doesn't help
because i'm not smart enough
i'm digging into white hot
learning not to lie
we cross it out and stay away

the song repeats the first two lines after an enormous build up and breakdown. Making good to end the record but the song kicks back in and has a abrupt ending. That's it? Want more? No noise jam? Thurston makes many references to his catholic upbringing. Others being "Catholic Block" and "Tuff Gnarl." He makes statements about trying to find a sense of security in the lyrics, trying to "cross it out" but its not helping. He's learning "not to lie" or sin but has trouble discerning between what is right and what is wrong, or is there a difference? He chooses in the end to stay away, because he's not smart enough or too young to understand and could possibly return after some experience. Remember, Thurston left home at 17 to find a whole new world...

"White Cross" was debuted in 1984 in a different form and came in and out of setlists in '86. Being one of the shortest songs, it was often extended with a longer jam in the middle. Setlists often list the song as "White Kross." Just like "Kotton Krown" was used with K's. The 2002-03 Murray Street tour saw a return into regular rotation, although the song has been pulled out many many times since the '87 Sonic Sister Tour. 2002-03 setlists spell the song with a "K," and was often used as an opener or secong to "Bull In The Heather." That's a weird transition!