Hey Joni

The seventh song on Daydream Nation is called "Hey Joni."

Lee actually sings more than one song on a record! This does not happen very often, in fact, Lee sings one other, which we will get to soon!

Inspired by the movie "Neuromancer," the titles takes a play on the song "Hey Joe."

This song comes at you with force. After the noises and drones from Total Trash, Hey Joni starts immediately, no time for an intro or extended parts. Lee and Thurston play very similar parts on this song and even share tunings. This is rare, which leads me to believe this song came together quickly, leaving no time for thought. 'Hey Joni" also features more of Lee's intricate signature harmonics.

This is also one of the few Sonic Youth songs that feature a very stable verse/chorus/verse/chorus. Thurston and Kim have stated that around this time they digging on Dinosaur Jr, and J's songs influenced much of the writing. I would be more inclined to believe this on Goo or Dirty, but in 1988, Dinosaur was hot sheet on the indie scene.

This is my freind Jason Manley's favorite song.

This song got retired in 1990. It makes sense because Eric's Trip was the staple Lee song until 1995. Hey Joni was revived for a few shows in 2006 but brought back into the set nightly during the 2007 Daydream Nation re-release tour. Hey Joni also managed to get regular play after that tour during all the sporatic dates in 2008. It was play in Nashville back in April...and it was awesome!!

Total Trash

The sixth song on Daydream Nation is called "Total Trash."

"Total Trash" follows Eric's Trip very seamlessly. It has a very simple three chord riff and drives almost the entire song. The riff is very "rock and roll" 12 bar blues, something we don't see too much in the Sonic Youth cannon, but of course its not tuned to E!

Total Trash uses the same riff throughout the song as both a verse and chorus with Lee providing some really basic lead guitar. Thurston sings a melody that rings and has some catchy words.

BUT....

We ge to the end of 2nd chorus and typical Sonic fashion, it all comes crumbling down like building getting demolished. Leave it up to Sonic Youth to completely deconstruct one of the most basic songs of their current status! Its still all punk and no play.

The breakdown leads into a nice noise jam that uses the riff as a backbone. It has been said that Totla Trash is the second longest song on this record. A rough mix from the daydream sessions emerge in bootleg form to reveal the song having a much longer jam making the song well over 9 minutes! What is great about this tune is that the breakdown is more of a "jam" than a noise jam because the main riff is contained and each member gets to sort of "go off" for a moment or two. Mastrubation at its best. Where's J Mascis when you need him?

"Total Trash" was often played last in the set during the Daydream '88-'89 tour. It was absent until '93 where it was played nightly but then took another back seat until being dusted off June 18th 2003 in Louisville, Ky (i was there!) First performance in 10 years. It was played twice after that (same tour) and did not appear again until the 2007 Daydream Nation anniversary shows.

Video to come!

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...