SONIC YOUTH
Dirty Re-Issue (Geffen)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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I'll just come out and say that without albums like Dirty I wouldn't be as cool as I am today. Oh yeah, I know the naysayers will ride that one and me for saying it, but youthful teenage years were about empowerment and Sonic Youth was, well, about empowering youth.

Espousing the virtues of Dirty could take all day. Any record which boasts post-punk anthems like "100%," "Swimsuit Issue" and "Youth Against Fascism" scores a nine on the cool scale if only for its bravado. Kim and Thurston knew how to give it to you - she, in unapologetic feminist drone and he carrying that sneer out from beneath his wool hoodie. Their awkward love letters and paeans to disaffection issued priceless license to look at the world outside the skate ramp and question the relativity of anyone's sanity.

The recent re-issue packs another twenty-four tracks onto the original. There are eight b-sides, listing a rare cover of the New York Doll's "Personality Crisis" and the sloppily drawn "Tamra" as highlights. Rehearsal recordings yield splendidly intriguing sonic experiments. The instrumental "Barracuda" sounds nothing like the original, while the disparate elements on "Little Jammy Thing" and "Dreamfinger" are reminders that Sonic Youth were pushing boundaries long before they issued their Perspective Musicales series. There are thirty-five tracks in all, making the whole double disc a challenging listen in one sitting; in bites, it is an archive of cool.

Probably the most satisfying thing about listening to Sonic Youth has always been the raw imperfection that characterized their sound. Successful in a music industry - nay, an artistic community, perhaps obsessed with polish, hearing Sonic Youth's creative process occur again and again in its most spontaneous form is riveting. The deluxe Dirty is a further window into that machine.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz