Sonic Youth's Early Catalogue

From Bad Moon Rising to Daydream Nation (1985–88)

For late Gen-X’ers like myself, Nevermind changed everything.

I loved Nirvana from the moment I saw the “Teen Spirit” video on MTV. My best friend had already raved about it, saying it was the best thing he’d ever seen in his life, and boy was he right.

We were skater kids, and we started letting our hair grow and wearing plaid flannel shirts to match our baggy chino pants and torn Chuck Taylors. We were 14, and this was our music.

A few months later, I saw another video that I really liked, and it featured a cameo from a personal hero of mine, professional skateboarder Jason Lee. The song was “100%” by Sonic Youth, and I went to town the next day to buy their new album Dirty.

Sonic Youth, photo from the Sonic Youth Archive Bandcamp page

I became particularly obsessed with “Crème Brulée”, sung by bass player Kim Gordon whom I recognized as the cool rock chick from the video. It was a sunny, mellow tune, featuring loads of noisy guitar feedback in the background. I felt attracted by that dissonance.