Tuesday, November 22, 2005

When you see the spiral turning for you alone

Lee Ranaldo enjoying pistachios, 7.30.04
I'm down in the daytime out of sight
Comin' in from dreamland I'm on fire
I can see it's all been here before
Dream a dream that lies right at your door


--Sonic Youth, "Mote," Goo (1990)


Pitchfork published an interview with Lee Ranaldo today, in which he reflects on the pivotal year of 1990, when Goo was originally released as Sonic Youth's major label debut. The Deluxe Edition was released back in September, so I suppose this interview must have been part of the big commercial push Geffen's publicity folks mounted (ha ha).

Ranaldo's mention of the group wanting better distribution for their records reminded me that I bought Goo shortly after moving to Weehawken, New Jersey, in late June/early July 1990, and instead of heading down to Pier Platters (R.I.P.) in Hoboken, I wound up purchasing it at The Wiz out in Passaic while on some other errand with one of my roommates. I still didn't own a CD player at that point, but I bought it on CD because it somehow seemed appropriate to symbolically buy into the future. It was, and remains, a great record, full of many blissful moments--one of which for me has always been the drawn out guitar noise concluding Ranaldo's song "Mote." The mix on the CD version of the new Deluxe Edition vastly improves the sound from the earlier digital incarnation, and the bonus tracks allow a look inside the group's working process. It's odd to have records that still seem so vital historicized with this reissue treatment, but in this case what is vital has indeed been revitalized.

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