Goo

Performer: Sonic Youth
Artist: J Mascis; Chuck D; Don Fleming
Engineer: Nicholas Sansano
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Sonic Youth: Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo (vocals, guitar); Kim Gordon (vocals, bass); Steve Shelley (drums). Additional personnel: Nick Sansano (percussion); Don Fleming (percussion, background vocals); J. Mascis, Chuck D. (background vocals). Producers: Sonic Youth, Nick Sansano, Ron Saint Germain. Recorded at Sorcerer Sound and Greene Street, New York, New York. Personnel: Don Fleming (percussion, background vocals); Nick Sansano (percussion); J Mascis (background vocals). Recording information: Greene Street Recording Studio, New York, NY; Sorcerer SOund, New York, NY. GOO was Sonic Youth's major label debut and allowed the band to blend its skewed sense of aesthetic and cultural criticism into a more understandable stab at pop culture. GOO unleashed the band's ability to create monster riffs out of fuzzy, unlikely tunings, while bringing their once aloof songwriting into a more pop-sensitive light. GOO's stunning collection of material once again highlighted Sonic Youth's unique writing talents. "Dirty Boots" and "Mary Christ" showed Thurston Moore's delicious slant on rock melody. Yet it was Kim Gordon who stole the show with her chilling "Tunic (Song For Karen)" and the brilliant "Kool Thing." In "Tunic," Gordon wrapped her cunning insight around the Karen Carpenter story: "I feel like I'm disappearing/Getting smaller every day/But I look in the mirror/And I'm getting bigger in every way..." The song was one of the album's many attempts at understanding the mechanics of pop stardom. "Kool Thing" summed up rock's once blatant "fear of a female planet" by placing women rockers in a rap context. "Are you going to liberate us girls/From male, white, corporate oppression?" Gordon toyed, saying more in her deadpan delivery than years of articles on women in rock or rap combined.

Rolling Stone (8/9/90) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a brilliant, extended essay in refined primitivism..." Entertainment Weekly - "...moves from lush, airy chords to brutalizing power riffs--the bristling sound of rock in the future." - Rating: B - Ranked by EW as the #6 Album of 1990. Q - 3 Stars - Good Uncut (p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[S]panning spazzed-out Krautrock, malevolent electronic drones and open-tuned jazz-punk....Exhilarating." Down Beat (11/90) - 4.5 Stars - "...This album is miles away from pop music with its unpredictable tempo leaps, the fidgeting with speaker noise and feedback, and the stumblings through instrumental excursions that succeed by a combination of drive and joy....immensely rewarding..." Option - Highly Recommended - "...a compelling, identifiable consistency..." New York Times (Publisher) (12/30/90) - Rated #6 of the Top 10 Recordings for 1990.

Drawing equally from punk rock and new-music pioneers such as John Cage and Glenn Branca (whom guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo both played with), Sonic Youth employed a palette of white noise that deconstructed punk-rock orthodoxy into radical new configurations. Seemingly the opposite of what major labels would want in a band, Sonic Youth inked a deal with Geffen records in the late 1980s and caught the ear of a certain mainstream listenership. With the release of their 16th proper studio album, RATHER RIPPED, in 2006, Sonic Youth secured their position as icons of underground and alternative culture.

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