Recent Vinyl Acquisitions #2 (Part II)
More 12” Single finds from the Rock n Roll Yard Sale:
Sonic Youth - Kool Thing Promotional 12” Single
I picked this up at the Weirdo Records booth, in their box of norm-ier shit (which also contained Alternative TV’s first record—hard to pass up, if only for “Action Time Vision”!). I’m sure the majority of people reading this post know all about “Kool Thing”, the first single off the first major label record by Sonic Youth, which begat a flashy, expensive, but totally enjoyable video and peaked at #7 on the Modern Rock Charts in the year before punk broke. With it’s driving, buzzsaw guitars, repetitive melodies and lyrical content, and a cameo by Public Enemy’s Chuck D (who happened to be recording down the hall from Sonic Youth as they embarked on Goo), it’s memorialized as one of the most commercially viable recordings the band ever made, which doesn’t bother me. I’m not an expert on the group by any means—even after collecting most of their oeuvre and reading David Browne’s 400-page epic biography of the band, Goodbye 20th Century, I feel like a novice among some of my friends—but for me Sonic Youth will always be at their most powerful when they’re at their catchiest. It could be a latent desire for a resurgence of weirdo vanguardism built on the wave of iconoclastic noisey pop that arose in the early 90s as major labels scrambled to sign anyone vaguely “alternative” (using hip “magnet bands” like Sonic Youth to increase cred). Or that explanation could be a cop-out meant to obscure the fact that I have a simple pop hook fetish. Either way, this song slays. The brutalist of radio rock riffage and the absurdity of the spoken-word ad-libs make for a formidable combination. The flipside of this single features a slower, denser 8-track demo version produced, unsurprisingly by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr and Don Fleming of Velvet Monkeys, who were called in to consult on percussion and vocal tracks, respectively. Once you’ve heard the album version, the demo seems to suffer from a severe lack of deadpanned, solidarity-affirming Chuck D exclamations, but it’s an interesting listen nonetheless. Watch the video (replete, as the lyrics are, with references to LL Cool J) below.
The Fall - New Big Prinz White Label Promo Double A-Side 12”
I wish I had the copy pictured above, but this is a US promo, probably issued by Beggars, with a white label in a plain black sleeve featuring a sticker heralding the then-forthcoming album I Am Kurious Oranj, whose title was obviously a play on the Swedish film I Am Curious, (issued in two version as I Am Curious [Yellow] and [Blue]) but what was not so obviously a soundtrack for a ballet themed loosely around the 300th anniversary of William of Orange’s ascension to the English throne (thanks Wikipedia). I have the album on cassette, which I’ve listened to a few times in the van, but haven’t exactly fallen in love with. Luckily, “Big New Prinz” is one of the standout tracks. It’s a thumper that culls lyrics from the Fall classic “Hip Priest” off Hex Enduction Hour (a record that I may one day challenge my pal Amer to a duel over). Mark E. Smith’s sardonic opening, sprinkled with mutterings of “rockin’ records” gives the listener the feeling that he’s taking the piss out of “Hip Priest“‘s critically-acclaimed status, making the borrowed refrains from that piece of “drink the long draught for [big] priest” and “he is not appreciated” (the last word in the second phrase appearing in the form of a sampled group vocal) spitefully comical. In repeating “check the record” and “check the guy’s track record,” Smith is able to both reinforce his power over the listener, while rendering the praise garnered by his former “hit” ridiculous. It’s a clever trick, one that Smith’s entire career seems predicated upon. How else does one stay as influential for such a long period of time without seeming like they’re dragging a bloated rock n roll ego around if not by challenging their work along with everyone else’s? Peep a great TV performance of this track below—Mark E Smith seems to be just entering his personal tape recorder phase and Brix looks like if Frenchie from Grease was in the B-52s.
Total Spent: $10
