A Short Column About Music 11.06.08: Sonic Youth - EVOL

Posted by Andrew Moll on 11.06.2008

We're gonna kill the California girls. We're gonna fire the exploding load in the milkmaid maiden head. We're gonna find the meaning of feeling good, and we're gonna stay there as long as we think we should.

Congratulations to Barack Obama on becoming the first African-American to become President of the United States. Far be it from me to proclaim that racism in America is dead, but it may very well say something that a black man named Barack Obama can reach the highest office in the land. Or maybe not. Either way, it was an impressive campaign. Also, we can start counting down the days until the end of W. Truly, a day we can all celebrate. As Rob Riggle put it last night on The Daily Show, "So this is what the world looks like after President Bush." Anywho, let's get on with it.






Today, we look at one of the preeminent alternative bands of the last thirty years, and one of their early records. They would go on to become a highly influential band that still is able to consistently release great records, and this album stands as their first "great record."



Sonic Youth - EVOL
Released: May 1986
Tracklisting:
1. Tom Violence
2. Shadow of a Doubt
3.Starpower
4. In the Kingdom #19
5. Green Light
6. Death to Our Friends
7. Secret Girl
8. Marilyn Moore
9. Expressway to Yr. Skull


In the wake of Punk rock's ascension in 1977, a new sound began to form in New York City. While "New Wave" bands were being signed to major labels, the "No Wave" sound was being developed among the art communities in NYC, made up of young musicians that had flocked to the city after The Ramones and other bands had made their mark. Bands like The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, and D.N.A. developed a nihilistic sound that combined minimalism with dissonant guitars. Eventually, Brian Eno would produce the No New York compilation, featuring the four previously mentioned bands. Unfortunately, the scene was dying down by the time Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo decided to form a band in 1981. Both guitarists had spent time performing with avant-garde composer Glenn Branca. Branca had developed his own dissonant and formed his own guitar orchestra. He, more than anyone, shaped the early sound of the band that Moore and Ranaldo would form, called Sonic Youth. Joined by Moore's girlfriend, bassist Kim Gordon and drummer Richard Edson, the band's take on noise-rock wasn't initially met with open arms among the public or music critics.

The band's debut self-titled EP is a minimalist effort, and much less visceral than later Sonic Youth albums would be. But it does feature the masterful guitar work of Moore and Ranaldo, as they worked to get sounds out of their guitars that no other musicians would have even thought to attempt. They weren't afraid to experiment either, putting to record whatever they wanted to , regardless of song structure, or even normal instrumentation. (On one song, Ranaldo plays a power drill through a wah-wah pedal.) The results are mixed, but the band was clearly onto something. Over their next few releases, the band would begin to hone their sound even as they began to focus more on alternate tunings, and a much different listening experience, one that required the listener to perhaps get through the record first before being able to appreciate all of it. In February 1983 the band's first full length, Confusion Is Sex, was released and the album, as critic Greil Marcus put it, "resembled nothing so much as the sort of chants little kids come up with when they've been sent to their rooms without supper." This direction continued on the Kill Yr. Idols EP, and it was at this time that the band started to make waves in Europe. American audiences didn't yet care about the band, but European audiences loved the band's wild style and exciting live shows. What little American press they got, saw the band get grouped together with bands like Big Black and the Butthole Surfers as part of the "pigfuck" genre.

But Sonic Youth continued to get better at playing and songwriting, and being able to take their unique sound and apply it to something that more people could appreciate. 1985's Bad Moon Rising is a big step forward for the band as it was the first time all their skills were coming together. At the same time, the band was becoming interested to dystopian themes, and an alternate look at American society at the time. Songs like "Society is a Hole" and "I'm Insane" use Moore and Ranaldo's abilities to their advantage as they help to shape a dark sound that perfectly matched the themes of the lyrics. The album' s last song not only proves to be the best song on the record, but the best song Sonic Youth had recorded up to that point. "Death Valley ‘69" is a look at the Charles Manson murders, and is a creepy five-and-a-half minutes. The band does a tremendous job of setting the scene of a society on a downward spiral, and Moore's vocal performance provides the same impact. While Bad Moon Rising emerged as the band's best recording, they would produce an even better album with their next effort.

Released in May 1986, EVOL is a stunning achievement. It combines brilliant songwriting with avant-garde music, and is also done with that Sonic Youth flourish. The record is raw, visceral, sexy, atmospheric and more. It all starts off with "Tom Violence" which has one of the band's best grooves on it, and some great guitar work from Moore and Ranaldo. Moore sings, "My violence is a dream, a 'real dream'/A skinny arm, a crush on living sin." After the first verse, the song turns into a wall of guitars, with it all building until a tremendous and cathartic break that leads into the second verse. It's all driven by new drummer Steve Shelley, who leaves his mark all over the album. His forward, pulsating style fits the band perfectly. While Shelley may be a star on the first song, the second track belongs to Kim Gordon. "Shadow of a Doubt" takes its subject from Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, and showcases Gordon's dreamy, whispered vocals. She gets all the sensuality out of the lyrics describing a brief affair. She breathily declares, "Swear I didn't mean it/Swear it wasn't meant to be," while later in the song telling her newfound lover to "Kiss me in the shadow of a doubt." It's a sparse, atmospheric song, one that perfectly complements Gordon's style. The song briefly gets louder before coming back down to its more sensual state. It's the type of dichotomy that Sonic Youth has always been great at portraying.



"Shadow of a Doubt"


The album's only single, "Starpower" follows and is also sung by Gordon. It can be construed as a pop song, and that fact along with the lyrics makes the song one of the band's first forays into the culture of celebrity, something the band is still fascinated with. At the time of the album's release, Madonna was becoming a huge star and the band were very interested in her celebrity. "Starpower" is particular is a song about love, and how you feel about another person, as if they have a power over you. Things take a big turn on "In the Kingdowm #19", featuring former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. It's the first song featuring Ranaldo on vocals, it's a guitar-crazy freakout about a car crash that lets him and Moore go all out with their guitar abilities. The two of them have always been able to get unique sounds from their instruments, and this song is a prime example of those abilities. While an avant-garde song, it's never self-indulgent, like most of the Sonic Youth catalog. The alternate tunings aren't just for show, they have great aesthetic purpose.

That's shown on the next song, the Great Gatsby-influenced "Green Light." It's actually an odd song, with Moore singing a sort-of love song, but it's balanced by odd tunings and a dark melody. But that doesn't stunt the impact of lines like, "I kneel before the green light of her singing crayon eyes/And then I kiss her stomach and it's then I realize/Her light, is the night/I'm not blind, I believe in you/I see a green light." It's another unique take on a pop song. It's essentially a love song with a memorable melody, but it's all done in a much different way than people are used to hearing. But that's why this record was such a pronounced step forward for the band. Instead of releasing songs with odd tunings or art-rock sensibilities, they added those sensibilities to well-written songs, and the result was a great record.



"Green Light"


"Death to our Friends" is next, and while it is in no way an emotional song, our one with impressive songwriting, it does show that Sonic Youth can rock out, which is what they do for three minutes here. Moore and Ranaldo once again hold nothing back on their guitar playing, but Gordon and Shelley keep everything grounded with a heavy rhythm section that keeps the song from going off into guitar-noodling hell. "Secret Girl" is the only misstep on the album, an art-rock project that doesn't really work musically with the rest of the album, if not stylistically. It does reflect the album's combination of dystopia and sensuality, but for the most the part, the looped piano does nothing. On the other hand, "Marilyn Moore" is a great, slower track. Moore stands out with his reserved delivery as the guitars once again form a figurative wall, but one that keeps shifting as the song moves along. And, also, Shelley does an amazing job of keeping the beat here. He is heavy, but consistent and makes sure that while everything is swirling around, the song has a firm base to keep moving with.

The album finishes up with a song that Neil Young proclaimed "the greatest guitar song of all time." While that may be up for dispute, there is no doubt that "Expressway to Yr. Skull" is one of rock's great songs. It starts off like a demented Beach Boys song, with more singing over a light and catchy riff, "We're gonna kill the California girls/We're gonna fire the exploding load in the milkmaid maiden head/We're gonna find the meaning of feeling good, and we're gonna stay there as long as we think we should." The song works, at least at the beginning as a ballad of sorts, and you can tell the influence it had by listening to similar ballads from alternative rock in the nineties. (You can hear where the Smashing Pumpkins got influence for a song like "Drown.") Moore delivers a somewhat charming vocal performance, like he's actually quite chipper about a California killing spree. After one last hurrah in the chorus, the last few minutes of the song is a slow march to the end, led by Shelley and Gordon's impressive work. Moore and Ranaldo let their guitars work in an ambient sense as the song fades, but not before some great, visceral work from the two. It may be the band's best song ever, and one hell of a way to finish the record.



"Expressway to Yr. Skull"


For their third full-length album, Sonic Youth made immense progress and produced on the best punk records on the 1980s. EVOL would be the record that finally got Sonic Youth noticed as critics gave it rave reviews. Billboard said that the band was "unmistakably rewriting the vocabulary of the electric guitar in the ‘80s." Meanwhile, Melody Maker would name it as the twenty-second best album of 1986, a great achievement for a band on an independent label. The stunning thing is, the band would go on to top themselves on their next two records, Sister and Daydream Nation. But that doesn't diminish the impact and experience of EVOL. It's an album with outstanding musicianship from each member, and further proof that Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo are perhaps the greatest guitar tandem in rock history. Finally, Sonic Youth proved that they were able to produce a great album, one that combined their impressive skills with equally impressive songwriting. The band would continue this trend, as well as continue to make great records, throughout the next twenty years. It all started with EVOL.