35 Years of Goo :: A Sonic Youth Retrospect
By 1990, shortly before ‘punk broke,’ a reference inspired by the Dave Markey documentary “1991: The Year Punk Broke,” the New York City-based pioneers of prolific post-punk power, anarchists of atmospheric attitude, and tonal trailblazers of tranquil terror, Sonic Youth had perfectly captured the creative culture of their city by taping together the sophisticated sounds of a world that had long since been built up, and spent in all its surging success. With six full-length albums and nearly a dozen singles, the band soon entered an entirely different, yet fundamentally familiar world of esoteric energy, where a metaphysical market filled with new and old faces in the radical realm of rock and roll would begin to take over the world with poetic pandemonium. Several critics, liberated listeners, and longtime fans have considered “Goo” the band’s most mainstream, major label release since signing to DGC Records in the summer of 1990. Or it could be their revolutionary reaction to the explosive evolution of the grunge movement. No matter the efforts expressed, a new decade began to take shape, and the visceral veterans were ready to grab the biblical bull by the harmonious horns in a whispering whirlwind that, to this day, continues to inspire and liberate all these years later. Having established the band almost a decade prior, Sonic Youth and its solidified members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley found themselves as labelmates with some of the most groundbreaking and culturally captivating acts of the decade, such as the highly influential, and students of Sonic-culture Nirvana, Gumball, which featured Don Fleming, one of the producers of “Goo,” Mudhoney, Beck, and several others, as an entirely new generation of sound, and soul quickly began to unearth the social secrets of America’s yondering youth.
After the iconic impact and intense influence of the band’s 1988 masterpiece “Daydream Nation,” anything was possible. With legal tensions taking a turn, the band signed a five-album deal with what they thought was Geffen, but instead found out it was an unknown subsidiary of the label, DGC Records. Quickly, the band began recording in the spring for an immediate release of the album in the summer of 1990 in all its shiny stars and textual teachings. With unlimited inspirations coming from the Sonic Youth camp, a request from Moore to sound similar to Nirvana’s more unfamiliar debut, 1989’s “Bleach,” the band found themselves with a staggering budget, while setting up at Sorcerer Sound before relocating to Greene St. Recording with the final mixes taken over by jazz legend, and engineer Ron Saint Germain of such notable acts as Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, Kraftwerk, The Cure, and several others. Eagerly exploring the dynamical depths of the band, and where they were as musicians and individuals at the time, “Goo” radically represents the explosive elements of the early 1990s in such a way that listeners can still see the silvery smoke lingering above the earth as the world’s warped whispers struggle to escape the lyrical lips of the giants that spoke into the cosmos. The album’s iconic influence and eternal experiences pull from so many epic topics, such as hip-hop, in particular LL Cool J, and Public Enemy’s Chuck D’s participation, film noir, a woman’s place in music, self-esteem, passion for political pulverization, and the infamous child killings in early 1960s Manchester known as ‘Moors Murders,’ which inspired the album’s cover painted by legendary artist, and soldier of style, Raymond Pettibon.
“It took us forever to get final takes. Something would inevitably go wrong for somebody, and we’d have to start again. I remember getting fairly frustrated with it.”
The distinction between “Daydream Nation” and “Goo” isn’t the production value or the drama between the band and its rocky relationship to the label Enigma, and its owners, the Hein brothers, but the sheer significance of a band built on creative chance and critical consciousness. With their alchemical ability to summon the secretive spirits of the past, present, and future of sound and visceral vibration, similar to Coltrane or Davis, universally untouched, Sonic Youth have quickly become an institution unto themselves. Maybe this is why their piercing presence never quite made it onto popular radio stations, even though the trepidatious track "Kool Thing" found its way onto MTV’s Buzz Bin, bringing the single to No. 96 on the Billboard 200, selling nearly a quarter million units in its first six months. No matter how the heads over at Geffen handled the band’s early entry, “Goo” has stood the test of time as not just being one of the group’s most successful albums to date, but perhaps one of the most influential releases in alternative rock history bar none. With brilliant tracks such as “Mote,” which was featured in Ed Templeton’s iconic Toy Machine part in “Jump Off A Building,” “Titanium Exposé,” “Disappearer,” and the album’s title track, “My Friend Goo” all dancing in the dysfunction of society, and its crippling grip on the industries, its children, and swollen subconscious of America, Sonic Youth rose to the occasion, and summoned something ethereal, and everlasting.