Dirty (2016 Remaster) Sonic Youth

• 1100 Percent02:30
• 2Swimsuit Issue03:00
• 3Theresa's Sound-World05:29
• 4Drunken Butterfly03:04
• 5Shoot05:17
• 6Wish Fulfillment03:27
• 7Sugar Kane05:58
• 8Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit04:19
• 9Youth Against Fascism03:36
• 10Nic Fit01:00
• 11On The Strip05:42
• 12Chapel Hill04:48
• 13Stalker03:01
• 14JC04:03
• 15Purr04:22
• 16Creme Brulee02:35
• Total Runtime01:02:11

Info for Dirty (2016 Remaster)

Sonic Youth's second major-label album, produced and mixed by Butch Vig and Andy Wallace (a team that had helped turn Nirvana's „Nevermind“ multi-platinum) was not the barefaced bid for mainstream acceptance that surly underground souls grumbled about in the pages of fanzines. While Vig and Wallace give guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, bassist Kim Gordon, and phenomenal drummer Steve Shelley a wide-screen panorama for their bizarrely-tuned assaults, DIRTY is probably Sonic Youth's most uncompromising album since 1985's „Bad Moon Rising“--particularly in the lyrical department.

Dropping the deliberate obscurantism, Philip K. Dick references, and smart-alecky snottiness, Sonic Youth brackets a slew of pointed political attacks ('Youth Against Fascism,' 'Swimsuit Issue,' and the Jesse Helms-bashing 'Chapel Hill') with two passionate tributes to the band members' murdered friend, Joe Cole ('100%' and 'JC'). That „Dirty“ is Sonic Youth's most commercial-sounding album makes it that much more subversive.

„When DGC Records signed Nirvana in 1991, one of DGC's A&R reps expressed the opinion that, with plenty of touring and the right promotion, the new act might sell as well as its labelmate and touring partner Sonic Youth. The surprise success of Nevermind upended previous commercial expectations for Sonic Youth (among other established alternative rock bands), and when Dirty was released in 1992, it was seen by many as the band's big move toward the grunge market. Which doesn't make a lot of sense if you actually listen to the album; while Butch Vig's clean but full-bodied production certainly gave Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's guitars greater punch and presence than they had in the past, and many of the songs move in the increasingly tuneful direction the band had been traveling with Daydream Nation and Goo, most of Dirty is good bit more jagged and purposefully discordant than its immediate precursors, lacking the same hallucinatory grace as Daydream Nation or the hard rock sheen of Goo. If anything, Dirty finds Sonic Youth revisiting the territory the band mapped out on Sister -- merging the propulsive structures of rock (both punk and otherwise) with the gorgeous chaos of their approach to the electric guitar -- and it shows how much better they'd gotten at it in the past five years, from the curiously beautiful 'Wish Fulfillment' and 'Theresa's Sound World' to the brutal 'Drunken Butterfly' and 'Purr.' Dirty was also Sonic Youth's most overtly political album, railing against the abuses of the Reagan/Bush era on 'Youth Against Fascism,' 'Swimsuit Issue,' and 'Chapel Hill,' a surprising move from a band so often in love with cryptic irony. Heard today, Dirty doesn't sound like a masterpiece (like Daydream Nation) or a gesture toward the mainstream audience (like Goo) -- it just sounds like a damn good rock album, and on those terms it ranks with Sonic Youth's best work.“ (Mark Deming, AMG)

Thurston Moore, vocals, guitar
Kim Gordon, bass, vocals, guitar
Lee Ranaldo, guitar, vocals
Steve Shelley, drums
Additional musicians:
Ian MacKaye, guitar (on track 9)

Recorded Early 1992 at The Magic Shop and Sear Sound, New York City, NY
Engineered and mixed by Butch Vig
Produced by Butch Vig Sonic Youth

Digitally remastered

Sonic Youth
began way back in 1980 in the downtown disaster unit of NYC. First three records (Sonic Youth, Confusion is Sex, Kill Yr Idols) began in 1981 on the Neutral label started by Glenn Branca. They then signed to Gerard Cosloy’s Homestead imprint releasing Bad Moon Rising and the Flower/Halloween 12” to universal intrigue and acclaim. They switched labels to release records (Sister, Evol) on SST, the Southern California label overseen by Greg Ginn of Black Flag, while Mr. Cosloy went on to join Matador Records with Chris Lombardi. Concurrently they established a relationship with Paul Smith and Blast First Records in the UK co-releasing the Homestead and SST titles and culminating with the massive end of the decade double LP Daydream Nation, since added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. The band signed to DGC/Geffen in 1990 and began an ascendant affair there releasing Goo and Dirty to much heated excitement until the label became a scattered asylum. They continued to release strange, out-of –step recordings with Geffen throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Young wizard Jim O’Rourke came on board with the band as a multi-instrumentalist/producer collaborating on two of their most progressive LPS to date, Murray Street and Sonic Nurse, as well as the ongoing series of experimental LPs on the bands own SYR imprint. After Jim’s departure, and after releasing Rather Ripped, their final statement on Geffen (and which ranked third in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2006) the band recruited their pal from compatriot 90s band Pavement, Mark Ibold, to play bass. After a solid bout of touring Mark joined the band in the recording of The Eternal. The cover art is a painting by the late, great American folk artist John Fahey. This is where we live forever. Sweet dreams…

This album contains no booklet.