Sonic Latte
We all like to listen to Daydream Nation while sipping skinny mochas at the local Starbucks. Of course we do. Making that guilty pleasure a little bit easier, 14 celebrities of various stripes each chose a SY track for a Starbucks-approved compilation, Hits Are For Squares. (Some would argue Starbucks-sponsored compilations are for squares, too, but whatevs.) The curators include Radiohead, Beck, one of America's Funniest People David Cross, the unlikely duo of Dave Eggers and Mike Watt, Who fans the Flaming Lips and Eddie Vedder ... and, uh, Chloë Sevigny, Flea, and others. In addition there's an exclusive track, "Slow Revolution." We have the Venti-sized tracklist.
01 "Bull In The Heather" (selected by Catherine Keener)
02 "Sugar Kane" (selected by Beck)
03 "100%" (selected by Mike D)
04 "Kool Thing" (selected by Radiohead)
05 "Disappearer" (selected by Portia de Rossi)
06 "Stones" (selected by Allison Anders)
07 "Tuff Gnarl" (selected by Dave Eggers and Mike Watt)
08 "Teenage Riot" (selected Eddie Vedder)
09 "Shadow Of A Doubt" (selected by Michelle Williams)
10 "Rain on Tin" (selected by Flea)
11 "Tom Violence" (selected by Gus Van Sant)
12 "Mary-Christ" (selected by David Cross)
13 "World Looks Red" (selected by Chloë Sevigny)
14 "Expressway To Yr Skull" (selected by the Flaming Lips)
15 "Slow Revolution" (exclusive)
Looking forward to hearing "Slow Revolution," and curious if the selectors included notes as to why the chose what they did.
Hits Are For Squares is out 6/10 at select Starbucks and online via Starbucks Entertainment's Hear Music/Universal Special Markets. Paul McCartney must be proud. In less dorky news, the SY's playing some shows this summer:
07/04 New York, NY @ Battery Park w/ The Feelies
08/04 Leucate, France @ Les Méditerranéennes Festival
08/05 Lokeren, Belgium @ Lokerse Festival
08/07 Oslo, Norway @ Øya Festival
08/08 Gothenburg, Sweden @ Way Out West Festival
08/09 Saint-Nazaire, France @ Escales Festival
Posted at 10:03 AM in Tour Dates
Tags: Beastie Boys | Beck | Catherine Keener | Chloë Sevigny | Dave Eggers | David Cross | Eddie Vedder | Gus Van Sant | Michelle Willams | Mike Watt | Portia de Rossi | Radiohead | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Sonic Youth | The Flaming Lips
venti.
Score = 3
It is, truly, the end of the world.
Score = 6
I will buy it just because it has the "Sonic Youth" name on it... and because its just kind of funny.
Score = 0
oooooooooooh, eddie vedder, good choice.
way to pick a rariety or whatever.
Score = 4
Let me interrupt the shit stream...
Self Pollution/Monkeywrench Radio, circa 1995 and 1998:
"Teenage Riot" was the first song Vedder played both times. Pretty fucking cool if you ask me...and this compilation completes the triad/triptych/triumvirate/holy trinity.
Score = 0
thank you for letting the obviously in the dark jerk-off know that eddie has long supported the sonics, and has toured with them extensively, played benifits alongside them, and remains a close friend to all of them. He's prolly heard sonic jams that noone else around has. that song is the fucking shit, and if you think it isnt cool cause it's their most widly known than you are so so helpless. Loser.
Score = 0
From Sonic Youth.com:
"Each contributor also offers a personal testimonial for their own selection from a unique and influential body of work spanning from 1981 to present."
Score = 0
I wish they did that Nirvana greatest hits thing like this.
Score = 0
John Cougar Mellencamp - "Lithium"
Carrie Underwood - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Danica Patrick - "Territorial Pissings"
Panic at the Disco - "Been a Son"
Tiger Woods - "Serve the Servants"
K-Fed - "Pennyroyal Tea"
Score = 1
http://sctas.com/2007/gifs/ttn/SY.jpg
Score = -4
sonic youth are squares. really? wow. you're so cool with your anti-corporate rock photoshop skills. i would rather put money in thurston's pocket through a major than into a meaningless flavor of the week indie rock band who have nothing artistic to offer the music world. way to respect one of the most influential bands of the past quarter(+) century.
Score = 0
Hey, wait a second ... Is this Thurston's mom?
Score = 2
bitter little fucker.
Score = -8
pretentious little bitch
Score = 6
I mean - just look at this cover art alone. It is horrid. The name of the comp - fucking lame. They're attempting to sell some corporate being a CD and the guy has his earbuds in.. . If Sufjan there is a fan - I'm out. In fact - I was never in. Ditto whatever that Juno kid said.
Score = -7
so i guess your opinion would have been different if the guy on the cover forgot to get a haircut for a few months, was wearing skinny jeans, a "barack the vote" tee from urban outfitters and playing the thing on vinyl inside a vegan cafe. i think you're missing the point that the cover art and title are supposed to be ironic jabs at this album's entire concept altogether, and that's why i support the project. it's nice to see people are progressing forward with their musical outlooks these days... that's my 2 cents for the day and i'm done.
Score = 3
{ who in the fuck told you yr opinion was worth 2 cents? }
Score = -15
K, relax. How does a corporate affiliation and a bad cover inherently affect musical output? It doesn't. PiL's Second Edition and Flowers of Romance were both released on majors. So were dozens of awesome [and equally uncompromising] records from the 60s. It's hard to imagine there would even be "hip," "indie" culture without Sonic Youth, who, for better or worse, more than anybody, created the aesthetic and sensibility now called, "indie" community. How about this, what would you prefer? What band could get away with a Starbucks release for you? Or is your ear unable to distinguish sound and image?
Score = 3
The only real question for me is who's Radiohead going to bring in to do Chuck D's rap on Kool Thing?
Score = -3
Isn't that sort of a generic "best of" list? Are all these people really Sonic Youth fans, or were they just put on the spot to pick a well-known song of theirs?
Score = 0
huph, i think radiohead doesn't have to bring anyone in to do anything because the cd will have the original version on it. this is just a tracklisting selected by 'celebrities.'
Score = 2
Oh. How boring. Why bother talking about this then? It should just be called Screaming Fields of Sonic Love II. .
Score = 0
What self-respecting Sonic Youth fan would buy this? Each one of us knows why we love those songs, we don't need to know why Catherine Keener does too. Talk about fucking indulgent.
Score = 4
It's not for preaching to the converted, of course. They have most of this stuff already, don't care what these people think about it, aren't likely to be in Starbucks anyway, and will just download the one exclusive track.
Nice choice by Flea, though; I love Murray Street.
Score = 0
Dipshits, this record isn’t for people who read music blogs. It is for your 45 year-old brother-in-law who has two kids who think Nirvana is hip. With any luck, he’ll buy this record and you won’t have to listen to Jimmy Buffet or some nu-country on the way to the water park with the little dudes.
Score = 6
oh - thank goodness Greydon Clark came through here and saved us all any more speculation. so.. .was this is response to 'Dipshit' - for I see no comment[s] from said 'Dipshit', you assclown.
Score = -11
Attn: People who might make the mistake of replying to "k"
I'll save everyone some time and let everyone know that you're wasting your time and you're better off ignoring any comment "k" may post. I learned last week the hard way that by criticizing Kori Gardner's breastmilk blog you will only be inundated by response after response from "k" until she/he/it gets the last word in even if its not polite or logical. "susie o" up top looks to have made the same mistake and kudos for quitting while you were ahead. Too bad the Stereogum mods can't ban people like this, because he/she/it obviously is a blog bully with 25% of the posts on just this comment page alone to tought. Type away, "k"...
Score = 3
Josh to the rescue. You pathetic blog saviours.
"That's just your opinion, man" - The Dude.
Score = -10
I think everyone here will agree that Susie Q. destroyed you like Tyson over Spinks in '88.
P.S. And you didn't even get the quote right. GTFO.
Score = 3
late to the game.
Score = -7
oh man, it took me a while to realize this wasn't a covers album. i would love to hear the train wreck of eddie vedder singing teenage riot. i'm not sure what would have been better, a radiohead version of kool thing or portia di rossi mangling disappearer. i think starbucks really missed an opportunity here.
by the way, that cover is hideous.
Score = 0
I love people like K... they checked out Sonic Youth because all the critics hype "Daydream Nation" and they feel burned because they can't get into the music. They figure that there must be something wrong with the music, not their taste. Meanwhile they probably listen to twee "indie" shit that sounds like Peter Paul and Mary.
This modern indie trend really blows. I've even heard lame neophyte "indie" kids taking shit about Shellac as if they're some no-name band. You can buy all the supposedly hip disposable albums you like, but you can't buy taste.
Score = 2
Last I checked, Thurston and Kim had bills to pay, a kid to raise, food to put on the table, etc. (not to mention Lee and Steve, who both have families to take care of as well). They may be on a major label, but SY are one of the few bands who have full creative control over the music that they put out. Since this means most of what they do isn't mainstream enough to make the charts, they don't make a whole lot of money, unless they're touring, which they tend to only do during the summer, since they have kids to raise and send off to school during the fall. They can't even afford a fucking P.A. system of their own.
so if doing a Starbucks compilation thing means that they make a little more money to keep touring and releasing the records that they want to release and keeping their houses and sending Coco to a nice college, I say go right ahead, a little naysaying from assholes whose name rhyme with "a" isn't going to change the fact that they're the most important band of the last 20 years. jesus fucking christ.
Score = 5
Nail on the head. I am glad someone is thinking about Coco's future here.
Score = 3
Just cause we're doing this whole thing...I like Reena. It made me rethink my stance on lesbianism. In other words, there will be lesbians in heaven.
Score = 3
well, whatever, i think it's cool. at least people who would never really listen to SY at least will see their name every time they go to buy a latte, maybe one day, they'll buy a copy, and they'll like it, and get turned onto them.
isn't that what greatest hits compilations are for, anyways?
Score = 6
Oh, but indie bands are only allowed to have a certain number of fans. It's not cool if new people are turned on to a band's music.
Score = 2
Exactly! My favorite band is Guided by Voices, but I want Robert Pollard to be so desperate for money that he has to go back to his old teaching job just to make ends meet. Sorry, Bob, but dems the perils of keeping it real. Rock and roll. Deal with it.
Score = 2
Is this a stereogum blog or a youtube video comment list?
Score = 7
I'm going to add that I've never thought of Sonic Youth an indie or underground band. I knew who they were even when I was barely old enough to listen to the radio, buy albums, or attend shows. And I lived in the suburbs. So none of this is even remotely surprising. If Sonic Youth have sold out, they did it almost two decades before this compilation existed.
Score = 1
as kim gordon herself has said, starbucks is less evil than universal.
(of which geffan is a subsidiary)
Score = -1
You know, the first time I read about Kim Gordon saying that, I thought she meant "universal" as in ubiquitous or widespread, not Universal the label. I originally thought she was making a somewhat grand statement about indie culture and it's distaste of anything once it becomes really popular.
I guess the actual context makes more sense.
Score = 0
this is pretty much a sonic youth greatest hits album, only with mainly-c-list celebrities' names appended to the song titles, not to mention starbucks' name attached to the whole endeavor. pretty crass.
Score = -1
I'm not sure HOW I feel about this. I mean, I hope SY makes some dough out of this deal, but to sell it at...Starbucks? I saw Sonic Youth a decade ago and I still get chills at how good they are in a live setting. As pretentious as it is to say, they are truly "artists". I'll have that with a Vente Bone Dry Cap - Three shot.
Score = 1
I don wanna
I don't think so
I don wanna
I don't think so
Score = 3
Golden Throats 2008? Hey, if Shatner can sing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", I guess Chloë Sevigny has the license to cover "World Looks Red".
Score = 2
Again, Chachango, this is not a cover cd.
Score = 0
..yet it is - still - a horrible concept.
Score = -2
What? No GOO?
Score = 1
we should all dig out 'bad moon rising' and listen to 'im insane' on repeat in a dark room for the 3 days running and never turn on our computers again.
Score = 0