Sonic Youth

Man, I am really loving this new Sonic Youth CD, Sonic Nurse. SO much, in fact, that I just ordered this today. They were on Leno last night, BTW, playing "Unmade Bed." I taped it and have watched it three times already. Some thoughts: Thurston Moore does not seem to have aged a bit in the past 15 years. How is that?! And have you ever fantasized about joining your favorite band? I do it all the time. But for Jim O'Rourke, it came true! Leno last night was the first time I've seen him play with Sonic Youth. Oh, the jealousy! I think I really need to see them live again. I saw them eight years ago, back in Chicago, and I can still faintly remember it being a really magical night. I never saw them play when I lived in New York, though I saw the members constantly. I talked to Lee Renaldo in a stairwell at a Bats/Straghtjacket Fits show at Irving Plaza...and I was wearing a Sonic Youth shirt! He was such a nice guy. He looked at my shirt and simply said, "thanks." I told him I'd seen him at the Nirvana show at the Roseland the night before and, hey, wasn't that a show? Super nice guy. I've also traded emails with Steve Shelley, more recently. He runs Sonic Youth Records, their record label, and back when I was doing Contraband two years ago, he emailed me when he saw that I was in Mount Pleasant. He is, BION, from Midland. Another really cool guy. But it was Thurston and Kim Gordon that I used to see all the time. I think they lived near my then-GF or something, because I would always see them out and about. How exciting that was for a kid who'd spent his first 23 years in BF Michigan. The first time I saw Kim, I yelled out "Kim!", waving frantically at her in the middle of a NoHo diner. The reception in this case was somewhat icier, as it usually was for me when I greeted famous people like I knew them. Hee hee. I was NOT cool. :)

But I regret those instances far less than the times I saw someone I really loved or admired and didn't say a word to. Like, I still can picture Ric Ocasek walking down Park Avenue South, just off Union Square. I so badly wish I'd have turned around and told him how much I loved the Cars when I was a kid. Or when I bumped into David Byrne and we gave each other dirty looks, before I realized who he was. I had been a big talking Heads fan when I was a kid, and wished I'd have told him so. Yep, it's better to regret making a bumpkin-like ass out of yourself to regret NOT having made a bumpkin-like ass out of yourself. :)

Anyway, I got a bit off-topic. The point of this post is that the new Sonic Youth CD is well worth your time. Download it, or, hey, even purchase it, as your earliest convenience.