Sonic Youth “Evol”

sfilzen — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 18:02:10 +0000

Sonic Youth “Evol” 1986. SST Records. Noisy no-wave, Evol is Sonic Youth’s third LP, their first with drummer Steve Shelley (replacing Bob Bert); it’s also notable for including bassist Mike Watt on the track “In the Kingdom #19,” his first recording after fellow Minutemen D. Boon’s death. (Watt also played on the Kim Fowley cover “Bubblegum” which is not on the vinyl version of Evol but is included on the CD). Sonic Youth also continued their collaboration with Lydia Lunch (who sang on their 1984/85 single “Death Valley ‘69″) – she co-wrote “Marilyn Moore.” (The cover of Evol is a still of actress Lung Leg from Submit to Me, Lung Leg also was in the video for “Death Valley ‘69″ – great song, great video). My favorite tracks on Evol are two tracks sung by Kim Gordon: “Shadow of a Doubt” and “Starpower,” which was the only single from Evol. I also appreciate the arty chaos sensibilities that carry over from the music to creating confusion for the listener: the tracks aren’t listed in order on either the back cover nor the lyric sheet, plus the last track “Expressway to Yr. Skull” is listed as “Madonna, Sean and Me” on the cover and as “The Crucifixion of Sean Penn” on the lyric sheet (and regardless of the title, has an infinity loop of chords in the runout groove). I’m not entirely sure what the obsession with Madonna and Penn was all about – the two married in ‘85 and divorced in ‘89 (with a lot of acrimony in between), but clearly there was some fascination. Around the same time as the recording of Evol, Sonic Youth and Mike Watt formed the side project Ciccone Youth, releasing the single “Into the Groove(y)” in ’86 and issuing the album The Whitey Album (1988, J. Mascis also contributed to that record).

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Sonic Youth “Evol”