Sonic Youth
Goo Demos

THE REVIEW

When Guido Chiesa wrote the little book "Sonic Life", he pointed out to Sonic Youth that the mixing of 'Goo', done by producer Ron Saint Germain, was more traditional than the sound.

The band responded that they had been backed into a corner, that they hadn't worked well with Nick Sansano, with whom they had initially started working, and that they were forced to take the first available producer. The album, although well-crafted, felt the impact. As the usual Thurston Moore stated, «nothing sounds like it should. It's hard, yes, but too clean.»

Sorry for the boring preamble, but this is where my desire to discover the phantom "Goo Demos" comes from, an album that, it seems, Sonic Youth released on the same day as "Goo", perhaps in dispute with Geffen, guilty of having made their first major album too soft.

However, I have to wait until 2005 to listen to the notorious "Goo Demos", when it's released as the second CD in the deluxe edition of "Goo".

The album is indeed rougher, with the tracks (the same as the official album) not only changing names in some instances (for example, Disappearer becomes Number One) but also being more extended (the most striking case is Mildred Pierce, which goes from 2 minutes and 13 seconds to 8 and 52). I like it more than the, let's say, official version (especially the instrumental Lee #2), but I don't want to bore you any further, I just hope to encourage someone to listen to this semi-forgotten (but deserving) album in Sonic Youth's discography.

One last thing, the original version of "Goo Demos", released for Sonic Death, features Thurston Moore's artwork, depicting David Geffen with Cher!!