#44: Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

I had a dream the other night. It's the same type of dream I've had before, just with a few details changed. Some people have the dream where they're falling, some people have the 'naked at school' dream, and I have this one.

I'm backstage at a show and handed an instrument. Sometimes it's an instrument I've never played. I am then told - and for some reason agree - to perform said instrument before a live audience in the coming minutes. The first time this happened, I was a fill-in drummer - I cannot drum - for the Dillinger Escape Plan. I awoke in a sweat. This time, I was handed a bass - which I do play - and told I was about to play with Sonic Youth. The only real problem there was that I had never once listened to Sonic Youth. I could name you a few of their albums and only one song, and I had absolutely zero idea how any of their songs went. Somehow, Sonic Youth is a band that had just escaped my ears this whole time.

What I'm most intrigued by in this dream is that I did go onstage and play for a bit. I really wish I could remember what the music sounded like, since I had absolutely no notion of what it was supposed to sound like. And I did manage to suck horribly and was heckled by the audience. I again awoke in a sweat.

So I took that as a sign to pick up some Sonic Youth at the store the next day, and I managed to grab a copy of Daydream Nation. Sonic Youth is a band I always held alongside Pavement in my head, which is bizarre, since I'd never really bothered to listen to either until this summer. People have said to me before, "Wow, I envy you, you get to listen to those bands for the first time. I wish I could do that again." Well, I'll trade you, because now that I've taken the time to listen to Sonic Youth and Pavement, my fears have been confirmed. I can't stand either.

With Pavement, I heard - albeit anachronistically - a less tuneful Weezer, and with Sonic Youth, I hear a more tuneful, yet far less interesting, Husker Du. Again, Daydream Nation is a record rock critics are supposed to fellate (every single review linked to on Wikipedia gets the five-star treatment), and I feel that finding this record to have hardly any virtues places me squarely outside some sort of circle, and I can't decide if that's good or bad or if it matters at all. It probably doesn't, since everyone else will be tripping over themselves to write about all the knock-off bands and reissues. They can have them.

As far as positives, all I can say is that there was a dash of quality interplay between the guitar and the drums here and there, but the songs themselves failed to draw me in even the slightest amount. I kept waiting for songs to start, or for the 'good part' to happen, but nothing developed. I know the final Trilogy trio is supposed to be epic and grand - or perhaps satirical of such devices - but it just sounded meandering and tired to me. At least now I've given it a fair shake, and now I can say - with confidence - I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, this isn't for me. And I'm really quite fine with that.