Sonic Youth - Dirty (1992)

1992 album by Sonic Youth

Dirty is the seventh full length studio album and second double album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on July 21, 1992, by DGC Records. The band recorded and co produced the album with Butch Vig in early 1992 at the Magic Shop recording studios. The sound on Dirty was inspired by the popularity of grunge music at the time, and has been described by Billboard magazine as experimental rock. Dirty reached number 83 on the US Billboard 200 and number six on the UK Albums Chart. The album spawned four singles: the lead single "100%" charted well, but was not the crossover hit the label anticipated, followed by "Youth Against Fascism", which did not chart as well. The last two were "Sugar Kane" and "Drunken Butterfly", with the former performing better commercially than the latter. In support of the album, Sonic Youth embarked on the "Pretty Fucking Dirty" tour of 1992 and 1993, where they played most of the album during sets. In late 1992, they toured North America, and in early 1993, they toured New Zealand and Australia and released the Whores Moaning EP, which featured most of the "Sugar Kane" B sides.

Following the release of Daydream Nation in 1988, Sonic Youth were interested in signing with a major record label. By the middle of 1989, the top contenders for the band's new label were A&M Records, Atlantic Records and Mute Records. Between late 1989 and early 1990, Geffen Records announced its interest in signing the band. Sonic Youth eventually signed a five album deal with Geffen for an estimated $300,000. However, the band was disappointed when they discovered that the albums would be released on the newly created Geffen sub label, DGC Records. In 1990, the band released Goo, which achieved moderate commercial success, peaking at No. 96 on the Billboard 200 in the United States and charting in the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Critical reception to the album was positive. To support its release, Sonic Youth toured Europe and North America twice in 1990. Preceding the mainstream breakthrough of alternative rock and grunge, the band toured Europe again in late summer 1991 with Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Babes in Toyland and Gumball. On this tour, they premiered "Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit" and "Chapel Hill", both of which would later appear on Dirty. The latter tour was chronicled in the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke, directed by Dave Markey. In November, the group began recording demos at their rehearsal space in Hoboken, New Jersey.

For Dirty, Sonic Youth worked with producer Butch Vig and mixer Andy Wallace, who both had worked in the same roles on Nirvana's Nevermind, although this was not why the band chose them. On the album's sound, Pitchfork would later opine that "they weren't entirely catering to the new ears Nirvana's success was sending their way", but "were at least taking it into consideration on a semi conscious level". During his first meeting with the group, Vig told the band that he wanted to tighten the song arrangements and focus on crafting the guitar sounds. Vig quickly landed the producer job for the record. During a visit to the apartment of Sonic Youth members Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Moore told Vig that he wanted the album to sound like a Mecht Mensch single that Vig had produced. The band sent a series of cassette tapes to Vig in late 1991, featuring their new compositions. Vig was pleased with the material but also uncertain about how to handle it, as the tapes consisted of long instrumentals with unclear the song structures. The second batch of cassettes that Vig received demonstrated that the band had performed some self editing with its compositions. Vig moved to New York City for three months in early 1992 and the band began recording the album at the Magic Shop in March. After recording was completed, the album needed to be trimmed down from eighteen completed tracks. Moore, Gordon and the band's A&R representative, Gary Gersh, agreed that Ranaldo's song "Genetic" would be removed. Ranaldo did not react well to the decision; coupled with personal issues he was facing at the time, it led him to consider leaving the group. "Genetic" and Gordon's "Hendrix Necro" were instead featured on the "100%" single. Another track recorded during the sessions, "Stalker", was added to the album's vinyl release.

The songs "100%" and "JC" were written about the murder of Joe Cole, a roadie and friend of the band, and how it affected the band. The next song, "Swimsuit Issue", is about a then current Geffen employee who was remanded to therapy for sexual harassment, hence the lyrics "Don't touch my breast, I'm just working at my desk." The last section of the song features Gordon naming all of the models in the March 1992 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The lyrics to "Drunken Butterfly" were taken wholly from song titles and lyrics of Heart songs, and the track was originally titled "Barracuda" after a Heart song. The final title was taken from Heart song "Dog & Butterfly", which sounds a bit like "drunken butterfly". "Sugar Kane" is said to be about Marilyn Monroe, and is named after her character in Some Like It Hot. "Chapel Hill," one of the first songs written for the album, is about the murder of Internationalist Books owner Bob Sheldon in Carrboro, North Carolina.

The first music video from Dirty was for "100%". It was directed by Tamra Davis and Spike Jonze, and shot in Los Angeles. Much of the video footage was shot by Jonze while riding on a skateboard, following others in the streets (including then skateboarder, now actor Jason Lee). The video also alluded to the shooting death of Cole, but is not specifically about him, and more about friendship between two skateboarders. Sonic Youth is shown playing a house party throughout the film. In the video, Gordon plays a yellow Fender bass guitar which she had borrowed from actor Keanu Reeves. The second music video, for "Youth Against Fascism", was directed by Nick Egan. The video was shot in the concrete flood control channel of the Los Angeles River with the band playing while FMX bikers ride around. Imagery of fascism, Nazism and communism was spliced into the video, plus an insurrection mixed with pictures of punk bands and fashion. The third music video was for "Sugar Kane"; like "Youth Against Fascism", it was directed by Egan. The video was shot in New York City and portrayed Sonic Youth performing in the midst of a fashion show that showcased "grunge" clothing. The clothing, in fact, was one of the collections ("Grunge Collection") done by Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis in 1992. Jacobs was a close friend of Gordon and the band. The video also marked the first film appearance of Chloë Sevigny. The fourth video from Dirty was for "Drunken Butterfly", directed by Stephen Hellweg, the winner of an MTV 120 Minutes contest in which fans were asked to send in videos for any song on Dirty. It featured puppets and dolls made up to look like Sonic Youth performing the song onstage. The fifth (for "Swimsuit Issue", which featured shirtless men smoking together in a room listening to Dirty) and sixth (for "Nic Fit", showing someone running around in a field holding up a flaming stuffed animal) videos stemmed from the same contest.

YearSinglePeak chart positionsUSMod. UK singles 1992"100%"428"Youth Against Fascism"—52 1993"Sugar Kane"—26"Drunken Butterfly"——