Jonathan's 1992

1992 – By this time puberty had fully kicked in and I was probably going through my most ginger phase. I spent Saturdays going to see Sheffield Wednesday with my dad and camped out at the local field with friends, drinking and causing havoc (intermittently). Note to editor, as Michael Jackson would say, if he weren’t dead and was performing one of (s)hits...You Are Not Alone, I’m writing with you!

Sonic Youth – Wish Fulfilment

Sonic Youth are yet another group introduced to me by my elder brother, following his musical ventures at university. I saw them live at Reading, ’96 I think it was but I wasn’t impressed; too much arsing about making noise than actually getting on with playing some music. I don’t like DIY, so a drill-fuelled guitar solo lasting 15 minutes gets me about as excited as putting up a shelf on a Friday night. However, there are some Sonic Youth moments when they got that balance right between noise and music. Wish Fulfilment is the stand-out track for me on one of their most consistent albums. It’s by far my favourite SY song, though there are plenty of others I really like. It’s the track I always put on compilations, however, that was a bit unfair of me because it does not really represent SY. I never get tired of those noisy explosions and I love the lyrics. A lot of my favourite songs follow a quiet, loud, quiet formula and this never deviates from that path. Sonic Youth are definitely not one of my favourite bands, but Wish Fulfilment is a favourite song of mine.

Sugar – A Good Idea

Bob Mould’s indie band, following the punk of Husker Du, were, you guessed, another band Jim introduced me to. From the album Copper Blue, Sugar’s strongest and most accessible album, A Good Idea is the second track in and is based around the bass line of Pixies’ Debaser. In spite of its obvious rip-off opening, Sugar managed to take the song into a totally different direction from that of the Pixies. Although you could argue that both songs occupy an area of madness. A tale of murder, sung to sweet, catchy melodies is always a winner for me. It’s just a damn good indie pop song. I remember going to Stomp, a club in Leeds that occupied the Leeds Met venue and later became Star, hearing it and dancing to it during my first ever time in a club. Underage and dressed in my brother’s grungy clothes (tie-dye shirt, army boots, combats) I managed to get in to the club and I suppose hearing all those tracks left its mark. Copper Blue is an album that I still happily return to from time to time and it hasn’t lost any of its quality. A Good Idea is the brilliant single from the album and I’d still put it on a compilation tape, if only I could find one!