This one dates from some point in the spring or early summer of 2001. I know this because I associate it with a beer festival I went to at university. A beer festival where we arrived at 12.30pm and I was unconscious by 4pm. But being 20, I was then up by 7pm and back out by 8 to catch the rest of the beer festival and subsequent fun.
Honestly, just typing that makes me feel exhausted now.
At some point in the late 90s or early 2000s MTV launched a channel called M2, which focused on the indie/alternative side of things. As well as playing the more current stuff, it would also show more obscure things like Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney and Sonic Youth, and it was there I first saw the videos for Teen Age Riot and Sunday. (I doubt that it’s a coincidence that to this day those are my two favourite SY tunes). This would have been back home in Maldon during a holiday where we had satellite TV, as opposed to our uni house where we barely even picked up three of the five terrestrial channels available.
Importantly as well, Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life had recently come out, which I had absorbed to the point of obsession. I was working my way through buying music by each of the bands featured, of which Sonic Youth were one. Knowing I already liked Teen Age Riot and knowing that Daydream Nation was one of the touchstones of the 80s underground I bought it expectantly.
It took a few months to fully get into, but I began to see why it was so venerated. It mixes pop melodies with weird tunings and textures and was key to me beginning to like more atonal, abrasive music in years to come. Teen Age Riot is still untouchable, but things like Candle and Hey Joni are more than up there. The only downside is its length (70 minutes), though I suppose that’s part of the appeal for some.
M2 got rebranded as MTV2 at some point and seemed to change its model to exclusively playing Linkin Park videos. And as for my copy of Our Band Could Be Your Life…well, I think it’s fair to say it’s been read a few times over the past twenty years.
