Theoretical Chaos

Looking at the list of bands featured so far on MPT it seems that I’ve covered most of my main favourites in some way or other with only one or two exceptions.

The most glaring of these is undoubtedly Sonic Youth. A brilliant live band they’ve made some amazing LPs. Now I won’t claim to like everything they’ve ever done (far from it, in fact) but at their best there are few bands that can touch them.

At the end of last year they released their final LP for Geffen, ‘The Destroyed Room’ and, since it’s a compilation of rarities and B-sides, the words on the street seem to be ‘obligation’, ‘fulfilling’ and ‘contractual’. I’ve haven’t got it yet but will at some point.

I thought though I’d talk about the title track which, despite being a Geffen era B-side, isn’t actually on the LP. The song started life as an instrumental and was featured as one of the four live tracks on the ‘Dirty Boots’ mini-LP thing.

I must confess that when it was retitled ‘The Destroyed Room’ and released as one of the B-sides on the ‘Youth Against Facism’ single (complete with Kim vocals) I decided almost straight away that I preferred the instrumental version. Whether it was because it was a B-side and for the most part the Youth’s Bs tended not to be so great (I know, there are exceptions) but I got that one so wrong!

I only got round to re-evaluating that opinion when the ‘Dirty’ remaster was issued a couple of years back. ‘The Destroyed Room’ is in actual fact an absolute corker of a song and you really should hear it. So you shall and in fact here are both versions for your listening pleasure:

Sonic Youth – The Bedroom (live)
Sonic Youth – The Destroyed Room

SY records are available everywhere and you really should own several. But if you don’t and you like the above tracks then try ‘Dirty’ from your local record shop or online here (or even here.)

I’m away to play some Sonic Youth – LOUD!