10. Sonic YouthSister
I heard the album before, Evol. I was at the house of Rod Pool and upstairs was Richard Mason. We were all sat downstairs one time. John Fahey was playing and everyone was really stoned. Then Richard came over and said "Hey, do you want to come upstairs and smoke a cigarette?" We went upstairs to his room and he said, "Hey, have you heard this?" He put on ‘In The Kingdom #19’, which is the song that Lee Ranaldo sings. I think it’s fair to say that song probably changed my whole future. Everything going on [in the song] was playing with my mind. We were loving this record, but thinking it would just be great if they just rocked out a little more. We were into The Stooges so we wanted to rock out. In some ways, if you cross The Stooges with John Fahey, maybe you end up with Sonic Youth because you’re thinking, "How on earth are they getting that guitar sound? That sounds like a dinosaur dying!"
People, perhaps understandably, booking them in Europe, would always expect the band to be completely, completely wild and wanting speed and acid or whatever. They always said it was quite funny because they’re reasonably well balanced sort of people. Daydream Nation, I think that’s probably possibly their best album, but I chose Sister just because it was like, "Holy fuck, what the fuck is going on?" I was really galvanised and motivated to see a glorious din. I think that Sonic Youth is probably still the band that I’ve seen live more than any other, which is saying something, considering they haven’t been together for quite some time.
