1. Sonic YouthConfusion Is Sex
I was an awkward teenager trying to find my voice when I first heard this record. I have a very low register and I just felt a kinship with Kim Gordon, she’s the first woman that I heard sing and make music the way she was making it. It was because of her vocal range but also because the energy of the music was just exactly what I felt at that time when I was 17. On that record there’s a live recording of them covering ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges, and it just sounds like she’s fighting her way out of something. It felt really visceral, there’s an edginess to it but also something otherworldly; superpower style. That’s something I didn’t know could be caught on record, that feeling, but also the fact that it was coming from a female made me feel like maybe I could do something that felt natural and be accepted.
