Sonic Youth's Classic "Daydream Nation" Goes Deluxe for 2007

Tweet

When Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation came out in 1988 it was welcomed as the band's first true mix of avant-garde experimentalism and somewhat more conventional rock sounds. Since then it's become a definitive record in the indie rock canon as well as an essential must-own for anyone who cares about where music has been and where it's going (even the government likes it -- Daydream Nation was chosen by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Recording Registry). The band is releasing a deluxe version of the landmark album on June 12th, which willl include a superb remastered studio version, live versions of every single song on the album culled from performances around the world on the band's Daydream Nation tour, and several super-hard-to-find covers (the band's versions of the Beatles' "Within You Without You," and Mudhoney's "Touch Me, I'm Sick" are particularly covetable). We were extremely psyched about the band's plans to do a series of summer shows during which they play nothing but Daydream Nation from start to finish, but after soaking in these sounds all day we're certifiably giddy.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter