Saturday, March 3, 2012

SONIC MUD YOUTH HONEY


Here's a solid two sider that came out in the early nineties. Sonic Youth covering Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick," and Mudhoney covering Sonic Youth's "Halloween." It was released in a run of 5,000 as part of Subpop's Singles Club program (so you may not have them). For people of a certain age, Sonic Youth and Mudhoney will always have some sort of association. They did music that appealed to the same crowd, toured together and, at least on this occasion, covered each others songs. Both were at their highest visibility right about this time, and the tour they did in 1990, with Gumball, was the hot ticket of the year. The show I saw was in a bar called Iguana's in Tijuana, Mexico. It was a crazy night. The club was a large one, with balconies that wrapped around the sides and the back of the hall. The place had to be way over capacity because it was absolutely packed. There was next to no ventilation, and the walls were literally dripping from the body heat. People were diving off the top balconies into the crowd on the floor.

One thing that I remember thinking is that if something happened, how would everybody get out? There only appeared to be one exit, and there were tons of people. Whether or not that was the case, the heightened (probably imagined), sense of doom, just added to the intensity of the whole night. For some reason, two other things that stick to me are running into a friend who would become a roommate a few years later, and Don Fleming of Gumball, playing a solo by kicking his guitar around on the the floor. Quite frankly, given the era and the fact that the show was in Mexico, I'm surprised I remember that much.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
The covers:
Mudhoney - Halloween mp3 at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
Sonic Youth - Touch Me I'm Sick mp3 at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
The originals:
Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick (LP Version) mp3 at Chewing Water
Sonic Youth - Halloween mp3 at Salad Days Music

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