As it continued
to prove with 2002’s critically hailed Murray Street (honored among the
Top 50 albums of the year in Rolling Stone and #1 CMJ), Sonic Youth is America’s
pre-eminent alternative band. Now the group’s 1992 landmark album Dirty
will be released in a Deluxe Edition which adds numerous B-sides and 11 never-before-released
rehearsal recordings to the original tracklisting. Not to mention, essays from
Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and long time rock journo friend and cohort Byron
Coley.
The two-CD Dirty (Deluxe Edition) (Geffen/UME), released April 8, 2003, expands
the 15-selection original--which includes such Sonic Youth staples as “100%,”
“JC” and “Youth Against Facism”--with “Stalker”
(a bonus track on the double-vinyl release) and the B-sides “Genetic,”
“Hendrix Necro,” “The Destroyed Room,” “Is It My
Body,” “Personality Crisis,” “The End Of The End Of The
Ugly” and eight-minute epic “Tamra.” The rehearsal recordings
include the previously released “Little Jammy Thing”; unreleased takes
on the album’s “Stalker,” “Youth Against Fascism”
and “Wish Fulfillment,” and the never-before-released songs “Lite
Damage,” “Dreamfinger,” “Barracuda,” “New
White Kross,” “Guido,” “Moonface,” “Poet In
The Pit” and “Theoretical Chaos.”
Dirty was the eighth official album, and second for DGC/Geffen, from Sonic Youth
(singer-guitarist Thurston Moore, singer-guitarist-bassist Kim Gordon, guitarist-singer
Lee Ranaldo, drummer Steve Shelley). Issued two years after Goo, the album reflects
touring with Mudhoney and Nirvana, whose Nevermind producer Butch Vig and mixer
Andy Wallace (Slayer, Butthole Surfers) were employed for Dirty. Upon its release,
the heavy, explosive, intense and yet melodic Dirty went to #1 on the college
and alternative charts. The Deluxe Edition harnesses, projects and enhances the
mythos and energy that surrounded the original release.