Upon signing to
DGC at the dawn of the '90s,
Sonic Youth filmed videos for every song on their major-label debut, Goo. The videos are quite low budget, but that's precisely their charm -- these are about as D.I.Y as music videos get, compensating creativity for a big budget.
Sonic Youth were no strangers to video making at this point, of course, having filmed similarly low-budget videos for songs from previous albums (compiled on the Screaming Fields of Sonic Love video), and the band's certainly not short on ideas. Even so, there's not too much replay value here. It's fun to watch the first time through -- imagine listening to Goo with a visual accompaniment -- and it's curious to see what sort of concepts the band comes up with for each song, but there's nothing breathtakingly brilliant here. If anything, it seems like the band is having fun and nothing more. The video for "Kool Thing" (as seen on MTV's
120 Minutes at the time) is tops, with "Dirty Boots" and "Scooter & Jinx" also standing out. Overall this is one for diehards only, especially those nostalgic for that point in time when alt-rock was on the verge of breaking through. In any event, check out Screaming Fields of Sonic Love and 1991: The Year Punk Broke first, and if you're especially game, seek out the Gila Monster Jamboree video too, if you can find a copy. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi
