I need to rant a little on why I love this song so much. Beware, this post is less about the song, and more about the events that I think of when I hear it.
It was the summer of 2004. I was in the record store looking for something new to buy, when I saw Sonic Youth had a new one out. I got into Sonic Youth a few years earlier when I was listening to a Pearl Jam bootleg, and they played a little of Bull In the Heather at the end of Daughter. I had downloaded a few random songs at school and burned a cd. It was enough to get me into them, but I never really bought any of their stuff. I eventually got Daydream Nation, but that took years before I realized how amazing that album was. So back at the record store, I bought Sonic Nurse.
I liked most of the songs right away. I really dug the three guitars all playing around each other, with the noise in the background. So not too much later I see that Sonic Youth is playing at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC. At the time I wasn’t sure if I was going or not. Well the day of the show I found out I had just got a job working in the computer lab at school. It was a small tech school so I was basically being paid $8/hour to surf the internet. At the time I was working at Staples and sick of it. I was suppose to work that Friday night, buy I switched with a friend and worked that morning. So I decided to go to the show. Now I could go on for quite a while about the rest of the day but I won’t. Let’s just say I met some really cool people at the show, and came back a huge Sonic Youth fan.
So two weeks later I had my first work free weekend in a while. A couple of friends called me and we decided to ride out and get a late breakfast. We’re sitting there trying to decide what to do, when we decide to take a trip to Asheville. We had fun in Asheville on Saturday night. Then they had some art show on Sunday. It was a great weekend, and a great way to end a crappy summer.
So why did I tell you all of this? For some reason when I hear Unmade Bed that week is all I ever think about. Its always been my favorite song from Sonic Nurse, and somehow the mood manages to capture that whole trip. I love the laid back vibe the song has, as well as all the noise blending in at the end of the solo. A lot of things have changed since that week, mostly for the worst. But listening to Sonic Nurse, and Unmade Bed in particular, always take me back.
