I was watching the video for Sonic Youth’s Empty Page yesterday, and it starts with ageless noise-Fonzie Thurston getting the words “I AM NOT BECK” scrawled on his tshirt. It reminded me of the best interview ever recorded, ever. It took some trawling, but here it is, in all it’s hissy, taped-over-once-too-many-times glory. The best interview ever recorded. Ever.
120 Minutes: Where, for a brief time in the early ’90s, the noise fucks did their backroom deals. Who the fuck mentions both Keiji Haino and Xanadu on MTV, in a single sentence?
Oh, there are a lot of amazing references in this video. Thurston Moore mentions his pre-Sonic Youth hardcore band, Even Worse, and namechecks the band’s drummer (and Big Takeover publisher) Jack Rabid. Mike D says something about Cher working with Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill (obviously not true but hilarious). But the best part of this appearance is mostly missing from this video. I was watching 120 Minutes that night, and had the whole thing on a VHS tape somewhere, though I’m sure it’s long gone now. What happened just after this video ended blew my mind. Thurston Moore, Mike D and Beck all had a big improvised noise jam that lasted three minutes or so. Beck played acoustic guitar, Mike D rapped through one of those little toy microphones with a built-in speaker (the Beasties use those all over Ill Communication, which they’d just finished recording at the time this appearance was taped), and Thurston Moore had an electric guitar lying flat on the floor, plugged into one of those tiny toy Marshall fullstacks that you can buy at any big-box guitar store (Jack Black’s character in School of Rock wears one on his belt when he’s playing guitar in class). Thurston ran the amp up and down the strings of the guitar, generating bizarre feedback and strange, slide guitar-like notes that mixed together into a concoction that, I’m sure, sounded just awful to the average 120 Minutes viewer. I loved it. Unfortunately, only the first 20 seconds or so is preserved in this video clip, and it cuts off before it really gets crazy. Anyone out there who has the full version should definitely find a way to upload it, though, because it’s truly one of a kind.
