Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing"

One Song

Hartbeat

Music Commentary, Music Interviews, Onesong, Comedy, Music

4.9 • 876 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when Kim Gordon and L.L. Cool meet for an interview 1989? You get this week’s song, Sonic Youth’s 1990 major label debut single “Kool Thing.” Join Diallo and LUXXURY as they unpack where the interview went awry, debate the song’s subtle (or not so subtle) L.L. references, and untangle the layers and layers of Sonic Youth’s trademark guitar noise. One Song Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40SIOpVROmrxTjOtH7Q1yw?si=fe485f0104594825 Songs Discussed: "Kool Thing" - Sonic Youth "BYE BYE" - Kim Gordon "Bull in the Heather" - Sonic Youth "Cheree" - Suicide "You Got Me" - Theoretical Girls "Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses" - Glenn Branca "Teenage Riot" - Sonic Youth "Rock the Bells" L.L. Cool J "I Can't Live Without My Radio" - L.L. Cool J "Into the Groovey" - Ciccone Youth "Going Back to Cali" - L.L. Cool J "I Against I" - Bad Brains "In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So luxury, are you ready to get noisy with today's episode?
0:02.9	Hell yeah, Diallo.
0:03.9	We're going to dive into a highly influential experimental noise rock band today,
0:08.4	a group that I'm dubbing the Velvet Underground of Indy Rock.
0:11.8	Very much like the Velvets, they were underground music gods,
0:14.9	influencing hundreds of bands like Nirvana, the Yay, Yeah, Yeah,
0:17.9	is my bloody Valentine during their 30-year career, but they never
0:21.8	quite reached the same level of success as a lot of their accolades. Today, we're talking about a
0:27.0	song from their major label debut album, Gou. And look, in the one song Canada of huge hit songs,
0:32.6	this is an underground classic, more than a mainstream number one with a bullet classic. But it is a highly influential
0:39.4	song, and we want to talk about it.
0:41.2	Is it a feminist anthem? A disc track
0:43.4	or just a song about an interview
0:45.3	gone wrong? I don't think so.
0:47.9	We're talking about one song
0:49.6	and that song is Cool Thing by Sonic Youth.
0:51.8	Music. song is Cool Thing by Sonic Youth.
1:11.6	I'm actor, writer-director and sometimes DJ Diallo-Riddle. And I'm producer, DJ songwriter, and musicologist Luxury, aka the guy who whispers,
1:16.1	Interpolation.
1:18.1	And this is one song.
1:19.6	The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and
1:24.2	tell you why they deserve one more listen.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hartbeat, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hartbeat and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.