JAW ON THE FLOOR: Starbucks to Release Sonic Youth Celebrity Compilation (WTF)

The idea that this should be thought of as jaw-dropping is kind of jaw-dropping. Call me when the Starbucks G.G. Allin compilation comes out.

I'm just disturbed at the idea of Grande latte swillers swaying their hips to a bossa nova version of Teenage Riot.

But lol elitist/rockist/corny indie fuxxor etc

it's the perfect soundtrack to the african teenage riot soldier bio they've been shilling.

i think the only reason it's so jaw-dropping to me is that...well, i haven't paid SY any attention since Sonic Nurse, so the fact that they'd be okay with doing something for Starbucks (right on paul mccartney's back, mind you) kind of made me go, "whuh?"

i love you, sonic youth.

this is more punk than punk then back to punk then past it again and then back to it.

pulling a slim moon that's actually FUNNY.

<i>this is more punk than punk then back to punk then past it again and then back to it.</i>

I love how SY has made fans think this is what's going on -- that it's some nod/wink Warholian punk thing, when in fact they've been marketing whores for years now. No diff than all the mindless commercials on television.

Sonic Youth is no different than all the mindless commercials on television?

I want to clarify that what I'm aghast at is the inevitably awful music this project is going to produce, not the concept of it being sold in a Starbucks. I didn't really get the hoopla about the new Macca album either.

What about those weird tuning? You don't hear that in all of television's mindless commercials.
X-post

Isn't this CD a compilation selected by different celebrity fans? Except for the one new song, hasn't the "inevitably awful music" already been produced?

<i>this is more punk than punk then back to punk then past it again and then back to it.</i>

I love how SY has made fans think this is what's going on -- that it's some nod/wink Warholian punk thing, when in fact they've been marketing whores for years now. No diff than all the mindless commercials on television.

-- QuantumNoise, Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:06 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

you are an idiot.

yeah, that's what it looks like, celebrity picks and one new tune:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/43669-starbucks-to-release-sonic-youth-celebrity-compilation (xpost)

I hope the new song is good! I like the idea of them doing a one-off song between albums that won't be some half-assed instrumental thing for an indie compilation. Also depending on what celebrities they ask, the song choice could be pretty interesting.

oh well fuck me then, bring it on starbuck youth

you are an idiot.

-- andi, Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:30 PM

Putting aside the fact that QuantumNoise is picking on you, do you think he's wrong?

I drink drip coffee only, black, a lot of it, and Starbucks is above average.

I like the idea of them doing a one-off song between albums that won't be some half-assed instrumental thing for an indie compilation.

covers aside, I can't think of a time SY has ever used their whole ass for a comp track.

Thurston's "oh yeah we gotta get around to that" tone doesn't promise much either.

She knows how to make foam for me
She know how to make foam
Starbucks-power, Starbucks-power, Starbucks-power
Over Me

you are an idiot.

-- andi, Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:30 PM

Putting aside the fact that QuantumNoise is picking on you, do you think he's wrong?

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

yes! very much so!
really. i haven't played sy in years, but shit like this just reminds me why i kind of love 'em. it's just a laugh. get it or don't (which is fine, if you don't). just don't laugh at someone for laughing.

Or, with record/CD stores closing with alarming regularity, SY might just be exploring another possible venue for selling their product.

And I can't blame any band for that.

Or, with record/CD stores closing with alarming regularity, SY might just be exploring another possible venue for selling their product.

I wonder if they've heard of the internet.

I'm sure they have.

You're suggesting that bands looking for alternatives limit themselves to Internet retailers?

i wonder if they've heard of making a living for years now, off of what they've been doing.

i've always wondered if the sonic youth apologists (contorting themselves into explaining how all these commercial endeavors are, um, "punk") are the same people who think a band like the Who are hopeless corporate sellouts for doing essentially the same things.

She knows how to make foam for me
She know how to make foam
Starbucks-power, Starbucks-power, Starbucks-power
Over Me

-- dlp9001, Saturday, June 16, 2007 11:35 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Please stop it.

http://www.moviesoundscentral.com/sounds/vanilla_sky/cum.wav

What was jaw-dropping to me was just that Starbucks would have seen enough commercial potential to be interested in doing this.

Sundar making the only sense on this thread so far.

I drink drip coffee only, black, a lot of it, and Starbucks is above average.

Starbucks, above average?? Are you fucking kidding me? Did you see the study in Consumer Reports magazine where they tested four different coffees from Starbucks, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and Burger King? It turned out McDonald's was the best(?!) and Starbucks was the WORST of the four -- and come on, they are the ONE ACTUAL COFFEE SHOP in the study!

Seriously Mr Rich@rdson, I shit you not:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003553322_webcoffeetest02.html

it's just coffee, dude, and it looks like you should drink less of it

larf

Starbucks, above average?? Are you fucking kidding me? Did you see the study in Consumer Reports magazine where they tested four different coffees from Starbucks, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and Burger King? It turned out McDonald's was the best(?!) and Starbucks was the WORST of the four -- and come on, they are the ONE ACTUAL COFFEE SHOP in the study!

haha, starbucks sucks and CR is like guaranteed non-LCD reliable. what else do you get wrong?

anyway, this is awesome, in no small part because of how many people it will piss off.

LCD reliable?

he means Consumer Reports sucks too

it's not necessarily that the fact that sonic youth are DOING it pisses me off.

a conversation:
STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE A sentimentalist, pimpled.
JOHNSON BRADDOCK A man with a stroller, a goatee, a brownstone.

STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE: So, that was non-fat soy caramel green tea mochalatacino frappe?
JOHNSON BRADDOCK: Yeah. Hey, what is this?
STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE: This is from Starbucks' newest CD, by Sonic Youth, called "Schizophrenia is Taking Me Home." I think this is "Catholic Block," picked by Jeff Tweedy. It's only 10 dollars with any drink purchase.
JOHNSON BRADDOCK: Huh.
STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE: I think it's pretty good.
JOHNSON BRADDOCK: Well, let me take that too then.
STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE: Great.
(purchase is made with Gold card, and JB leaves)
STARBUCKS EMPLOYEE: *sighs* Kill me.

i mean, it's just unfathomable to me that this could actually work.

Consumer reports does suck too. What is "LCD reliable" tho.

xpost table, I'm annoyed by the fact that drunks will bring this up with me for the nest 18 months.

i mean, it is a nice big joke. if i were a starbucks employee and these people walked in, i'd think, "great, now we're getting acid casualties coming in"

http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/sy.jpg

three acid casualties and an elf on heroin

NON lowest common denominator reliable? He was making fun of dude for citing CR.

Yes, that would make sense.

When did Renaldo turn into Stuart Smalley?

Sounds like I need to try that McDonald's premium coffee! But where does it say Starbucks came in last in that CP test? If Burger King's "tasted more like hot water" drink scored higher than Starbucks' "strong, but burnt and bitter," I think we have different ideas about what makes good coffee.

"three acid casualties and an elf on heroin"

Could be the best SY album title this century!

thurston goldblum

i've always wondered if the sonic youth apologists (contorting themselves into explaining how all these commercial endeavors are, um, "punk") are the same people who think a band like the Who are hopeless corporate sellouts for doing essentially the same things.

OTM.

I'm not pissed that SY are corporate shills. I don't care, really. If Kim Gordon wants to model for companies that reportedly use sweatshop labor (cough: Calvin Klein), so be it. I just tire of how the shilling is framed as something other than it is -- that I don't "get it," if I call it commercialism. There is nothing to get. They're not art performance adbusting punks having an ironic laugh on corporate America. They are shills for corporate America plain and simple. So am I to a certain extent, but if somebody calls me out on it, I say, "You're right." I don't say, "Oh, you don't get the joke, man. I'm punking the system from the inside."

the table is the table OTM.

I don't have a problem with them making their music available as broadly as possible. More power to them! But the cover looks to me like a slam on the people they're selling to, which is just a bummer. Like they're condescending by making their works available to power-coffee drinkers instead of whatever more authentic audience they envision for themselves. And yeah I'm projecting here, but that's what it looks like to me.

Hang on, is that Michelle Williams the actress or Michelle Williams the singer?

(I kind of agree with dad a.)

Again: It's all in how it's interpreted. Which is the beauty of it, to me.

the cover looks to me like a slam on the people they're selling to, which is just a bummer

does that guy look like the people you see in a Starbucks store? clearly, he is a 'corporate' guy. some people regard Starbucks as a purveyor of 'corporate' coffee.

the cover says, "look at us, we're selling out!"

I'm going to love it when it's revealed that the "cover" is actually a quick Photoshop done by a Pitchfork news staffer.

that would be v v disappointing

I think they simultaneously like the idea of selling their music in Starbucks, because it will reach a lot of people and they'll make a little money, and also realize the ridiculousness of it, and that they'll catch shit for it. But they've been around long enough and have nothing to prove so they don't really care. So they're making fun of themselves and their fans with that cover also, but hopefully everyone involved is in on the joke and can have a chuckle. It's not an either/or kind of situation. And I think lots of people who go to Starbucks, even heavy users, realize there is something a little comical about the whole Starbucks experience. Hence the number of comedians who have made jokes about there being a Starbucks on every corner.

^^real talk

On the back cover of his first major label solo LP, Thurston Moore was wearing a Ralph Lauren Polo pinpoint Yarmouth oxford dress shirt.[2]

who cares?

Ben Weasel to thread

(full disclosure: i own both the Psychic Hearts LP and a similar Ralph Lauren Polo dress shirt.)

JAW ON THE FLOOR

~~jaw on the floor lookin boy~~

yes deej, we noticed, thanks for continuing to point it out

ts: repeating lol thread title vs. tedious debate about 'sellouts' and starbux

horrible, awful, gay, jaw, on, the, floor

aaaaaaaaaanyway who gives a shit if they are selling via starbucks, let them get money they deserve it

and if youre all up in arms psychoanalyzing the cover you need to take a step back for a sec

Why are you two douchebags posting on this thread if you don't care so much again?

cuz i thought the shock and horror in the op was lol
ill leave it be now tho, be cool

Ben Weasel to thread

genuine lols! I wrote to MRR arguing with that letter of his!

But I like talking about the cover!

Reading the Weasel scribe is the gem of owner the Master Dik 12"

owning

Hello, just popped in to say: the funniest comment so far has to be

"What do you mean, Starbucks make above average coffee, didn't you see the survey/test panel results?"

I take it they never got round to recording that 'special' track for this, anyroad.

um, they did. It's the last track on the CD.

oh yeah.

My only objection is that the CDs Starbucks sell aren't exactly 'discount', even though they look cheap.

HI I AM CORPORATE DRONE I NEBER HERD OF SONIC YOUTH WATS DAT IS IT CLASSIC GENIUS LIKE RAY CHARLES OOH PRETTY PICSHURE

cracked me up

I am excited to buy this. At the Starbucks I stopped at tonight for a delicious iced latte, they had a Doors greatest hits CD and a James Brown greatest hits CD for sale by the register.