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

As far as the commercial potential - I'd take the SY-headlined, cancelled Lollapalooza as a barometer, i.e. it'll probably do fine in coastal cities, college towns, Chicago, etc. and fail in middle America. Of course if Starbucks is smart, which they are, they're probably not pushing this in all stores.

KJB-- perhaps you should ask yourself why threads such as "5th Best VU Album" exist.

Do you come with Cliff Notes, Table?

Love,

Someone not from Planet Tharg

It should be no surprise to anyone but the delusional kids on this thread that financial security = good thing.

Ned, what do you mean by "conventional"? If you mean, they do what "the average" American does, well, that's not surprising, since most people in America are average Americans, and so most "stroller pushing homeowners" are average Americans.

Or do you mean something besides that?

Sometimes a tie is just a tie.

And sometimes it's purple.

rimshot.wav

http://www.winnipegfreepress2.com/blogs/speirs/wpcontent/uploads/2006/07/web%20600%20half%20dressed%20man%2025.jpg

They're not "shilling" for anything. They're not going on TV and telling you to go to Starbucks. When you're in the music business, you go around and play shows and make recordings and people offer you money for those things and you take the money.

I mean, unless it's something really gross. Starbucks isn't that - it's a chain coffee shop.

http://www.winnipegfreepress2.com/blogs/speirs/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/web%20600%20half%20dressed%20man%2025.jpg

Some kid at a recent of Montreal show I went to had scrawled "Fuck Outback Steakhouse" on his t-shirt.

Do you come with Cliff Notes, Table?

You obviously come with an asshole, KJB.

"Should helmets be mandatory?" is a great headline.

Some kid at a recent of Montreal show I went to had scrawled "Fuck Outback Steakhouse" on his t-shirt.

"I'll show you a Bloomin' Onion!"

I mean, if Lennon's "Imagine" turned up in an army recruiting ad, I might raise an eyebrow...is there some irony being missed given that, as I understand it, Thurston is a stroller pushing Connecticut homeowner? Named Thurston?

Or maybe he rents...

having kids is so "conventional"

something really gross. Starbucks isn't that

Uh, Starbucks is fucking gross, dude. Their coffee and food are awful.

Also, Mr. Lord Sotosyn, I'm perfectly aware that financial security is a good thing.

Their coffee is ok. Do you have really high standards for COFFEE?

The Sprawl:

To the extent that I wear skirts
and cheap nylon slips
I've gone native
I wanted to know the exact dimension of hell
does this sound simple?
Fuck you! Are you for sale?
Does 'Fuck you' sound simple enough?
This was the only part that turned me on
but he was candy all over

come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more

I grew up in a shotgun row
sliding down the hill
out front were the big machines
steel and rusty now I guess
outback was the river
and that big sign down the road
that's where it all started

come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
come on down to the store
you can buy some more, and more, and more, and more
you can buy some more, more, more, more

Seems to me that there's some masculine/feminine issue here, too. If it was a beer shop, would anyone be saying, "Pabst Blue Ribbon is fucking gross, dude?"

Starbucks > Pabst Blue Ribbon

There is certainly better coffee than Starbucks out there, but if you think it's truly awful you should try and remember what things were like 15 years ago. It was all Maxwell House that had been on the burner at 7-11 since yesterday -- and we liked it!

Yes. Starbucks is progressive.

i have proof that starbucks genetically engineers their coffee beans to be angry, contentious loudmouths. the aggressive and pedantic debating style of these GMO coffee beans is disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the amazonian rainforest by making the banyan trees sad. currently, the rainforest is becoming sad at a rate of 3,760 hectares PER DAY.

WE NEED STING

i only drink Starbucks coffee when i am driving long distances, as it's the best (sometimes the only) stuff you can get on the road. otherwise, i make my own or get it elsewhere (and no, not at Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds).

Ironically, if they'd done the album for Dunkin' Donuts, though, there would have been less outrage.

also it is funny that you just called me a loudmouth, vahid.

also, it doesn't matter what it was like in the past, dudes. mediocrity is staring you in the face and slipping down your throat and you're like, "well, at least it isn't maxwell house." it doesn't matter what it isn't, it matters what it is, and that is sub-par coffee.

i didn't just call you a loudmouth, table!! i was talking about the beans. i have definitive proof of a conspiracy by corporate elements in our society to subvert our very way of life!

speaking of mediocrity, my grandfather, who holds a PhD in petroleum geology and lectures and san diego state university, has proof that the use of aspirin and ibuprofen by pregnant women causes acute mental retardation. he has determined, by means of a brief visual survey of the latest class of undergraduates at SDSU, that acute retardation rates among teenagers today may be as high as 50 percent.

furthermore, he has definitive proof that the spiraling economic woes faced by our great nation can be correlated to the decline of the practice of memorization of logarithm tables. today, fewer than one student in 50 can claim to have even memorized one logarithm table.

BTW i don't go to starbucks, i go to PEET's. i have lots of choices of non-chain coffee but i gotta say that peet's chain coffee is even better than the organic free trade coffee that's hand-roasted by my friend at the local mom&pop and even better than the artisinal single-estate venezualan coffee i get at the other mom&pop.

Vahid, you know coffee, man.

another one of my grandfather's theory is that "pet culture" is a conspiracy. he finds it quite striking that america has such high rates of pet ownership. in the middle east very few people have pet dogs or cats, especially when he was growing up. yet these days there is a booming multi-billion-dollar pet industry. a depiction of a family in mainstream media is considered incomplete if the family pet is unaccounted for. just look at the simpsons! they have a dog AND a cat!

what could be the purpose of this vast and insidious social engineering project meant to inculculate pet ownership into the minds of americans?

why, to squeeze every last penny of profit out of the waste products of the all-powerful meat industry.

think about it.

dude does yr grandfather have like a brochure or something, because i am v v intrigued by his ideas and would like to know more

Coffee's such an individual thing, but really, anyone who didn't grow up drinking Savarin from a stove-top percolator is in no position to call Starbucks mediocre.

We also had to walk to school in the snow.

In the early 90s people started going nuts for the Doors, a band that peaked about 20 years earlier. 20 years ago from today, Sonic Youth peaked ... but in this version of the story, they're alive to ca$h in on the cred.

Indie now is the epitome of bland, safe, and beige, having been CUTtIng Edge in the 80s - why do you think the "hipster" scenes today are filled with the most mind numbingly boring and safe people on earth? (all covered in yupsters, etc.)

So yeah, Sonic Youth is just going the natural course of indie/hipster by releasing a CD for Starbucks. nbd.

They're not "shilling" for anything.

http://itchylot.com/ck/misc_postcard_kimgordon_1.jpg

Indie is still cutting edge - music I've been most interested in this year: of Montreal, Ghost, the Fall, Jennifer Gentle, Mary Weiss album with Reigning Sound, etc.

Not "shilling" for anything in this instance

Anyway, that's modeling, dude.

Modeling is very subversive. You don't do anything and you get paid. You don't have to have an expression on your face.

moonship, can you ask your grandfather to start a blog?

I guess I have a kneejerk hate response to Starbuck's music in general; it's usually generic, bland pabulum for aging breeders (not the Kim Deal kind)-- Norah Jones, McCartney, etc. But can you really come up with a best-of style Sonic Youth compilation that fits this mold? They have some background music tracks, but a best-of comp. is likely to have some ballsy shit in it. At least Starbuck's is branching out a little!

Also, I like the coffee, and cute girls are almost always working there.

Sounding too much like Momus - apologies. (x-post)

The Lily Allen album was in Starbucks recently (NYC). I'm not head of her fanclub or anything, but is she really generic, bland pabulum for aging breeders? Not a rhetorical question by any means.

"Vahid, you know coffee, man."

nah he just lives in nocal

Not "shilling" for anything in this instance

I know, Tim. I was just pushing some buttons.

However, I do believe artists who work with Starbucks help sell the brand that is Starbucks. They become part of this larger lifestyle that Starbucks is trying to sell/create: lattes, (bogus) fair trade, stainless steel kitchen appliances, Wilco, Lily Allen, New York Times, and now a little SY. This (psuedo) liberal, we're-the-cool-corporation image. It's all so Clintonian.

And again, if that's what they want to do, go for it.

Ironically, if they'd done the album for Dunkin' Donuts, though, there would have been less outrage.

-- Tim Ellison, Sunday, June 17, 2007 6:01 PM (49 minutes ago)

nah, They Might Be Giants have Dunkin' Donuts locked down.

honestly, even if Starbucks went out there way to pick the most mellow or accessible songs from the Sonic Youth catalog, it would still probably be a pretty good CD. I'm not even sure what songs that would mean, though. all canonical choices like Teenage Riot or just laid back jams like Sunday, maybe? actually, I would totally listen to an album of Sonic Youth's most lullabye-like songs (Unwind, Sweet Shine, Diamond Sea, etc.)

What the hell is wrong with stainless steel kitchen appliances? This thread is starting to get offensive.

Late period capitalism hoovering up everything in its path. Yawn.

Like you would rather that Sonic Youth were old, broke and working the nightshift at Wal Mart. Yeeesh!

This thread is kinda silly.

also, it doesn't matter what it was like in the past, dudes. mediocrity is staring you in the face and slipping down your throat and you're like, "well, at least it isn't maxwell house." it doesn't matter what it isn't, it matters what it is, and that is sub-par coffee.

Horror of horrors!

(this mockery is coming from someone who, by the way, burr-grinds and lever-pulls his own espresso shots every morning)