The Sonic Youth song written about Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis
The upstart genre of alternative rock was beginning to get crowded by the end of the 1980s. Across Britain and the United States (not to mention the underground strongholds around the world), artists were taking the influences of punk, folk, synthpop, or even classic rock and turning them into something completely new.
From R.E.M. spearheading college rock in the early part of the decade to The Replacements and Hüsker Dü topping each other in the Twin Cities during the middle of the 1980s, alternative rock was seeing a massive influx of artists in a short period of time. Sonic Youth had already begun moving away from their no wave origins and into a noisier version of alt-rock by the time they recorded 1988’s Daydream Nation.
Along the way, the band picked up a host of similar-minded bands. Everyone from Nirvana to Muhoney would share the stage with Sonic Youth at one point or another, but one of the most frequent peers that the band encountered over the years was Dinosaur Jr.
The two bands struck up a quick friendship, with guitarist J Mascis even joining Sonic Youth for a cover of The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ while performing at a benefit concert for the indie magazine Forced Exposure on May 9th, 1987. Just over a year later, Sonic Youth began recording a song dedicated to Mascis, ‘Teenage Riot’.
“At the time, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr represented our slacker genius, so in tribute we wrote a song called ‘Rock’N’Roll For President’ about him being president, which we eventually renamed ‘Teenage Riot,” Moore told Q Magazine in 2007.
Sonic Youth racked up some serious pop culture bona fides once the grunge explosion pushed them closer to the mainstream. One of Keanu Reeves’ basses was used by Kim Gordon in the video for ‘100%’. Kathleen Hanna starred in the video for ‘Bull in the Heather’. The band even appeared in the 1996 Simpsons episode ‘Homerpalooza’. While they might not have ever been household names, Sonic Youth did become one of the biggest names in the beloved underground of alternative rock.
Check out ‘Teenage Riot’ down below.
