1.	100%	2:29
2.	Swimsuit Issue	2:59
3.	Theresa's Sound-World	5:28
4.	Drunken Butterfly	3:04
--
5.	Shoot	5:16
6.	Wish Fulfillment	3:26
7.	Sugar Kane	5:57
8.	Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit	4:19
9.	Youth Against Fascism	3:36
10.	Nic Fit	0:59
11.	On The Strip	5:42
12.	Chapel Hill	4:47
--
13.	Stalker (VINYL BONUS TRACK)	2:58
14.	JC	4:03
15.	Purr	4:22
16.	Creme Brulee	2:32

 

TRACK LIST (2003 2xCD/4xLP DELUXE REISSUE):

1.	100%	2:29
2.	Swimsuit Issue	2:59
3.	Theresa's Sound-World	5:29
4.	Drunken Butterfly	3:04
	Genetic [4xLP VERSION ONLY]	3:35
--
5.	Shoot	5:17
6.	Wish Fulfillment	3:27
7.	Sugar Kane	5:58
8.	Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit	4:19
9.	Youth Against Fascism	3:36
10.	Nic Fit	0:59
11.	On The Strip	5:42
12.	Chapel Hill	4:48
	The Destroyed Room [4xLP VERSION ONLY]	3:21
--
	Stalker [4xLP VERSION ONLY]	3:00
13.	JC	4:03
	Hendrix Necro [4xLP VERSION ONLY]	2:49
14.	Purr	4:21
15.	Creme Brulee	2:36
16.	Stalker [2xCD VERSION ONLY]	3:00
17.	Genetic [2xCD VERSION ONLY]	3:35
18.	Hendrix Necro [2xCD VERSION ONLY]	2:49
19.	The Destroyed Room [2xCD VERSION ONLY]	3:21

 

1.	Is It My Body [Sugar Kane]	2:52
2.	Personality Crisis [Sugar Kane]	3:40
3.	The End of the End of the Ugly [8-track demo, Sugar Kane]	4:18
4.	Tamra [8-track demo, Whores Moaning]	8:34
--
5.	Little Jammy Thing [Sonic Life]	2:20
6.	Lite Damage [8-track demo, unreleased]	5:21
7.	Dreamfinger [8-track demo, unreleased]	7:41
8.	Barracuda [8-track demo, unreleased]	4:22
--
9.	New White Kross [8-track demo, unreleased]	1:29
10.	Guido [8-track demo, unreleased]	3:49
11.	Stalker [8-track demo, unreleased]	3:36
12.	Moonface [8-track demo, unreleased]	4:44
--
13.	Poet in the Pit [8-track demo, unreleased]	2:40
14.	Theoretical Chaos [8-track demo, unreleased]	3:08
15.	Youth Against Fascism [8-track demo, unreleased]	5:03
16.	Wish Fulfillment [demo, unreleased]	3:51

NOTES

"Dirty" was Sonic Youth's ninth album, and the second recorded for DGC/Geffen. They went into the studio with a perhaps unprecedented abundance of material, and ended up issuing a double-vinyl release w/ an exclusive bonus track, "Stalker". A "limited" amount of the CD versions featured a "dirty picture" in the tray liner. Four singles were released, each with a video ("100%" "Youth Against Fascism" "Sugar Kane" & the fanmade "Drunken Butterfly"), all of which are now available in glorious form on the "Corporate Ghost" DVD!. "Dirty" also marks the first significant appearance of three-guitar/no-bass Sonic Youth, present on "Swimsuit Issue" "Wish Fulfillment" & "On The Strip". Kim also plays guitar on "Creme Brulee".

A two-disc deluxe edition w/ the remastered album, remixed 8-track demos and b-sides was released in 2003.

HISTORY

Sonic Youth first performed "Dirty" material on the same August 1991 tour that would result in "1991: The Year Punk Broke", playing "Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit" and "Chapel Hill" nightly. In late October they did one last show of the year (except for the infamous acoustic "Bridge Benefit" appearance), debuting "Purr" and "Sugar Kane". In November they began demoing songs on 8-track at their rehearsal space in Hoboken, many of which appear on the Dirty Deluxe reissue (the LP version of "Nic Fit" was also cut at these sessions). They recorded the album proper beginning in February 1992 at Magic City in NYC, with Butch Vig (then best known for producing Nirvana's Nevermind the year before) behind the board. The production process was slightly different this time around -- gone were the infinite overdubs and somewhat messy results on "Goo", now overdubs were restricted for flavouring and the mix was handled by fellow Nevermind alumni Andy Wallace (though neither Vig nor Wallace were necessarily chosen by SY because of their association with that album). The mix on "Dirty" stands as a clear, solid representation of the band's sound, even if glossed over slightly -- Steve confesses that Wallace mixed in various drum samples to beef up the beats somewhat, though in no way does it sound disingenuous. Instead, the band's heaviest material yet explodes from your speakers with all of its live intensity, and some of their most melodic, rockin', dare I say "poppy" numbers come across with a definitive clarity without sounding tailored for radio play. Though the band has since refrained from delving into the same heavy-handed production methods used on "Dirty", it is with this material that those methods shine most, anyways -- attempting to deliver the songs on "Experimental Jet Set" or "Washing Machine" in this style would have been foolish.

The band recorded a total of 18 songs during the sessions, and decided to use an unprecedented 15 songs for the final album ("Daydream Nation" held the record previously, with 14 songs if you divide the trilogy), one of which was not recorded w/ Vig: for the first time since "Hotwire My Heart", a cover appears on a Sonic Youth album, this time "Nic Fit" by The Untouchables (and band including Alex MacKaye, whose brother Ian guests on guitar on "Youth Against Fascism"), which was recorded during the Hoboken demo sessions in late '91. Faced with the serious likelihood of exceeding the capacity of a single 12", they decided to expand to double-vinyl, and even threw an extra track ("Stalker") into the running order, not present on the CD or cassette releases. Two songs from the sessions appeared as b-sides on the first single ("100%"), Lee's sensational "Genetic", and Kim's explosive rocker "Hendrix Necro". The remaining studio outtake was previously seen on the "Dirty Boots" EP, an instrumental entitled "The Bedroom", recorded live in November 1990 -- it now had vocals by Kim and was retitled "The Destroyed Room". The song appeared on the next 2 single releases from "Dirty", "Youth Against Fascism" & "Sugar Kane".

Prior to the album's release in July 1992, Sonic Youth did a brief northeast tour, finishing with a free show in Central Park on July 4th. The bulk of "Dirty" was premiered at these shows. Also in July was a Mark Goodier session where SY recorded new versions of 3 songs from Dirty, along with a furious rendition of "Burning Spear" (Steve owns this one). In addition to a fairly straightforward version of "Youth Against Fascism", they recorded "Creme Brulee" (the only "live" performance, a great contrast to the LP version) and "Purr", with Thurston playing acoustic guitar -- this one ended up on the "Youth Against Fascism" & "Sugar Kane" singles as well. On September 4th, Sonic Youth made their first network television appearance since "Night Music" in '89, this time on Late Night w/ David Letterman, performing a dynamic, cacaphonic rendition of "100%", backed by the entire Late Night band. All of the cheerful good nature of the "Night Music" appearance was present, including Thurston and Lee attacking their guitars with a drumstick and a baseball bat, respectively, and Paul Shaffer pushing his keyboard off its stand at the song's climax, while Thurston falls flat on his ass. Letterman clearly remembers the performance when introducing SY once again 2 years later.

Following the Letterman gig, they headed out on the "Pretty Fucking Dirty" tour in North America, this time bringing along bands like Pavement, Royal Trux, The Boredoms, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. SY played the bulk of "Dirty" ("Orange Rolls" more or less vanished from the sets at this point, "On The Strip" was virtually never played, "Creme Brulee" was never played). Instead of "Wish Fulfillment", Lee's nightly vocal contribution was typically "Genetic", though sometimes switching in "Eric's Trip" or "Mote". In addition to "Dirty" material, the band offered a healthy sample of their previous releases, changing their sets frequently but sustaining "Shoot" as the tour opening song, and "JC" as the first song of the encore. Towards the end of the tour in October, they added a cover of the Youth Brigade classic "No Part II" to the encore, typically joined by members of the Boredoms -- this would later be reflected on the critically acclaimed "TV Shit" EP. After this tour, they did a European tour in November and December, which included another TV appearance, this time doing 3 songs on "Later With Jools Holland": "Drunken Butterfly" "Sugar Kane" & "JC".

In January & February 1993, the band once again returned to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, even throwing Hawaii into the mix this time. A limited edition tour EP entitled "Whores Moaning" was released, featuring "Sugar Kane", two previously released covers, and two instrumentals. Following this in March, they returned to the US to play the west coast, which had been mostly ignored on the September tour. This more or less finished the "Dirty" tour, and at the band's next shows in June, they were already performing material destined for "Experimental Jet Set", with a definite shift in their songwriting -- which the band credits to the influence of their opening acts on the previous year's tour. Still, the fourth and final single from Dirty, "Drunken Butterfly", was released in August '93, and it included the Whores Moaning track "Tamra" and the Dirty vinyl bonus "Stalker".

PACKAGING

Kim's long-time friend Mike Kelley designed the artwork for "Dirty", which depicts a series of somewhat innocent, somewhat creepy stuffed animals. The cover features one of these creatures, and the insert folds out to 6 pages, each featuring a different animal (and a portrait of a young Mike Kelley). The malicious grinning bear appears only on the vinyl and CD longbox (and the cassette, I think), as does the one-eyed monkey. The other side of the insert has the album credits on one panel, and the remaining five are blank (one wonders if these were intended for the lyrics, which are again not included). The back features individual band member portraits by Richard Kern. The vinyl art has things switched around a bit -- the back cover includes the animal pics & the track listing, the sleeves have the (full-sized) band pics and the credits. Both 12"s are on orange vinyl. The vinyl was released in Australia on Waterfront, packaged in a cotton bag with a large "Dirty" poster (this set was limited to 1000). There were a few different CD versions -- the initial longbox release; the Japanese CD w/ "Stalker" as the final track (and likely unofficial lyrics); and the not-so-limited edition "dirty picture" version with a tray liner photograph depicting performance artists Bob Flanagan and Sherry Rose, naked, defiling various stuffed animals. By the way, random stuffed animals similar to those featured on the cover were sold at "Pretty Fucking Dirty" tour shows, each bearing a "Hug Me I'm Dirty" button.

CREDITS/LINERS

Produced and Recorded by Butch Vig with Sonic Youth
at MAGIC SHOP, NYC early '92.
Mixed by Andy Wallace at SOUND ON SOUND, NYC
except "Creme Brulee" Mixed by Butch Vig and "Nic Fit"
Mixed by Sonic Youth.
Engineered by Butch Vig with Edward Douglas
Assistant Mix Engineers: Peter Beckerman, John Siket
Additional Overdubs at SEAR SOUND, NYC
Assistant Engineer: Fred Kevorkian
Xtra Guitar on "Youth Against Fascism" by Ian MacKaye
(courtesy of Dischord Records)
Technical Assistance: Matt Wells, John Aldridge,
Kevin Parker (Mesa Boogie), Zildjian, Ernie Ball
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at MASTERDISK, NYC
All Songs by Sonic Youth except "Nic Fit" by
A. MacKaye/E. Mashety/R. Moore/B. Quieroz. All Songs
Published by Sonik Tooth BMI except "Nic Fit" Pub. Designee.
A&R: Gary Gersh
Management: John Silva/Gold Mountain Entertainment
Art: Mike Kelley
Band Photos: R. Kern
Make-up: Mary Rozzi
Styling by Von Furth
Art Direction: Kevin Reagan

DELUXE EDITION NOTES

The deluxe reissue of "Dirty" is an impressive collection, and set a standard for future expanded releases. In addition to the original 15-track album, the first disc contains the 4 previously released tracks from the "Dirty" sessions: