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Pitchfork's most recent Guest List went to Thurston Moore. In the slot ">> Favorite Song Ever," he mentioned a few contenders, and that most people will say the most important songs to them come from their youth. A song that makes an early impression on someone has a bigger impact than one that comes later in life. On of the songs that Thurston mentioned from his own early years was Patti Smith's Godspeed. He says "they were recording at Electric Ladyland one night, they started improvising and she has these words that she sings on top of this improvistation...It was a really sort of odd and unorthodox b-side for this hit single." It's a really elusive song I think. "Love is a vampire/energy of the dead"? I know it's a little cliche to say this, but I'm pretty sure she was trashed when they played this one. You notice the looseness and the slow burn of the song and it makes perfect sense that Thurston would choose it. When I think of Sonic Youth's sound, like most punk-era bands, I think of a sound that is basically totally original. Nobody sounded like the Ramones, or Television, or The Psychedelic Furs until those bands actually came along. Here though, I think you can actually hear some DNA ancestor of the "Sonic Youth Sound," especially their more recent stuff a la Rather Ripped, tucked away somewhere between the guitar riffs.

Patti Smith Group - Godspeed



Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I listen to so much world music is some stupid exoticism that my liberal mind imposes on any third-world peoples. Sometimes I don't like music, yes I can admit that. I think that it's a really good exercise to try and find some redeeming humanity in any song, but at the same time you're entitled to not like something. ie. I know Radiohead is good, I can hear it, but I'm still entitled to think Thom Yorke is a pretentious, whiny rat bastard. So when I do find something good, like this Yugoslavian garage-punk band Zabranjeno Pušenje, the No-Smoking Orchestra, it makes me realize that there exist things in the world that are totally awesome in their own right although you would never have heard of them because of the cultural and geographical barriers that exist around all of us. They classify themselves as New Primitives, not punk, because they are anti-West. But really what could be more punk than being anti-West? Here is my favorite song of theirs, and also a youtube clip of the popular communist tv show, Top Lista Nadrealista, which the band wrote and starred in during the '80s and early '90s

Zabranjeno Pušenje - Srce Ruke Lopata