Pitchfork

DGC's overhaul of the Sonic Youth back catalog will get underway March 4th, with a 35-track expanded reissue of the band's Butch Vig-produced 1992 album Dirty. This double-disc do-over includes most of the period's b-sides, from the "100%", "Drunken Butterfly", "Youth Against Fascism" and "Sugar Kane" singles, as well as "Stalker", which was exclusively available on the two-slab vinyl version of Dirty. The bonus disc unearths covers of Alice Cooper's "Is It My Body" from a Sub Pop singles club seven-inch, and the New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis" from a Sassy flexidisc (remember rooting through your sister's magazines looking for those?), as well as an early instrumental version of "Shoot" entitled "The End of the End of the Ugly". Dude, I never knew SY collaborated with Billy Corgan!

n The real cash-bait here are the dozen painstakingly reconstructed eight-track rehearsal tapes recorded by the band before the proper Dirty sessions: unfinished epics and half-baked notions like "Poet in the Pit", "Theoretical Chaos", and "Little Jammy Thing" abound, but embryonic versions of "Youth Against Fascism", "Wish Fulfillment" and "Stalker", which all differ radically from the final versions, should convince fans to trade up for the set.

n In addition to bonus jams, the reissue comes packed with a 28-page booklet featuring essays from Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and rock-crit Byron Coley, plus-- we presume-- plenty of outtakes from that photo session where people you have no desire to see naked cavort with cute little bunny rabbits. Just about the only thing not included (presumably due to space constraints) is the brilliant acoustic version of "Purr"; Youth obsessives are advised to hang on to their "Sugar Kane" and/or "Youth Against Fascism" discs for that one. Tracklist:

n Disc one:
01 100%
02 Swimsuit Issue
03 Theresa's Sound-World
04 Drunken Butterfly
05 Shoot
06 Wish Fulfillment
07 Sugar Kane
08 Orange Rolls, Angels Spit
09 Youth Against Fascism
10 Nic Fit
11 On the Strip
12 Chapel Hill
13 JC
14 Purr
15 Crème Brulee
16 Stalker
17 Genetic
18 Hendrix Necro
19 The Destroyed Room

n Disc two:
01 Is It My Body [Alice Cooper cover]
02 Personality Crisis [New York Dolls cover]
03 The End of the End of the Ugly
04 Tamra
05 Little Jammy Thing*
06 Lite Damage*
07 Dreamfinger*
08 Barracuda*
09 New White Kross*
10 Guido*
11 Stalker [alternate version]*
12 Moonface*
13 Poet in the Pit*
14 Theoretical Chaos*
15 Youth Against Fascism [alternate version]*
16 Wish Fulfillment [alternate version]*

n * previously unreleased

n As previously reported, 1990's Goo and Pitchfork's Top Album of the 1980s, 1988's Daydream Nation, are also set for double-disc renovations in 2003, though release dates have yet to be determined.