Another day, another chance to make fun of the Sonic Youth Starbucks cd

There's something very Bret Easton Ellis novel meets Edward Hopper meets slick Manhattan advertising firm in the album art for the new Sonic Youth for Starbucks album, isn't there? At last! Here it is, in all its glory, the very zenith of bad corporate coffee-seminal New York band collaborations. The Sonic Youth cd put out by Starbucks. Hits are for Squares, premieres June 10 at a coffee retailer near you. Now a lot of people have a lot of 'why?'s about this celebrity-curated compilation. For example, why Starbucks? Why isn't Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore's past 20 years of royalty and touring money enough to send little Coco to college without signing this wacky deal? For me, though, the biggest WHY? is why is this album so clearly an homage to a Huey Lewis and the News song????

Well, here is the tracklisting, and the famous people who did the selecting.

Hits Are for Squares:

01 Bull in the Heather [selected by Catherine Keener]
02 Sugar Kane [selected by Beck]
03 100% [selected by Mike D]
04 Kool Thing [selected by Radiohead]
05 Disappearer [selected by Portia de Rossi]
06 Stones [selected by Allison Anders]
07 Tuff Gnarl [selected by Dave Eggers and Mike Watt]
08 Teenage Riot [selected Eddie Vedder]
09 Shadow of a Doubt [selected by Michelle Williams]
10 Rain on Tin [selected by Flea]
11 Tom Violence [selected by Gus Van Sant]
12 Mary-Christ [selected by David Cross]
13 World Looks Red [selected by Chloë Sevigny]
14 Expressway to Yr Skull [selected by the Flaming Lips]
15 Slow Revolution [exclusive]

And here are some dates these people are playing shows, as usual, lifted live and direct from Pitchfork!!

Sonic Youth

07.04.08 - New York, NY - Battery Park *
08.04.08 - Leucate, France - Les Méditerranéennes Festival
08.05.08 - Lokeren, Belgium - Lokerse Festival
08.07.08 - Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08.08.08 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08.09.08 - Saint-Nazaire, France - Escales Festival

* with the Feelies


Thurston Moore

09.19.08 - Monticello, NY - Kutshers Country Club (My Bloody Valentine ATP)
09.27.08 - New York, NY - Stone (as Northampton Wools)

# performing Psychic Hearts


Lee Ranaldo

05.28.08 - New York, NY - Issue Project Room $~
06.11.08 - New York, NY - Issue Project Room (16 Channel Surround Sound Festival) %
07.19.08 - North Adams, MA - MASS MoCA ^

$ performing with Marina Rosenfeld, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori
~ with the Joshua Light Show
% performing with Leah Singer
^ performing with Bang on a Can