Teen Age Riot

"Teen Age Riot"
Song
B-side	"Silver Rocket," "Kissability," "Candle"

"Teen Age Riot" was the first single from Sonic Youth's 1988 album Daydream Nation. The album version of the song is long, clocking in at 6:57, and has two distinct parts. The first might be perceived as hypnotically dreamlike, with Kim Gordon reciting childlike, stream-of-consciousness prose, such as "You're it, no you're it/ Say it, don't spray it/ Miss me, don't dismiss me/ Spirit desire/ We will fall." ("We will fall" is a reference to The Stooges' song of the same name.), this section is played at a moderate to slow tempo on non-distorted guitars with a general dynamic build toward the second section, starting at 1 minute and 21 seconds at which point Thurston Moore plays, with-distortion, the recurring guitar riff that characterizes the second section of the song. The second section of the song is up-tempo and dynamically, is louder than the first section. The vocal line for this portion of the song is sung by Moore.

Some live performances of 'Teenage Riot', omit the opening section sung by Gordon, notably the live version recorded and released with the 'deluxe edition' of Daydream Nation, this section is also cut from the music video for 'Teenage Riot'.

According to sonicyouth.com, the song's working title was "Rock And Roll For President"; the song was supposedly written about a fantasy world where J Mascis is president. The video for the song was Sonic Youth's fourth overall, excluding the low-budget Ciccone Youth videos; the band directed it themselves.

In the liner notes accompanying the 'deluxe edition' of Daydream Nation, Byron Coley quotes Moore on 'Teenage Riot', "It was actually about appointing J Mascis as our de defacto alternative dream president".

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Teen Age Riot" at number 69 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

Single tracklisting

All songs by Sonic Youth

1. "Teen Age Riot (Edit)" – 3:50
2. "Silver Rocket" – 3:47
3. "Kissability" – 3:08
4. "Candle" – 4:59

Notes on Performance and Tuning

As with many Sonic Youth songs, the guitars are rather unconventionally tuned; in this case, Thurston Moore's tuning is (reading from left to right the lowest pitched string to the highest pitched string) GABDEG and Lee Ranaldo's tuning is GGDDGG, according to a fan-written guitar tab which can be found at the Sonic Youth Guitar Tab Archive, a project not officially associated with the group. These tunings were originally published in a Guitar World interview with the band, so can be regarded as accurate.

Somewhat notable in the performance of this song is the lack of guitar feedback and non-tonal noise that feature prominently in many Sonic Youth songs.

Singles chart

Year	Single	Chart	Peak
1988	"Teen Age Riot"	Modern Rock Tracks	No. 20

References

Coley, Byron and Farell, Ray; Liner Notes, Daydream Nation, 'deluxe edition', copyright 2007 Geffen Records.

The Sonic Youth Guitar Tab Archive