Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [Black] (2xLP, US)

7 February 2025 Superior Viaduct
1. Intro
2. Schizophrenia
3. Tom Violence
4. White Cross
5. Kotton Krown
6. Stereo Sanctity
7. Brother James
8. Pipeline/Kill Time
9. Catholic Block
10. Tuff Gnarl
11. Death Valley ’69
12. Beauty Lies In The Eye
13. Expressway To Yr. Skull
14. Pacific Coast Highway
15. Loudmouth
16. I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
17. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
18. Beat On The Brat
VIEW:
NOTES:
Black vinyl exclusive edition of the 2025 speed-corrected reissue of the Sonic Youth bootleg album Hold That Tiger featuring an image of Bob Bert and Julie Cafrtiz on the cover which has been cropped from a Pussy Galore photo by Pat Blashill which was also used in a Spin article titled The Pussy Identity.

Known variations of this release:

Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [Bootleg / 1997] (CD, US)
Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [Bootleg / 1991] (LP, US)
Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [2025] (CD, US)
Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [Black / 2025] (2xLP, US)
Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [Clear / 2025] (2xLP, US)

2025 edition includes sleeve notes by Thurston Moore and Aaron Mullan.

Notes from Superior Viaduct.com:

In October 1987, four months after the release of their critically acclaimed Sister LP, Sonic Youth showcased their latest work in a blistering set at Cabaret Metro, Chicago. The concert was introduced by Big Black’s Steve Albini (who at the time was banned from the venue) and subsequently released as a semi-official bootleg under the title Hold That Tiger on writer/provocateur Byron Coley’s impishly Geffen-baiting label Goofin’ (years later the band would use this nom de guerre for their own imprint).

Hold That Tiger’s sterling reputation among the Sonic Youth faithful is well deserved. In fact, it isn’t a stretch to suggest that the album is to the first handful of SY releases what It’s Alive is to the first three Ramones LPs – a feral and liberatory public snapshot of a band’s blossoming imperial phase. Indeed, HTT is the sound of a group at the peak of their powers, presenting new songs alongside a handful of older ones with the kind of wild, cathartic enthusiasm common to rock ‘n’ roll’s most revered live albums.

Taking nothing away from Sister – inarguably one of indie rock’s first true masterpieces – it is reasonable that many fans prefer the live versions heard on Hold That Tiger to their studio counterparts. On HTT, Sonic Youth is a spiky, pummeling and confident force, alternately mammoth and meditative. Sister and its predecessor EVOL notably added an airy, dreamlike reverie to the band’s turbulent doom-lurch, a stylistic evolution that seems to crystallize on HTT. Throughout, Kim Gordon’s sinewy, sumptuous bass and Steve Shelley’s propulsive, tom-heavy percussion provide the bedrock groove for Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo’s ferocious barrages of noise-guitar crunch.

By 1987, the band was confidently articulating their dual lexicon of punk-noir dissonance and supernal, psychedelic sonic calligraphy – bending their jagged, streetwise gnarl into balloon animals of dazzling and beautiful songs. This collision of splendor and chaos would become a hallmark of the group’s singular alchemy as well as provide a blueprint for the post-SST American underground they would help invent and ultimately nurture.

Hold That Tiger’s encore – four songs by the band’s beloved Ramones, which Thurston would later astutely compare to “the perfect pudding after a hearty meal” – serves as a reminder that, like any true punks, Sonic Youth never could resist a good, rousing anthem to send the kids home with their ears ringing, their hearts hot-wired.

SONG CREDITS:
Mastered by Bob Weston from the original tapes.
Recorded by Aadam Jacobs
Audio repair/editing by Aaron Mullan
SLEEVE NOTES:
[unknown]
DETAILS:
ARTWORK:
Photography: John Lee / Pat Blashill

BARCODE: [unknown]

RUN-OUT GROOVE ENGRAVING:
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