t the beginning of the 1990’s, Sonic Youth seemed on the verge of continuing the stellar success they received with their last two records of the previous decade. Somewhere between 1995’s Washing Machine and2000’s NYC Flowers & Ghosts, the band kind of trailed off in search of something a little more challenging, as well as starting up their own label to release avant-garde material that would never show up on a Geffen release schedule. With this year’s Murray Street, the band seems to have made a record that makes fans feel a little more at ease. Thurston Moore’s four tracks are all hummable affairs, Lee Ranaldo’s one offering is his best in over a decade, and Kim Gordon’s two tracks both challenge and give the listener something to bounce around to. As well, Mr. Jim O’Rourke has joined the band, yes, for real. Things seem too good for the band, so it’s time to get the skinny from beat-keeper, Steve Shelley.

Cam (STYLUS): Murray Street seems a lot more focused on the earlier Geffen albums like Goo and Dirty, where the band explored a more pop-based sound...

Steve Shelley (SS): A lot of people have pointed that out. To us, all of the albums have melody and they have pop songs in them, it’s just that sometimes, they’re done in a different way. People say, “Oh, you’re writing songs this time.” We consider the material the last couple records in the format of songs and pop music structure, but our definition of what a pop song could be is maybe wider than some people’s. Some people really compare it to DN, which is fine, but we don’t really think about that when we’re making the record. We’re just in the moment and doing what we’re doing.

STYLUS: The most memorable part on the record for me is the guitars on “Rain On Tin”. For me, it carries a pop melody even better than vocals would.

SS: Yeah, It is a nice song that has a lot of musical ideas go by and very little singing on it. It’s kind of a unique song. It’s also a lot of fun to play every night on this tour. It’s a song that you can play the same way every night, but it will be different b/c there are so many interlocking parts that we always kind of fall together in a different energy every evening. It’s a great song and it’s also kind of the centerpiece on the new record.

STYLUS: Is it more enjoyable to try something like that than write melodies through vocals?

SS: That song was enjoyable b/c we all really worked together on the arrangement, and the things that I personally tend to like is collaborating with a group of musicians, so that song was especially enjoyable to put together.

STYLUS: The title of the record and the photography says a lot of 9/11. I know you began the record last August, but did that event change the style of writing for the record?

SS: Not too much. The record was pretty much on its way. We had even done some of the basic sin Aug., it’s just that we basically got shut down for two months. We couldn’t get to the studio, and we had to deal with real life at that time. Being in a studio is like the most unreal way to spend your days and your weeks. You’re in this sterile environment and you’re listening to the same thing over and over again. You don’t see the news or your friends and people lives as they change. Every day you’re in this environment where you’re working on creating another false environment, a recording. It’s a really weird process. It’s took us out of that process and dropped us back into it a few months later

STYLUS: Why didn’t Jim contribute vocals to the record?

SS: I think Jim is probably too self-conscious to contribute a vocal. I think we tried to get him on a backing vocal and it was very difficult. He’s very careful not to overstep what he considers his boundaries in the group, so he’s very sensitive about that. I think it would be some time before he felt comfortable about contributing a vocal.

STYLUS: What’s it like having him as part of the band?

SS: It’s great.

STYLUS: How has he affected the band with this record?

SS: It’s hard to say. It’s great and he’s a lot of fun to work with. It’s just another, a fifth person in this group that has a lot of ideas and opinions and a lot of energy.

STYLUS: Is it a lot different having a fifth member?

SS: No, it’s not that much different. He’s sort of the only person that could be doing this right now because he matches with each one of us on a different level , so he can kind of relate to all four members. I don’t think there are very many musicians that we could bring in that would succeed like that. It’s a pretty unique situation.

STYLUS: How do you decide on what a record will sound like? Obviously, this record is a lot different from what you release on your own label (SYR). How do you decide what to make for Geffen and what to make for SYR? Would you ever put out a pop oriented record on SYR?

SS: Probably not, because Geffen pretty much owns whatever we do. We have this contract with them. At the same time, we can put together recordings that the Geffen/Universal corp. wouldn’t spend 9 months of their business year working on, y’know promoting and selling this material. So, we pretty much know if we’ve got something that we think is incredibly interesting, but Geffen wouldn’t want to be involved, we’ve got an outlet for it. It’s a pretty easy answer to the question, which gets this. The recordings we do for SYR are just as important as the ones we do for Geffen, so it’s not like we’re pressured from either side. It’s just sort of obvious what kind of records would fit to be distributed and manufactured by Geffen, and what makes sense to distribute through independent fashions.

STYLUS: What made you decide to limit the album to 7tracks?

SS: It’s not really about how many songs are on it, but whether it feels more like a complete album. This feels like a complete album to us, especially in the CD package, recording have got really long. We’ve been guilty of that, like we’ve had three albums in a row, that when they were on vinyl were double albums, but actually underneath all of that, we’re all real vinyl, album fans. Vinyl albums tend to be 35-40minutes long, so I guess there’s been a conscious effort to make a record of vinyl/LP length. It didn’t matter to us so much that it was just 7 songs but just how long was it and does it feel complete.

STYLUS: What is Smells Like Records up to right now?

SS: I put out the vinyl for Murray Street, because Universal didn’t want to. So that was great for us, to keep the vinyl in print. I had two releases this summer - one by a NY musician named Tony Scherr, who plays in a band called Sex Mob, and was a member of the Lounge Lizards over the years, and has also played with Bill Frisell for the past few years. He has this beautiful solo album that’s unlike all of this other session work that he does. It’s really nice. Before that, there was a solo record by Tim Prudhomme, from the band Fuck. He put out his own record that he recorded in Memphis. It’s a really quiet, sort of beautiful record.