Unjustly forgotten

There are a lot of reasons that most people are unaware of how great a song Kim Gordon's Panties. The most important of course is the band name. When you call your band Rapeman, you are asking for people to hate you. It doesn't help that the output is, overall, the low point of Steve Albini's recording career. Sure you have an amazing song about the combination of low self esteem and sex addiction, and a nice song about how vegetarians should shut up about the meat eating, but overall, the output is not great.

Kim Gordon's Panties, though, is fantastic. Really. Not only is a bizarre paean to Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, but it is also a salute to the Sonic Youth song Schizophrenia. In the song, Albini sings that Thurston Moore, husband of Kim Gordon is not getting any play. Incredulous, Albini claims that if he "had that to go home to, I'd never leave my bed." He then goes on to claim that any red blooded male would act differently. Not surprisingly, the Sonic Youth folks didn't take kindly to this and dedicated Beat on The Brat covers to Albini in subsequent shows.

Even though much of my enjoyment of the song comes from the sophomoric humor, I love the musical build up and the drum crescendo mid-way through the song. Listen for yourself.