100%

The lead track and first single off Sonic Youth’s album Dirty felt like a big deal when it dropped. By 1992, the decade already had the makings of a dramatic cultural break from the previous one, and videos like the one for “100%” played a big part in setting that perception. The sleek polish that had coated 80s cultural artifacts gave way to the grit and grunge of noise rock going mainstream and skateboarders tearing up the streets in grainy black and white.

Thematically, “100%” is about the tragic death of Black Flag roadie and popular scenester Joe Cole, who was killed in a robbery outside the home he shared with Henry Rollins. Cole was shot in the face with Rollins present. Rollins still keeps a jar of the dirt that soaked up Cole’s blood in his house.

Despite the morbid subject, the song doesn’t seem like a traditional bleak memorial to a life snuffed out too soon. Lyrics dance around the violent circumstances, but the noise generated by the guitars feel more like someone throwing paint at a canvas in frustration and ending up with something resembling a Jackson Pollock work. At times, only Steve Shelley’s precision drumming and Kim Gordon’s steady fuzzed-out bass hold things together.

Shots of the band playing at a house party show plenty of clothing (hey flannel shirts) that dates the video as an early nineties joint. Even though by the time Dirty was released, the band had been together for 11 years, Sonic Youth still look like a bunch of fresh-faced young kids, aptly named. The video was made in partnership with Spike Jonze, who had directed Video Days for Blind Skateboards. Scenes of the band playing are interspersed with Jason Lee and Guy Mariano from the Blind team—as well as an actor with more than a passing resemblance to Cole—shredding the handrails, ollying down the stairs and grinding the curbs that make up the built environment.¹

Sonic Youth - 100% (YouTube)

1. I’m still a big Jason Lee fan, but Mariano (while snickering the whole time) once tried to sell me a cracked skateboard. ↩︎