The origins of Washing Machine
 

Here is an anecdote that might give the answer where the title of the album came from:

"I used to manage a used record store in Portland, Oregon,
and one day one of our young women who worked there played an album by Sonic Youth. To me it was nothing but noise, so I asked her, "what is this, it sounds like a washing machine." She nudged me and told me to be quiet. I
asked why. She pointed to a customer close to us and said "he's from Sonic
Youth, and this is an album of theirs." I'm not sure which band member it
was, but they chuckled. The next album that came out of theirs was titled
"Washing Machine." True story."

it is intriguing, i just wonder then where Kim got the line (assuming that wasn't her in this story) and i always figured it came from her, or maybe just a coinsidence

hahaha, thats really great

That's funny. I'm listening to my washing machine right now, and it doesn't sound anything like Sonic Youth.

haha, that's awesome. I wonder what song was playing.

but the sounds of washing machine in general are cool i think, I really like that, and the smell is good.
I am looking forward to my next rounds haha

that is damn funny.

"Society Is A Hole" sounds like a Washing Machine with, like, two metal forks in the load.

I always though they called it that because they were going to shift the unit like a washing machine...

Actually, appliances are quite musical if you listen

i thought it was after the goo and dirtyness that they needed a spin in the washing machine. this is a good story though assuming its true. i can't believe they seriously considered changing their name to washing machine. even though it is a pretty good name for a band.

Lee told Much Music here in Canada that they "cleaning up the scene"; and there was an advert floating around at the time that they were "cleaning up the filthy Hole". It was all anti-Courtney in origins, and David Geffen freaked when they announced plans to change their name to 'Washing Machine'.

The last time I did clothes, I had two adjacent dryers and they had the same squiak in the same place in the rotation of the drum but out of sync but some amount. It was quite musical and I wish I could have recorded it.

i never recorded a w.m. working, but could be interesting, anyway i prefer train stations to record some ambiental noise.

when i was 16 i was in a band called the homo's and we had a song called washing machine (pre sonic youth release) and we went to see free kitten one night. thurston was also at the show and afterwards out on the street while the rest of the band were hanging out the singer from the band started singing our washing machine song to kim. true fact.

I was once doing my laundry at this empty, local laundromat late at night and Kim Gordon suddenly busted in and molested me over a washing machine.

After spilling my bodily load on my freshly dried clothing load, she left just as suddenly. My naked body quivering in the city cold and disbelief.

The song is about this incident.

I was eating lunch in the break room at work one day and someone asked for a quarter. I asked if they were going to put it in a washing machine and exactly one other person in the room (and probably in the whole building) got the reference.

Sonic win

Cool story Moshe.

Amusing story, but to be honest, I don't buy it for a second.

They sound more like a vacuum cleaner after all.

When I was a baby my parents used to run the vacuum cleaner to make me stop crying, and now Bad Moon Rising is my favorite album of all time.

what I always thought and still think is this: That album came out after Dirty. when my clothes are dirty I put them in the washing machine. If David Browne is to be believed, SY were never to fond of Dirty and he references this connection as well. I'm not saying that isn't a true story, Moshe, but this seems more probable. But I am swayed by my own skepticism quite a bit.

regardless its an incredible fucking album and, for me, when they started to get interesting. I mean, skip tracer, washing machine, the diamond sea? c'mon thats incredible

(edited because of badly thought out Daydream Nation comments)