On May 19th, 1996, The Simpsons concluded its 7th season with a double finale. The first episode aired (S07E24) was called "Homerpalooza", and as the title suggests it involves a Lollapalooza styled event known as "Hullabalooza". Rock magazines had already tipped off months earlier that this episode would feature some big musical guest stars, including Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, Peter Frampton, and to the surprise of many, Sonic Youth. Of course, Sonic Youth had headlined the previous year's Lollapalooza, which also featured Cypress Hill, and the Smashing Pumpkins had been the top bill of the '94 edition, after Nirvana pulled out (Peter Frampton never appeared on the travelling festival's stage). Simpsons creator Matt Groening has been a long-time Sonic Youth fan, so the band was contacted in October '95 about possibly lending their voices to the show.

The episode revolves around Homer Simpson realizing he is out of touch with the music his children listen to. In an effort to be a cool dad, he takes Bart and Lisa to see the Hullabalooza festival, where his anachrostic actions earn him the scorn of the young, jaded audience. A mishap with a pig cannon results in Homer being enlisted by the festival as a "strongman" (indeed Lollapalooza had its own "freak" sideshow), and he finally earns some cred with his children as a travelling member of the tour - only to realize he may be doing permanent damage to his body. The musician guest stars appear to enhance the experience, with each band performing briefly and the individual members getting a line or two. In Sonic Youth's case, they each only get one line apiece, and rather than appearing on stage, they had the rare honour of recording their own version of the show's theme, which played over the end credits.

While the band's lines don't appear until near the very end of the show, a Daydream Nation poster appears about 4 and a half minutes in, when Homer visits a record store called Suicide Notes and laments that all of his favorite bands are located in the "Oldies" section, while "no-name bands" like Sonic Youth and Nine Inch Nails are represented with giant posters. Homer mistakes a Hullabalooza poster for a band, which launches the episode's plot when the surly teenage employee corrects his mistake.

The band are first seen in animated form about 13 minutes and 40 seconds in, sticking their heads out of the tour bus windows while Homer is trailing behind on a rope with some makeshift frying pan skis. This scene is generally cut from syndication, but can be seen on the DVD. They make another appearance around 17 minutes in when the London Symphony Orchestra shows up backstage, prompting confusion as to who actually requested their services (it's initially accepted that Cypress Hill got high and forgot they hired them, but the truth comes out later).

Thurston and Steve's lines appear 19 minutes in, when Peter Frampton is performing and finally has enough after realizing the footswitch that is supposed to launch his flying pig has no effect (the pig had previously been accidentally discharged into Homer's stomach, spurring his brief strongman career). He announces with frustration: "God, Homer Simpson wrecks my pig, Cypress Hill steals my orchestra, and Sonic Youth's in my cooler. Get out of there you kids!" Cut to the entire band hovering around Frampton's cooler at the side of the stage, where Thurston (animated at the same height as everyone else) declares: "Aww c'mon Mr Frampton, you're not gonna eat ALL that watermelon!" Frampton huffs "Please, I'm trying to perform!" and Steve insists "Go ahead, we'll stay here and guard your cooler!" before they all reach in.

Sadly, I believe both Thurston and Steve's lines are cut in syndication, though Frampton's initial line remains intact to at least provide context for the shot that appears 20 minutes in, an infamous depiction of the entire band holding a giant slice of watermelon, watching with nervous anticipation as Homer prepares for his final potentially deadly cannon ball stunt.

After Homer bails on the stunt, Lee gets his line, a disappointed reaction: "Aww man, Homer wussed out! I'm so disillusioned." Kim responds "Hey, Hullabalooza isn't about freaks! It's about music, and advertising, and youth-oriented product positioning." (To which Cypress Hill's Sen Dog retorts "That, and getting toasted. Nicely toasted.")

That is the extent of the band's spoken involvement, but boy did they knock it out of the park with their interpretation of the end credits theme, which was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in NYC. 33 seasons in, I imagine the show has had a number of artists redo the theme, but at the time it wasn't very common. We had to wait until November 1999 for the track to finally be released on the Go Simpsonic With The Simpsons compilation CD, otherwise relying on replaying a worn VHS copy or catching it in syndication, with the hopes that the affiliate hadn't plastered some dumb ad over the end credits. Years later, Matt Groening was given the opportunity to curate the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, and in addition to having Sonic Youth perform, he also chose their version of the Simpsons theme to kick off the compilation CD that accompanied the event.

Just to note, the track appears as "The Simpsons" End Credit Theme on the Simpsonic compilation, and Simpson's Theme on the ATP compilation. I take slight issue with the apostrophe, though I realize it's correct on some level. Whatever the title, it's 48 seconds of genius, taking the orchestral theme originally written by (Kim's former boyfriend!) Danny Elfman, and putting an unmistakeable sonic twist on it. I'll be honest, there's a number of guitar overdubs (and that weird squawking synth thing that also appears on "Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope" as well as between songs during some Washing Machine gigs), but rather than splitting everything up into the specific parts as recorded, I opted to arrange it for a single guitar, in a tuning that made the notes relatively easy to play. I chose GGDDGG but really, I have absolutely no idea what they used - I might hear an open F# clue, but I don't think it matters. This was just a fun filler tab that I thought some people might enjoy playing, and it seems silly not to have it transcribed at some point in the last 25 years.

As a side note - I strongly recommend seeking out the Simpsons Season 7 DVD set that contains this episode, particularly if you're a fan of DVD commentaries (which The Simpsons provide on every single episode, a rare treat). Back then, they would have new show runners every couple of seasons to encourage a fresh approach to the production, and seasons 7 and 8 were run by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who both appear on the commentary track to offer very insightful information (along with Matt Groening, the episode's writer Brent Forrester, director Wes Archer, and staff writer Ken Keeler). Curiously, Josh Weinstein cites Sonic Youth as one of his all-time favorite bands (along with Groening), but co-runner Bill Oakley admits that he has never heard them aside from their take on the theme, which he doesn't understand. They discuss the process of enlisting the musicians to appear in the episode, including some that did not make the cut, such as Courtney Love - Matt Groening specifically reveals that one of the bands in the final episode refused to appear if she was involved, and though he won't name names, it's common knowledge that this was Sonic Youth's stance following a number of clashes with her while Hole was appearing on the '95 Lollapalooza tour. While it's amusing to hear their anecdotes, they do admit that the episode has a bit of a tired feeling, falling right at the end of a long, tough season. It's really worth picking it up to hear them talk about the experience, and of course to see the scenes cut from syndication that actually contain Sonic Youth.

Oh, and let's not forget that while Sonic Youth visited Springfield, the Simpson family paid a visit to Echo Canyon very early in their televised existence!

I've transcribed the multiple parts for one guitar, in GGDDGG, to offer some unisons for maximum sonic 
effect. If you'd rather use something like EGDGED or CGDGBB and just play it on the middle GDG strings, 
it should be easy enough to transpose.

A SECTION				00:00-00:06

G---18---
G---18---
D---18--- drop w/ bar + return
D---18---
G---18---
G---18---

B SECTION				00:06-00:09

G---------------------
G---5---------5-------  (this continues under the next riff)
D-------5---------5---
D---------------------
G---------------------
G---------------------

G----------------------
D---10--------10-------
A-------10--------10---
E----------------------

C SECTION				00:09-00:17

G---------------14--12-----------------------------------------------14--16\---
G---------------14--12-----------------------------------------------14--16\---
D-------14--16----------14--10--------------------------16-16-16-16------------
D-------14--16----------14--10--------------------------16-16-16-16------------
G---17--------------------------11--12-12--------------------------------------
G---17--------------------------11--12-12--------------------------------------

G-----------------------------------------
D---10--------10--------10--------10------
A-------10--------10--------10--------10--
E-----------------------------------------

D SECTION				00:17-00:20

G---9////21\\\\\--- 
G---9////21\\\\\---   this is a trem picked slow slide up to about the 21st fret and back down, 
D---9////21\\\\\---     just listen for how to approximate it
D---//-------------
G------------------
G------------------

G--------------------------------------
D---9--------9--------9--------9-------
A-------9--------9--------9--------9---
E--------------------------------------

E SECTION				00:20-00:25

G------------6--4-------------------
G------------6--4-------------------
D---------4--------7--4-------------
D---------4--------7--4-------------
G---4--8-----------------6-2-2-2-4--
G---4--8-----------------6-2-2-2-4--

G--------------------------------------
D---9--------9--------9--------9-------
A-------9--------9--------9--------9---
E--------------------------------------

F SECTION				00:25-00:33

G--------13---15-16-18-16----------------------
G--------13---15-16-18-16----------/-/--/--/---
D---14----/----/--/--/--/----------6-9-11-12\--   trem pick all these notes
D---14----/-------------/-------/--6-9-11-12\--
G----/--------------------------9--------------
G----/--------------------------9--------------

G---------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------
A---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7---
E---------------------------------------------------------------

G SECTION				00:33-00:38

G-------------------------------------
G---7--------7--------7--------7------  (this continues under the next riff)
D-------7--------7--------7--------7--
D-------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------

G--------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------
A---5--------5--------5--------5-------
E-------5--------5--------5--------5---

H SECTION				00:38-00:48

G-----------13--16--14---------------------------7-7-7-7---
G-----------13--16--14---------------------------7-7-7-7---
D---12--16--------------16--12--12---------------7-7-7-7---
D---12--16--------------16--12--12---------------7-7-7-7---
G-----------------------------------13-14-14-----7-7-7-7---
G-----------------------------------13-14-14-----7-7-7-7---

G---------------------------------------------
D------4--6----7--4---------------------------
A---5----------------5--------------5-5-5-5---
E------------------------4-5------------------


text + tab by Chris Lawrence