Aqualung

Here's Sonic Youth!

Years Active:
1981-present

Genre:
Altnernative rock

Line up:
Thurston Moore - Guitars, vocals
Lee Ranaldo - Guitars, vocals, organ
Kim Gordon - Bass guitar, guitar, vocals
Steve Shelley - Drums

Past members:
Bob Bert - Drums
Richard Edson - Drums
Jim O'Rourke - Guitar, bass guitar
Jim Sclavunos - Drums

Discography:
Sonic Youth - 1982
Confusion Is Sex - 1983
Kill Yr Idols (EP) - 1983
Sonic Death - 1984 (Live album)
Bad Moon Rising - 1985
EVOL - 1986
Sister - 1987
The Whitey Album - 1988
Daydream Nation - 1988
Goo - 1990
Dirty - 1992
TV Shit (EP) - 1993
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star - 1994
Screaming Fields of Sonic Love - 1995
Washing Machine - 1995
Made in USA - 1995
SYR1: Anagrama (EP) - 1997
SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom - 1997
SYR3: Invito Al Cielo (EP) - 1998
A Thousand Leaves - 1998
Silver Sessions (For Jason Knuth) (EP) - 1998
SYRA4: Goodbye 20th Century - 1999
SYR5 - 2000
NYC Ghosts & Flowers - 2000
Murray Street - 2002
In The Fishtank 9 (EP) - 2002
Sonic Nurse - 2004
SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (EP) - 2005
Rather Ripped - 2006

History:

Where did the name come from?:
It is a combination of Fred "Sonic" Smith, from the band MC5, a group that was very influential in the creation of punk-rock music, and the reggae artist Big Youth, who Kim Gordon cited as an influence on her bass lines.


The influences of Glenn Branca:
Sonic Youth was initially started by Thurstan Moore and Lee Ranaldo who had performed together (and apart) in various punk rock bands. Ranaldo also had performed with Glenn Branca, an influential guitarist and composer, whose sound influenced Sonic Youth. Moore and Kim Gordon (who were dating before Sonic Youth was formed) would also perform with him at some point in their carreers. The influence of his sound led Sonic Youth to be dubbed a No Wave group, a genre that Glenn Branca was instrumental in creating. This genre was in direct opposition to the pop-rock, commericialised sound of the new wave music that was being created at the time. Branca also inspired Sonic Youth to experament a lot with different sounds, especially with different guitar tunings and with alterations to create different timbre.

And now back to the regular, non-themed history:
In 1981, Moore organised a ten-day festival including his band, Sonic Youth. The line up at that point was Moore, Gordon, Richard Edson on drums, and Ann DeMarinis on keyboards. After this festival, DeMarinis left the group, but Lee Ranaldo filled her spot.

Sonic Youth released their self-titled debut EP in 1982. The album exemplifies the anti-new-wave direction, in that, while being quite somber, it's very layered and progressive. This EP already showed their ability to employ a variety of different guitar tunings into their music. This was mainly due to the fact that, early on, they could only afford the cheap guitars, which defitely sounded cheap. You can't make a guitar sound expensive, so they had to make it sound less like a guitar than people were used to, by employing different tunings and changing the timbre in whatever ways they could. These tunigs were not just randomly picked, either. Ranaldo and Moore developed them after a lot of experimentation to figure out which types of sounds were acceptable and useable.

Sonic Youth



After this release, drummer Richard Edson left the group for an acting carreer. Bob Bert took over the drumming spot.

Confusion is Sex, Sonic Youth's first full-length album, was released in 1983. The Kill Yr Idols EP was also released in 1983, formerly only in Germany, but the re-release of the Confusion is Sex album contian these songs. Following tours also increased their popularity. Most people were impressed with their unique sound and techniques, so even shows where Sonic Youth played badly were well-revieced. After one of these shows, Bob Bert was fired from the group and SY hired Jim Sclavunos as drummer. He also quit, within a few months of being hired, and SY asked Bert to come back, who agreed as long as he was promised he would never be fired again.

Sonic Youth's next studio album was Bad Moon Rising. It incorporated more elements of pop music than their previous albums (although the music was still not close to pop music), and was sort of a concept album about violence and insanity. The album features a lot of feedback in the instruments, strong rhythms, and little break between songs, leading to quite a claustrophobic sound.

After the release of Bad Moon Rising, Bob Bert quit the band, because they weren't financially successful enough. Steve Shelley took over drumming responsibilities. He was originally from the hardcore punk band Crucifucks, and this hardcore element showed through in his drumming and from there in Sonic Youth's music.

1986 saw the release of Sonic Youth's next album EVOL. This album saw Sonic Youth moving more towards pop, and this time there are actually songs that would be considered pop, like Star Power. Sister, released a year later, continued this movement. They mixed their pop-rock structures with experimentation. This is another sort of concept album, about the life of sci-fi writer Phillip K Dick, whose twin sister died as a baby, a memory which troubled Dick the rest of his life. This album is one of Sonic Youth fans' favourites.

Daydream Nation, the double LP released in 1988, is what finally allowed Sonic Youth to really cross over into mainstream music scene. It is one of the most critically praised albums that Sonic Youth has created and it was voted the best album of the 1980s by Pitchfork Media, who consider the album a milestone for alternative rock. In 2005, the Libarary of Congress chose this album as one of fifty to be added to the National Recording Registry. In this album, Sonic Youth has made the full transition from noise rock to more subtle and controlled experimental rock. They had very complex guitar layering that built up to symphonic heights. Unfortunately, however, this album sold poorly. The single Teen Age Riot did do well, though, and reached #20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Daydream Nation



In 1990, Sonic Youth released Goo. Kool Thing was another breakthrough hit, and is probably what most casual listeners think of when they think of Sonic Youth. This album is more "grunge" than their previous albums, and in 1991 Sonic Youth toured with the then little-known band Nirvana. This album is seen as a very important album with the breakthrough of grunge onto the alternative rock scene.

1992 saw the release of Dirty, another grunge album. In the way of interesting trivia, the video for 100% was directed by Spike Jonze and featured skateboarder Jason Lee. Their next album, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, was released in 1994 and reached #10 on the UK Album charts, and #34 in the US. Bull In The Heather, a single from this song, has probably been their most successful song, reaching #13 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. This song was played at the Free Tibet Concert of 1996.

At this time, the various band members also started to branch out into other areas. Bassist Kim Gordon, for example, started collaborating on a side project, a band called Free Kitten, which in 1994 toured on Lollapolooza.

Amid the releases of a number of compilation albums and EPs, Sonic Youth created Washing Machine in 1995 and A Thousand Leaves, released in 1998. For these albums, Kim Gordon started to place guitar instead of bass, leading to a three-guitar-one-drummer sound. These albums were also not grunge albums. Goo, Dirty, and Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star were grunge albums, but these ones were more in the vein of 60s and 70s psychadelic and progressive rock. The tracks on these albums are much longer than on previous albums, with the song The Diamond Sea (from Washing Machine) being almost twenty minutes in length.

As for the EPs they were releasing during this time: SYR1, SYR2, and SYR3 were all heavily instrumentalised albums which were all in different languages. SYR! was in French, SYR2 in Dutch, and SYR3 was in Esperanto. SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century did not fit this mold (Sonic Youth, collaborating with a number of avant-garde musicians, redid classics by people like Yoko Ono and Christian Wolff), but SYR5 was back to this template, this time being in Japanese.

In 1999, Sonic Youth had most of their equipment stolen while on tour in California. The 2000 album NYC Ghosts & Flowers was written mainly in reaction to this event as the band had to start over from nothing. The lyrics are also heavily influenced by beat poetry and tend to follow the same sorts of progressions as beat poets such as Lenny Bruce. It received mixed reviews, with Pitchfork Media giving it a rating of 0.0 and others praising it's inventiveness.

Murray Street, released in 2002, was a critically praised album, and was hailed as a return to form. The sound of this album was cleaner and clearer than previous albums, and was similar to 70s classic rock. In 2004 Sonic Youth released an album that was musically similar, called Sonic Nurse. The album sold relatively well and was boosted by performances on such shows as Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Murray Street



In 2005, Sonic Youth reveiced some miraculous news. Their equipment which had been stolen in 1999 had been recovered. Rather ripped, which was probably recorded with these recovered instruments, was released in 2006 and is more traditional than most of their music. It doesn't have nearly as much feedback, and the song structures are more conventional. They will be playing in the 2006 Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo festivals.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

 

ChrisP

Once again the Tullish one reigns supreme. Another Great band Jethro.

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Insanity admitted...

antony

I bought "jet set, and no star" when it came out in 94. I was 14 I think. One of the weirdest albums I'd ever subjected myself to at that point.

I haven't listened to it in ages, should probably break out the CD player and give it another spin.

Aqualung

Oops. I forgot to fill in the "line up" section.

__________________


Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

WastE

great great review, for a great great band... I m glad you took care of my suggestion Aqualung, thank you.

jsx

Not to mention a Madonna cover on one of these releases.
jsx

fatboytim

I saw an interview with Thurston where he said they called themselves Sonic Youth because there were lots of bands they knew at the time calling themselves sonic something. They thought it was funny that they were part of that Sonic Youth, which is how the name came about..........

I could be wrong.

Aqualung

That's pretty interesting. I think it's fascinating how some of these groups have come up with their names.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

ilija7777

Good avangarde,but nothing special.

fatboytim

ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS!!!?????

Sonic Youth are seminal. They are pretty much the most special band from the 80s, unless you just like super crazy no wave or something? Even then they were pretty special in that scene too.

How can you dis on the youth.

usicmalove

I'm going to have to say right now my favourite album is Becuz....but i'm also torn because there is so much Sonic youth i have yet to check out.... they just have SO Much music and its so intimidating!


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country pop!

usicmalove

i also have to say that despite being unfamiliar with some of their albums, i do know how truly amazing they are, and i have to agree with everything you say right there.

sohotrightnow

they brought the rock. and roll.

toss784

never heard of him

Battousai

Great Band.

It's amazing every, album they are able to use the distortions of a more competent way.

JerryWex

Wow. Thank you for a great review!

StickmanSouffle

Daydream Nation is so good. Unfortunately it's all I have by them.

russelA

really cool band! amazing crowds in most concerts...