Sonic Youth

I couldn't find any threads on Sonic Youth, so I'll just start one. Massively disappointed that I missed Friday night's surprise 3/4 reunion, the first time that's happened since the band split up. I always check the Stone's calendar early, and as far back as the summer, I was looking forward to that show, which had always been listed as "DUO Lee Ranaldo (guitar) Thurston Moore (guitar)." I had a glimmer of hope that maybe Steve Shelley would join them when he played with Moore a few days earlier at National Sawdust, but I was also coming down with a nasty cold, my first since pre-lockdown: what a time to end a streak. I was still coughing a lot by Friday and basically let it go, much to my regret. I never saw Sonic Youth, again much to my regret, so even a 3/4 reunion playing an hour-long free form jam (no songs, no singing from what I can gather) would've been thrilling.

My first SY-related show was the outdoor Lou Reed tribute at Lincoln Center, when Ranaldo and Shelley were part of the house band for all of the acts. Next one was when Shelley played in Tape Hiss (with Ernie Brooks of the Modern Lovers) just outside my home (!), back when NYC was slowly opening up in the midst of the pandemic. Soon after, I saw him and Brooks play a trio date with Moore, and later I saw Moore and Ranaldo present a Velvet Underground-related film program at Roxy Cinema. Then this summer I finally saw Kim Gordon when she gave an amazing free show at Central Park's Summerstage. These were all great experiences, but man, I really wish I was there Friday. Coincidentally, Gordon made a surprise concert appearance that same evening, albeit at Dinosaur Jr's show in Los Angeles.

Sonic Youth wasn't one of my favorites when I was growing up, but my appreciation for them has grown unabated, so much that I eventually found myself with 14 of their studio albums instead of the 2 or 3 I had as a teenager, plus a large stash of live recordings, and I love every one of them. It probably says a lot that my appreciation for music like the Velvet Underground's or avant-garde and experimental music (especially jazz) grew exponentially at the same time, which probably fed into my understanding of what Sonic Youth was doing. Since I've moved here, it's been sad to see local icons like Adam Yauch, Lou Reed and David Bowie among others pass away, but it's been a great pleasure to have others like Moore, Ranaldo and Shelley still active and regularly putting on a great show in some form.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2024 10:34PM by belfast.

Sonic Youth was never much of a fave for me, but seeing Kim Gordon this year was really impressive.

I’ve been pulled in by, walked away from, pulled in by, walked etc etc by this goddamn band since ‘EVOL’. It IS kinda odd we don’t discuss them more. They’ve covered a lot of ground.

I read the Kim Gordon book and just got sad about the whole thing. But when my brother gave me a signed copy of Moore’s No Wave book I was really happy to have it.

The band can be incredible. But I love in the film ‘Juno’ when she tells creepy Jason Bateman “I bought another Sonic Youth album and it sucks, it’s just noise”. Sometimes I hear you sister.

I've met quite a few Sonic Youth fans who remain very unforgiving towards Moore. There's no good spin to how everything went down - unfortunately it's a side of life that can and has been painful to so many, even when no one is trying to hurt the other person.

I remember that line from Juno, and it does crack me up, especially since the polarizing A Thousand Leaves is my favorite Sonic Youth album (and I love virtually all of them).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2024 03:02PM by belfast.

Sonic Youth was one of those bands that I feel is perfect for one in their early 20s but I wasn't looking for that kind of music back then. Now, while I like a bunch of their songs and I appreciate them, I just don't see myself getting any of their albums.

Never saw Sonic Youth but I've seen all of them separately in various forms. I prefer Moore live to the others though I like Ranaldo's stuff better.

I was a big fan, starting at about EVOL and all the way up till the end. I'd agree that pretty all of their proper studio albums (yes, even including NYC Ghosts and Flowers!) had something to recommend them. And even with all of the hype around it, Daydream Nation is still a goddamn masterpiece.

I saw then 3 or 4 times in the late 80s and early 90s, and it was always great. The best show was in the fall of 1987 after the release of Sister and leading up to the release of Daydream Nation. Of course, at the time I didn't know any of the material they were previewing, but it was a mind-blowing show. My main memory of it though is that Thurston and Ranaldo didn't bother with any stinkin' fancy guitar stands; they instead just had a huge box on the stage that they threw guitars into and pulled them out as needed, no tuning required.

Sonic Youth is a band whose music we've alternately reveled in and ignored, ever since seeing the "Dirty Boots" video. We liked the way the boy and girl flirted with each other in the pit. (I distinctly remember my wife saying, "Awww, what a cute little grunge couple.") And despite the drubbing Goo takes in the review on this site, there was no denying the song. From there, we worked our way forward and back.

We saw Sonic Youth once, as the headliner of Lollapalooza 1995. Although the band closed the evening, the hype seemed to have been sucked out of the amphitheatre by Hole, the next-to-last act on the main stage that day. No matter. After Courtney Love's nonsense on stage, Sonic Youth was a breath of fresh air. No snide talk, no fights on stage, just a set full of good grooving songs by a band that had the perfect balance between tight and loose ... and that broke into raw, wild bursts of guitar noise from time to time. They were fantastic, especially from front row. (We had third row tickets, but when two front-row seats were abandoned by ticket-holders who apparently felt Sonic Youth were a letdown after Courtney's histrionics, we dashed for them. Their fucking loss.)

I can't quite say why the band hasn't played a more central role in my musical forays, but I've never gotten rid of any of their CDs, from EVOL to The Eternal. I was bummed as hell when they split up ... and it shames me to admit, I was bummed because it meant I wouldn't see them live again, before it occurred to me how awful Kim and Thurston's marital split had to have been, or how it affected their daughter. Very selfish of me.