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Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth: Goodbye 20th Century

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Sonic Youth, "Six"

Sonic Youth at a glance...

Hometown: New York, NY
Year Formed: 1980

Personnel:
Kim Gordon -bass, guitars, vocals, various
Lee Ranaldo -guitars, vocals, various
Thurston Moore -guitars, vocals, various
Steve Shelley -drums, various
With:
Jim O'Rourke
William Winant
Takehisa Kosugi
Christian Wolff
Christian Marclay
Coco Hayley Gordon Moore
Wharton Tiers

Related artists:
Ciccone Youth, Two Dollar Guitar, Free Kitten, Lee Ranaldo, William Hooker, Velvet Monkeys, The Crucifucks, Cat Power, Nels Cline, Thurston Moore, In Limbo, The Coachmen, Mats Gustafsson, William Winant, J Mascis, Kim Deal, Pavement, Half Japanese, Mike Watt, Borbetomagus, Shonen Knife, Puzzled Panthers, Jim O'Rourke

Notes:
Sonic Youth rose triumphantly out of New York's early 80s No-Wave scene. Originally fueled by the ripping guitar of Glenn Branca alumns Ranaldo and Moore, Sonic Youth grew into - and maintain their stature as - a rock 'n' roll aural-experimentation unit beyond compare. Sometimes melodic, sometimes atonal, but rarely boring, the band have covered a lot of ground in its nearly 20-year history. From the early scene-splashing Confusion is Sex (1983) to the more polished EVOL (1986), the band's early evolution is apparent. 1988's epic Daydream Nation secured Sonic Youth's status as a legendary, visionary band which would forever leave its mark on rock 'n' roll. Subsequent albums and tours have served to bolster the band's popularity, even when not establishing any new plateaus of creativity. More recently, offshoot releases (like 1997's Perspectives Musicales series) have shown evidence of a continuing interest in experimentation. A perpetually active band, Sonic Youth will surely entertain and challenge for years to come.

Links:
Read Ink Blot's tribute to Sonic Youth, "Sonic Truth"
Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth
Goodbye 20th Century
SYR, Released 1999
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth

Some bands function as gateways, introducing their audiences to new music. Usually they do it by dropping names in interviews or hiring their faves as opening acts, but Sonic Youth take it farther; they've made their grunge record (Dirty), their fragmented lo-fi record (Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star), and their amorphous soundscape record (Muzikaj Perspektivoj). Now they've turned their attention to avant-garde classical music. The music on this double CD is by turns highly conceptual (George Maciunas's "Piano Piece #13 [Carpenter's Piece]" takes the notion of banging on a piano to an absurd extreme), abstract (Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise"), and gravely beautiful (Nicolas Slonimsky's "Pièce Enfantine").

To make sure that they got it right the band recruited several guest musicians steeped in the genre. The key collaborator is Jim O'Rourke, whose synthesizer and computer contribute a wealth of wigged-out and constantly surprising noises, and whose skill at weaving together disparate sound sources contributes immeasurably to the success of John Cage's "Four6" and James Tenney's "Having Never Written A Note For Percussion." Takehisa Kosugi's buzzing-bee violin tone and William Winant's arhythmic percussion weave subtle colors and textures into the music's fabric.

If you like Sonic Youth, check out:
Sonic Youth Bad Moon Rising
Sonic Youth EVOL
Sonic Youth Sister
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth Confusion Is Sex
Sonic Youth Washing Machine
Sonic Youth Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
Sonic Youth Goo
Sonic Youth Dirty
Sonic Youth NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Cornelius Cardew Treatise
Richard Maxfield/Harold Budd The Oak of the Golden Dreams
Polwechsel Polwechsel 2
ICP Orchestra Jubilee Varia
Jim O'Rourke Terminal Pharmacy
High Rise High Rise II
Sonic Youth

-- Bill Meyer

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