Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Current personnel are founding members Thurston Moore (vocals and guitar) and Kim Gordon (vocals, bass, guitar), plus Lee Ranaldo (vocals and guitar), Steve Shelley (drums) and touring bassist Mark Ibold.
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In their early career, Sonic Youth were associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City. Part of the first wave of American noise rock groups, the band carried out their interpretation of the hardcore punk ethos throughout the evolving American indie underground that focused more on the DIY ethic of the genre rather than its specific sound. They have found moderate mainstream success, and are generally seen as one of the leading alternative rock groups of their time.
Sonic Youth are inspired by the guitar symphonies of Glenn Branca (with whom most of the band have performed), the heavy protopunk of The Stooges, the punk poetry of Patti Smith, the Krautrock of Can, the psychedelic garage rock of The 13th Floor Elevators, as well as avant-garde composers like John Cage. The band were often praised for "redefin[ing] what rock guitar could do"[1] using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like drumsticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre.
History
Formation and early history: 1977-1981
Sonic Youth is terrible.
Musical style and influences
Alternate tunings
Sonic Youth's sound relies heavily on the use of alternate guitar tunings. Scordatura on stringed instruments has been used for centuries and alternate guitar tunings had been used for decades in blues music, and to a limited degree in rock music (such as with Lou Reed's Ostrich guitar on The Velvet Underground and Nico), but Sonic Youth began using a variety of tunings more radical than nearly anything in rock music history. Azerrad writes that early in their career, Sonic Youth "could only afford cheap guitars, and cheap guitars sounded like cheap guitars. But with weird tunings or something jammed under a particular fret, those humble instruments could sound rather amazing – bang a drumstick on a cheap Japanese Stratocaster copy in the right tuning, crank the amplifier to within an inch of its life, and it will sound like church bells"[2] The tunings were painstakingly developed by Moore and Ranaldo during the band's rehearsals; Moore once reported that the odd tunings were an attempt to introduce new sounds: "When you're playing in standard tuning all the time ... things sound pretty standard".[2] Rather than retune for every song, Sonic Youth generally use a particular guitar for one or two songs, and can take dozens of instruments on tour. This can be the source of much trouble for the band, as some songs rely on specific guitars that have been uniquely prepared.
Influences
Besides Branca, french avant-gardist Brigitte Fontaine, Patti Smith, and The Stooges, another influence was 1980s-era hardcore punk; after seeing a Minor Threat performance in May 1982, Moore declared them "the greatest live band I have ever seen".[3] While recognizing that their own music was very different from hardcore, Moore and Gordon, especially, were impressed by hardcore's speed and intensity, and by the nationwide network of musicians and fans. "It was great", said Moore, "the whole thing with slam dancing and stage diving, that was far more exciting than pogoing and spitting.... I thought hardcore was very musical and very radical".[4]
Members of the band have also maintained relationships with other avant-garde artists from other genres and even other media, drawing influence from the work of John Cage and Henry Cowell. For a 1988 Peel Session, Sonic Youth covered three songs by The Fall and "Victoria" by The Kinks, also covered by The Fall. Sonic Youth has featured album art by several well-known avant-garde visual artists, such as Mike Kelley and Gerhard Richter, whose paintings from his "Candles" series was used as artwork on Daydream Nation.
Discography
Studio albums
- Confusion Is Sex (1983)
- Bad Moon Rising (1985)
- Evol (1986)
- Sister (1987)
- Daydream Nation (1988)
- Goo (1990)
- Dirty (1992)
- Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (1994)
- Washing Machine (1995)
- A Thousand Leaves (1998)
- NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000)
- Murray Street (2002)
- Sonic Nurse (2004)
- Rather Ripped (2006)
References
- Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2001.
- Foege, Alec. Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth Story. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
- Ignacio, Julia & Jaime Gonzalo. Sonic Youth: I dreamed of noise. Barcelona: RUTA 66, 1994.
- Prendergrast, Mark. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance, the Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury, 2000. ISBN 1-58234-134-6
- Wild, Peter (editor). The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth. Serpent's Tail, 2008. ISBN 9781852429560
Notes
External links
