Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth began in 1981 --- Thurston Moore - guitar, vocals, Kim Gordon - bass, guitar, vocals, Lee Ranaldo - guitar vocals. The band made its 1st eponymously titled mini-LP released in 1982 by Neutral Records, a label founded by NYC guitar/composer Glen Branca. Lee and Thurston were witness to the original 1976/77 NYC CBGB/Max's scene of Television, Patti Smith, Suicide, Ramones, etc. Kim was in L.A. studying as a visual artist. they started playing during the era (1978/79) of what is termed No Wave: harsh, challengeing abrasive music informed by rock, noise, jazz and modern composition/experimentation. With cheap guitars and various hot rodded tunings they wrote songs like no one else. The vibe was fresh and, though mirroring the nihilism of no wave, had notions of forward positivity.
By 1984 their sound had developed into a more mature pop/noise hybrid with a genuine experimental flair for structure. They went to London and destoyed all who heard and watched. Sonic Youth, in a New York minute, wiped the "death of the electric guitar" concept out, and went on to further the explosion of recognition for the new U.S. underground. Things have not been the same since.

Upon return to the U.S. in 1984 Steve Shelley, from Michigan, joined the band on drums. Steve's formidable drum upped thebands musicality a level and everyone yelled, "hup!"

In 1987 they recorded Sister, which would inspire legions of gig-goers a ½ generation younger than SY (Pavement, Sebadoh, etc.). This LP touched on themes of hyper-irreality and dislocution.

Sonic Youth recorded Daydream Nation in 1989, a double LP which brought them to the attention of the critical elite, winning them several year-end best of awards. This LP encapsuled all that had been brewing musically and lyrically with the band through the 1980s.

At decade's end they signed to a major label, Geffen. This was considered insane by many on watch as their was really no history of independent undergound bands succeeding within the realms of the corporate music industry to which they helped build an alternative. They released the LP Goo in 1990 and then Dirty in 1992. Both LPs were chock block full of heady, heavy swirl and strum. They noticed a new generation of music lovers digging them and their contemporaries on a massive scale. And then Nirvana sold a zillion records and the industry was a new deal----sort of.

In 1997 SY built a studio and recorded a series of EPs on their own homegrown label SYR. This music was extrapolated, mostly instrumental forays into wild improvisatory meditations and sub/conscious structural creations.

In the summer of 1999 SY were liberated from all the signature sound tools they developed for the last 12 years or so. They came home and picked up hammers + nails and started afresh, writing their new LP entitled NYC Ghosts & Flowers.