Sonic Youth, the ugly break of the band due to the split of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore.
0:08 - Sonic Youth's History
3:35 - Sonic Youth's Breakup
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Hailing from New York City in the early 80’s, Sonic Youth was part of the experimental no wave art and music scene before changing into a more conventional rock band and becoming prominent members of the American noise rock scene. Author David Browne best described the no-wave scene as a time when and i quote "art, music, illustration - all were in the process of being torn down, reassembled, and combined with other media."
Sonic Youths classic lineup was made up of vocalist and guitarists, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, bassist Lee Ranaldo, and drummer Steve Shelley, and they were credited with doing things with guitar that hadn’t really been done before. That included - creating sounds with strangely tuned guitars, using feedback and placing objects on or between between the strings such as drum sticks and power drills. Author Michael Azzerad who has written extensively about America’s indie underground rock scene said the following of sonic youth’s sound:
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 drum stick 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
Sonic Youth would be a huge influence on the alternative rock acts who followed in their footsteps most notably Nirvana who claimed even after the release of their juggernaut album Nevermind that they wanted to be like Sonic Youth.
The band would be one of the most popular yet staunchly independent bands throughout the 80’s in the United States. They spent a good chunk of the decade releasing albums on independent labels with their streak ending after the release of 1988’s Daydream Nation. The album received universal acclaim from critics, but it was met with modest sales. And the band was disappointed with how the their record label Enigma was treating them. The label was suffering from distribution and financial issues, so Sonic Youth would leave them the following year and signed with DGC records, which was owned by Geffen Records. Their first release with Geffen 1990’s Goo, would be their biggest album of their career up until that point. The record would net the band their first appearance on the billboard 200 charts with it selling in excess of 100,000 units and yielded the hit song Kool Thing. The album proved that Sonic Youth they didn’t have to sacrifice their experimental sound, while at the same time being radio friendly
The band’s follow up album Dirty, released in 1992 was put out during the height of grunge’s popularity. The band would work with Nirvana producer butch vig and mixer andy wallace, both of whom wanted to condense down the band’s songs and focus heavily on the guitar sounds. And due to nirvana’s success with nevermind, Geffen records heavily promoted the album and it would chart within the top 100 albums in the US and go gold selling over half a million units. The band would once again work with Producer Butch Vig on their follow up album 1994’s Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. The album would prove to be one of the band’s highest charting records of their career peaking in the top 40 in America. but the record was more subdued and quieter featuring some throwbacks to their indie label days. The same year Gordon and Moore welcomed their first child and the tour to support the album wasn’t as strenuous as their previous records due to Gordon’s pregnancy.
By 1995 the band would headline lollapalooza and following that appearance the band took some time apart while it’s members pursued other musical projects. And between 1995 and 2007 the band would release a series of albums for Geffen records while also starting to release more experimental and instrumental records under their own label. The band would release their first and final album on Matador records in 2009 titled The Eternal. Two years later the band would announce their break up in October of 2011 shocking their fans.
Kim Gordon’s and Thurston Moore would announce in a band statement that the pair had separated after 27 years of marriage.