Early Sonic Youth

[SadFuzz]

I'm not really aware of the brutality of early SY anymore, I've listened to it so much.

[panoramic]

I'm not really aware of the brutality of early SY anymore, I've listened to it so much.

i don't find it to be brutal, it's just a bunch of feedback/noise but it's not particularly hard to understand or listen to

[SadFuzz]

Yeah.
Its hard for a first time listener maybe, but I'm numb to that now.

[aliendawg]

Sonic Youth is pretty fun, really.

I love some of their songs. I find them to be brilliant! But a lot of it is just plain noise with corny moments.

I dig their style and respect their carreer

Seeing them live early on must've been crazy. "Tom Violence" was the first song I heard by them. I remember thinking "WTH I didn't know people were doing this in the 80's" mostly because of the 80's reverb present thorought EVOL

[shadowplay]

I'm not really aware of the brutality of early SY anymore, I've listened to it so much.

i don't find it to be brutal, it's just a bunch of feedback/noise but it's not particularly hard to understand or listen to

Yep, I think it was more that they grew into themselves and became 'better'. Not polarising like some stuff I was into at the turn of the 80's like Come (not the American Thalia Zedek Come) and Whitehouse who they grew into and early SPK which was generally music to play on your own since it was a guaranteed room clearer or in the case of my parents a prompt to get the priest into assess me for demonic possession (true). Actually I think i was 17 before i had a girlfriend or even a friend who tolerated Throbbing Gristle, who actually don't sound challenging at all these days, let alone Nurse With Wound or anything slightly more off the beaten more openended path.

D

[Tehz_]

Funny thing, my discovery of Bad Moon Rising and joining this forum are very closely associated. A friend found out I was curious about SY and raided his older sister’s record collection; BMR was the only Sonic album she had. The rest is history.

I wouldn’t even call it my favorite SY album, but Bad Moon Rising is an all-time favorite record of mine. The first three tracks in particular are just sublime. I’m so happy there’s a thread about this!

[soggy mittens]

thought this was going to be about the sonic death early days pre EP. Used to love their early noise pre EP CDs but couldn't imagine listening to them now.

I remember sitting in my bedroom at age 15 trying to play along not realizing the alt tunings even with all the howling retuning between songs thinking I sucked at guitar. xD

[...]

Seeing them live early on must've been crazy. "Tom Violence" was the first song I heard by them. I remember thinking "WTH I didn't know people were doing this in the 80's" mostly because of the 80's reverb present thorought EVOL

my fav live version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJvnyposHQ

[aliendawg]

my fav live version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJvnyposHQ

Thank you for that. Just heard the whole concert!

[Fendereedo]

I used to have all the SY albums on vinyl years back, transferred them onto my ipod and sold them on, what an idiot . I'm now restarting my vinyl collection again, and SY are top of the list again .