As artists, we all hope to go out on our shields. Live in Brooklyn 2011 is an infallible testament to the unrivaled power of Sonic Youth’s three-decade career, one that saw countless peers and proteges come and go.
Category: Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth :: Death To Our Friends (1981-2011)
Live In Brooklyn 2011 captures Sonic Youth’s extraordinary final NYC performance. It’s been available digitally for a few years now, but Ethan Miller’s Silver Current Records is giving it a bootleg-a-rific double LP/CD physical release.
Want to dig even deeper? Check out this lovingly curated fan-made collection of (mostly) live Sonic Youth. Presented (mostly) chronologically, Death To Our Friends takes us from those scuzzy No Wave days to that Lollapalooza haze to the band’s excellent latter daze. Take a dip in the Diamond Sea this summer.
Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth :: Transmissions
Ahead of the release of the instrumental freak out collection In/Out/In, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth join us to discuss The Simpsons, the Geffen years, stolen (and recovered) guitars, the science fiction of William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, and much more on this episode of Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard’s weekly podcast.
Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley Selects 10 Gems From The Band’s Archive
Sonic Youth played its last shows just over a decade ago. But the band’s legacy lives on thanks to an ever-expanding archive available on Bandcamp. Curated by drummer Steve Shelley and longtime sound engineer Aaron Mullan, the archive swells with live tapes stretching back to the mid-1980s, crucial rarities collections, and stray tracks rescued from out-of-print singles, internet mixes, and random comps. Aquarium Drunkard spoke with Steve Shelley to get his thoughts on a few gems that await listeners.
Thurston Moore :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Thurston Moore scarcely needs an introduction, nor do we need a specific reason to want to chat with the 62-year-old artist. There is, though, a hook for this particular chat: the release of By The Fire, a new studio effort by the Thurston Moore Group. Recorded in London, the album is all radiant heat and kaleidoscopic arrangements which join together in oozing consort and tickling friction. Shooting through this mass of sound are lyrics, written by Moore or transgender poet Radieux Radio, that are rich with poetic detail and reveal a deep craving for experience and human connection.
The Song I Hate: Battery Park NYC, July 4th 2008, or Occupy the Sprawl. Extend the Technique . . .
The arrival of Sonic Youth’s Battery Park NYC comes as an opportunity to consider a moment when a previous era was still visible in its twilight—a recent past nevertheless obscured by its break with the present—and to consider what, if any, possibilities for a future of music in opposition […]
Sonic Youth :: Peel Session, October 1988 (The Fall Covers)
Sonic Youth vs. The Fall. In October of 1988 Sonic Youth paid a visit to the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1 a week before the release of Daydream Nation . […]
Sonic Youth :: Brixton Academy, London – December 14, 1992
Pavement played one hell of a show at London’s Brixton Academy on December 14, 1992. We know this because the BBC taped and broadcast the set — a set that […]
Wax Wonders :: Sonic Youth – Singles
Unlike many bands that sprouted out of the DIY ethos set into motion by the release of Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown 7” in 1978, Sonic Youth were a few years into their […]
Lee Ranaldo :: Off The Wall
First taste from Lee Ranaldo’s upcoming solo full-length, Between The Times And Tides, out March 20th via Matador Records. More Ranaldo news/etc over on his the Sonic Youth page (keep an […]
Decade :: Sonic Youth, Murray Street (2002)
What is it that makes us want to deconstruct art by units of time? Lists. We love making them. We love arguing over them. And here, on the verge of […]
Sonic Youth :: KCRW 2002/Star Power (Acoustic)
Do you watch Gossip Girl ? Me neither, but apparently Sonic Youth do and made a guest appearance on the show last night (you can check out the cameo via Videogum, here ). In short, the band […]
Sonic Youth :: Boston, MA @ WERS ’02 (Acoustic)
Without giving too much away, let’s just say you will be reading a lot about Sonic Youth’s Murray Street on AD in the near future. On August 13, 2002, WERS Radio in […]
Crime/Sonic Youth :: Hot Wire My Heart
Switching gears entirely, and in the words of John Cleese, “and now for something completely different.” With the release of Sonic Youth’s The Eterna l earlier this summer I’ve been working in […]
Sonic Youth :: The Eternal
Rounding out their third decade as a band, with sixteen full-length records under their belt, Sonic Youth once again find themselves back on an independent label, Matador Records , after nearly two decades under […]