Sonic Youth

From DeusExMackia TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/05/2018 20:47 | #212360

One of the most essential alt rock artists of all time. Hands down the coolest band in history who gave us an exceptional string of albums from the mid eighties to the early nineties that have come to be the definitive sound of noise rock and beyond.

A sound that oozes New York urban coolness from every moment, setting the concrete jungle as its edgy background onto which a plethora of noises, experiences and stories are told. The SY back catalogue is one of the most enjoyable music adventures one can take, and will have you yearning to own a slightly downtrodden flat-share in The Village with a wardrobe packed full of flannel shirts.

An incredible conglomeration of talent - namely Kim Gordon's ferociously tasteful voice, Thurston Moore's lyrics that conjour up images of the Big Apple in every word, Lee Ranaldo's vast and finessed guitar sound and Steve Shelley's ever-driving drum rhythms - that formed together to deliver a broad and extensive discography, with a particularly brilliant string of releases from 1986's EVOL to 1994's Washing Machine.

It's what they did with that talent, however, that matters most; Sonic Youth delivered a whole new sound for alternative rock that will never lose its potency, and in the process captured the disaffection of late 80s America like no other band.

From zags7000 08/16/2015 07:59 | #147756

Daydream Nation, Dirty & Goo in that order are some of the greatest albums in rock. Not everything clicks for me such as everything pre Sister but everything they do has my respect even if I don't think it works.

The more time goes on, the harder and harder it gets for me to put my love for this band into words. Their sound was simply one that can never be replicated. Their unique use of guitar instrumentation is something that simply can't ever be fully redone, and I think that's why their my favorite band. As a guitarist, almost everything in Sonic Youth's catalog has constantly inspired me to find new, creative ways of doing things, something they did better than anyone else. Throughout their career, Sonic Youth consistently found new ways to make their weird guitars sound more and more different record after record, they've truly taken the instrument to places I could never have imagined before I'd heard them. I owe so much to this band, if it weren't for their unique guitar-art style, I never would've appreciated music as art the way I do now. Not that I didn't before, but they were proof that it wasn't over. Sure, I had heard "Dark Side of the Moon" and I understood that music could be art, but I never knew "Fuck you, I don't have to be what you want me to be" could be art, and nobody portrayed that better than Sonic Youth. They never may have been the most mainstream band, but they didn't have to be for people to recognize their brilliance. They were exactly what they wanted to be, and that is one of the most powerful and inspiring things I'll ever know.

Copied from my ranking of their albums.

Sonic Youth is one of the most underrated bands of all time, their sound was consistently innovative, and they influenced a ton of bands. They're easily my favorite artist, and they have about 6-7 albums that I would consider essential to any music buff. In my opinion these guys were the Velvet Underground of their generation.

From slurpdurp 01/20/2017 18:04 | #183544

They changed the way I perceived rock music, and music in general. I thank them for liberating rock musicians to explore outside the box and experiment.