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Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

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Sonic Youth: Young At Art

Interview by John Robb, Melody Maker, 24 August 1991

As they prepare for their appearance at this weekend's Reading Festival, Veteran art rock terrorists talk to Johnny Robb ...

Kim Gordon

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2005

BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...

Audio interviews

Sonic Youth (1986)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1986

The New York noisesters discuss the chronology of rock movements and their roots in No Wave; deny ripping off the Stooges; explain their name; talk about their guitar collection, their creative methods, how they carry the torch of rock'n'roll and struggle with engineers... and why they covered songs by Madonna and Kim Fowley.

File format: mp3; file size: 46.7mb, interview length: 48' 35" sound quality: ***

Sonic Youth (1989)

Interview by Richard North, Rock's Backpages audio, March 1989

A positively psychedelic interview which ranges from Karen Carpenter to the interview process itself, via strap-ons, James Joyce and acid house. When not giving interviewer North a really hard time, Thurston Moore treats us to his finest Johnny Thunders impersonation.

File format: mp3; file size: 57.2mb, interview length: 1h 02' 29" sound quality: **½

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore (1994)

Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 July 1994

From his youth in Bethel, CT., through his early days in NYC, forming Sonic Youth, through to alt.superstardom, signing with Geffen and hanging with Nirvana and Neil Young – it's all here.

File format: mp3; file size: 73.7mb, interview length: 1h 20' 33" sound quality: ** (phoner)

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The State of New York

Overview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, November 1981

TO ANYONE who's been reading this magazine even semi-regularly for the past year, it should be obvious that there's something very wrong with the current ...

Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth (Neutral Records Import)***1/2

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 5 June 1982

SONIC YOUTH, the first release on avant-garde missionary Glenn Branca's Neutral Records, is an EP in LP's clothing, and in many ways the music it ...

This Savage Breed: Sonic Youth: Kill Your Idols (Zensor, German Import)

Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 12 May 1984

"KILL YOUR IDOLS/With Sonic Death" — scrawled across the label and screamed across the searing noise, the statement of intent on the latest release by ...

Sonic Youth: Bad Moon Rising (Blast First BFFP 1) *****

Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 9 March 1985

FOR THEIR third assault upon the senses, and the first for their new label, New York's powerful and passionate Sonic Youth take a Creedence title, ...

Sonic Youth/Frank Tovey & Boyd Rice

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, New Musical Express, 30 March 1985

AAAAH! CATHARSIS time again! ...

Sonic Youth

Interview by Byron Coley, Spin, August 1985

Hear a rumbling from Manhattan's Lower East Side? That's Sonic Youth's squall of the wild ...

Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth: University Of London Union

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 June 1986

HUMBLE PIE time. Just when I'd neatly dismissed them from my mind as Grand Funk Railroad with a degree in Modern Art and a copy ...

Noise: Sonic Youth

Interview by Cath Carroll, New Musical Express, 21 June 1986

SONIC YOUTH chortle to CATH CARROLL on the expressway to your hearts. ...

Sonic Youth: Sister (Blast First)

Review by Mark Sinker, New Musical Express, 30 May 1987

FLOWERS IN THE DUSTBIN ...

Sonic Youth: Sister (Blast First)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 30 May 1987

SONIC YOUTH is the itching, striving sound of a literate rock group struggling to assassinate their own intelligence, to unseat the mind's mastery, and achieve ...

Sonic Youth, fIREHOSE: Town And Country Club, London

Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 13 June 1987

KICK OUT yr jams and say hello to the Neuro City 4 Itinerant Rockin' Circus Ensemble (Incorporating The Iggy Pop Sound Experience). ...

Sonic Youth: Super Sonic Sisterhood

Interview by Mark Sinker, New Musical Express, 20 June 1987

2005 note: Mostly what I read in this piece is what a fight it seemed to get anything said about "rock" in 1987, in the ...

Sonic Youth And The Great Cosmic Blender

Interview by Mark Dery, RIP, August 1987

SKATEBOARDS, ELVIS Presley, Wrestlemania and trashy sexploitation flicks-eventually everything goes into the battered black cauldron called modern pop culture. And like the spumy, molten soup ...

Honey of the 'Core: Ten Years After... and it's Almost Independents Day

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 16 January 1988

During 1987 the US indie underground began surfacing in much the same way as it had here a full decade earlier. BYRON COLEY, co-editor of ...

Sonic Youth: A Tzar is Born

Report and Interview by Keith Cameron, Sounds, 13 May 1989

Sonic Youth wound up their 'Daydream Nation' tour in the USSR and Keith Cameron joined them to play chicken in Kiev and Moscow. ...

Will Sonic Youth Keep Rock Honest?

Comment by Tim Riley, The Boston Phoenix, 16 March 1990

EVER SINCE punk failed to explode rock's dysfunctional excess with red-faced ire, hardcore noisemakers have been wrestling with the problem of how to be outrageous. ...

Underground Rhapsody: Sonic Youth

Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, City Limits, 30 August 1990

I GET BACK to Bay Ridge just after midnight, to find the guys in the house watching Sonic Youth on Night Music in the room ...

Sonic Youth: A Load Of Tony Baloney

Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 1 September 1990

Sonic Youth aren't impressed with Manchester's latest contribution to rock culture. In fact, they think it's a pile of "contrived shit", a real homoerotic, lads-together ...

Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Sonic Youth: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 February 1991

THE WILD FRONTIER ...

They Tried With Their Boots On: Sonic Youth

Report and Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 11 May 1991

TEN-YEAR VETERANS of American clubland, Sonic Youth were on the brink of going overground. We were meeting them at a crosspoint in their career. They ...

Sonic Youth: Dirty Boots (DGC)

Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991

WALKING ON MUDDY WATERS: Sonic Youth attempt to produce an easy listening album and fail gloriously. ...

Reading '91: Reading, Writhing And Riffmatic

Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 7 September 1991

FRIDAY: IT WAS obvious, really – he had to say it. Who better than His Supreme Iggyness Of Pop, the Godfather of (s)punk rock, to ...

Thurston Moore and Mike D: Starpower

Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1992

THE SCENE: A TRENDY RESTAURANT in L.A. called the Hollywood Canteen. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is sitting in a corner booth, slouched over a ...

Sonic Youth: Dirty

Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 17 July 1992

IF THERE'S ANYTHING all great rock-and-roll bands – from Muddy Waters' early-'50s Chicago electric outfits to Chuck Berry's Chess session players to the Rolling Stones ...

Here Come The Noise Terrorists: Sonic Youth

Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 1992

THUNDEROUS mantra-grooves and jagged fanfares of atonal brass boom across the parched grass of New York's Central Park, though it could equally well be Monterey ...

Sonic Youth: Dirty

Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, August 1992

WHEN NIRVANA released their epoch-making Nevermind, their ambitions extended no further than selling as many copies as Sonic Youth's major label debut, Goo. As chance ...

Sonic Youth: Dirt Tracks

Interview by John Robb, Siren, August 1992

JUMPING ON their own bandwagon, Sonic Youth are the old Nirvana, baton carriers of the underground spirit through the late '80s and early '90s, paving ...

Sonic Youth: Dirty

Review by David Cavanagh, Select, September 1992

SONIC YOUTH were the progenitors of American noise nouveau. Now they're back on top of the dirt-pile. ...

Sonic Youth: Dirty

Review by Mat Snow, Q, September 1992

NOW IN their 30s, this band are no longer quite so youthful as when they formed 11 years ago in New York, yet they remain ...

Sonic Youth: Dirtysomething

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 12 December 1992

As the Godparents of punk, SONIC YOUTH have seen their children break into the mainstream during the past year, signing major label deals and attempting ...

Sonic Youth, Pavement, Huggy Bear: Rainbow Club, Bristol

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 19 December 1992

SONIC THE HEADSHOCK 3 ...

Dinosaur Jr.: Walk The Dinosaur

Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, March 1993

J. MASCIS IS a grunge fashion guru; all others turn to his band Dinosaur Jr. for inspiration. Indeed, the Seattle scene all but sprang from ...

Forever Young: Sonic Youth

Interview by Martin Aston, The Independent, 1994

IN 1991, WHEN Geffen Records signed the New York quartet Sonic Youth, the label couldn't have envisaged the band delivering two accessible albums by its ...

Sonic Youth: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (DGC)

Review by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 17 May 1994

EXPERIMENTAL JET Set, Trash and No Star (DGC) is not the most experimental, jettiest, or trashiest record Sonic Youth or anyone else, for that matter, ...

Sonic Youth: Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, June 1994

THIS IS SONIC Youth's tenth album in all, bootlegs excluded, and it finds them making a determined and ultimately successful effort not to settle into ...

The Carpenters: Chips off the old block

Report and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 25 August 1994

The Carpenters are hip — and that's official. Andy Gill on the indie world's unexpectedly heartfelt tribute to Karen and Richard Carpenter ...

Sonic Youth: Way Downtown Way Kool

Retrospective and Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 16 September 1994

THERE ARE four of them, and they're definitely fab, but nobody (to our knowledge, anyway) has ever compared Sonic Youth to the Beatles. ...

Sonic Youth Clean Up Their Act: Washing Machine

Review and Interview by Martin Aston, Music Week, 1995

TRUST A BUNCH of New York art-rockers to contemplate jeopardising their increasing popularity by changing their name to Washing Machine, but that's what Sonic Youth, ...

Sonic Youth Go Guitar Crazy On Lucky 13th Release

Report and Interview by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995

WHAT'S A nice downtown New York band like Sonic Youth doing in Memphis, Tenn.? Recording their next art-damage album, of course, and immersing themselves in ...

Memphis Sound Machine: Easley Recording

Interview by Robert Gordon, Spin, December 1995

Bands from Sonic Youth to Pavement have turned Easley Recording into the new lo-fi capital. ...

The Importance of being Sonic Youth

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, December 1995

Sonic Youth take the Lollapalooza caravan to The Zone ...

Sonic Youth: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1998

Noise Goes to the Philharmonic ...

Sonic Youth: A Thousand Leaves (Geffen)

Review by Robin Bresnark, Melody Maker, 16 May 1998

Leaf It Out! ...

Sonic Youth: Goodbye 20th Century

Review by Everett True, Uncut, February 2000

IN THE trade, this is known as noodling. Noodling occurs when a bunch of undeniably talented musicians gather together and decide they've had enough of ...

Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers (Geffen)/Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love (Blast First)

Review by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 2000

HAVEN'T WE heard enough Sonic Youth records? On the evidence of the band's latest, NYC Ghosts & Flowers, I'd fly in the face of other ...

All Tomorrow's Parties: A Festival That Pops With Edge

Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 13 March 2002

UCLA's ambitious All Tomorrow's Parties fest, curated by avant-rockers Sonic Youth, embraces the underground. ...

Radical Adults: Sonic Youth

Interview by Peter Murphy (Irish), Hot Press, August 2002

IT’S A MUDDY TRACK only a few bands have managed to negotiate, but Sonic Youth figured out how to grow up and stay hardcore. From ...

Seeking Sonic Truth On Murray Street: Sonic Youth

Comment by Wayne Robins, waynerobins.blogspot.com, 18 September 2002

I'M AMUSED EACH day when I cross Murray Street, a miles-long, largely residential street that wends its way from downtown Flushing north through various small ...

Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse

Review by Everett True, Plan B, June 2004

IT'S SONIC YOUTH. It comforts. It cajoles. It caresses. It's classic rock. ...

Sonic Youth: Radical Adults

Retrospective and Interview by Everett True, Plan B, August 2005

SO THURSTON MOORE'S leaning over the front of the stage, lanky, his instrument howling with distortion; one moment he's sawing at the edge of an ...

Punk's Queen Mother: Kim Gordon

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2005

BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...

Sonic Youth : Ripped It Up And Started Again

Interview by John Doran, playlouder.com, July 2006

Hollow jokes about their name and their actual age in the music press don't alter the fact that Sonic Youth are still making visionary music ...

Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped

Review and Interview by Keith Cameron, MOJO, July 2006

They created a new vocabulary for rock guitar and turned tricks with both the avant-garde and MTV kids. After 25 years, can Sonic Youth still ...

No Wave: Histories Along The Bowery

Interview by Olly Beck, Garageland, 30 November 2008

The New York No Wave Movement: More Punk than Punk. Olly Beck talks to Thurston Moore ...

Sonic Youth And the Blast First Axis

Essay by David Stubbs, The Wire, 12 February 2009

AS FAR AS many people were concerned in the 80s, in the UK in particular, rock was a discredited medium. ...

Sonic Youth: A Rude Awakening

Interview by Luke Turner, The Stool Pigeon, May 2009

Luke Turner feels the pall in the mall as he accompanies a pre-boogie woogie jam Sonic Youth on a shopping trip. ...

Byron Coley: An Interview

Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, June 2010

SITTING ON A back porch in bucolic Western Massachusetts on a gorgeous summer's day, my friend’s adorable little daughter coyly asked, "Wanna see a picture ...

Sonic Youth and the Blast First axis

Retrospective by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2013

A previously unpublished essay by David Stubbs, on Paul Smith's Blast First label and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's Sonic Youth. ...

Kim Gordon: Life after Sonic Youth

Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 16 February 2014

Artist, musician and style icon, Kim Gordon has been at the cutting edge of culture for more than 30 years. Dorian Lynskey meets the singer ...

Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Faber & Faber)

Book Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2015

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon reflects on the break-up of her marriage and the loss of New York's netherworld ...

see also Ciccone Youth

see also Thurston Moore

see also Free Kitten

see also Dim Stars

see also Lee Ranaldo

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