Artist interviews, music reviews: Ink Blot Magazine

about

archives

contact

links

Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth: Bad Moon Rising

Sonic Youth at a glance...

Hometown: New York, NY
Year Formed: 1980

Members:
Kim Gordon -bass, guitars, vocals
Lee Ranaldo -guitars, vocals
Thurston Moore -guitars, vocals
Bob Bert -drums
With:
Lydia Lunch -vocals

Related artists:
Ciccone Youth, Two Dollar Guitar, Free Kitten, Lee Ranaldo, William Hooker, Velvet Monkeys, The Crucifucks, Cat Power, Nels Cline, Thurston Moore, In Limbo, The Coachmen, Mats Gustafsson, William Winant, J Mascis, Kim Deal, Pavement, Half Japanese, Mike Watt, Borbetomagus, Shonen Knife, Puzzled Panthers, Jim O'Rourke

Notes:
Sonic Youth rose triumphantly out of New York's early 80s No-Wave scene. Originally fueled by the ripping guitar of Glenn Branca alumns Ranaldo and Moore, Sonic Youth grew into - and maintain their stature as - a rock 'n' roll aural-experimentation unit beyond compare. Sometimes melodic, sometimes atonal, but rarely boring, the band have covered a lot of ground in its nearly 20-year history. From the early scene-splashing Confusion is Sex (1983) to the more polished EVOL (1986), the band's early evolution is apparent. 1988's epic Daydream Nation secured Sonic Youth's status as a legendary, visionary band which would forever leave its mark on rock 'n' roll. Subsequent albums and tours have served to bolster the band's popularity, even when not establishing any new plateaus of creativity. More recently, offshoot releases (like 1997's Perspectives Musicales series) have shown evidence of a continuing interest in experimentation. A perpetually active band, Sonic Youth will surely entertain and challenge for years to come.

Links:
Read Ink Blot's tribute to Sonic Youth, "Sonic Truth"
Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth
Bad Moon Rising
Blast First/Rough Trade, Released 1985
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth

While moving closer to traditional song structures than their earlier records, Bad Moon Rising is still a spooky, atonal, dark, dissonant work - much more primal than later Sonic Youth. Yet if the rhythms and verse structures are becoming more "normal," the guitar tunings, key signatures, and transitions between songs are still subversive.

It's hard to tell where "Brave Men Run" ends and "Society Is A Hole" begins, and "I Love Her All The Time" starts off with what sounds like a scratchy bootleg of some other band playing. Bizarre loops and indie-rock chimes abound. This is definitely not easy listening, so if you are looking for something like "Kool Thing," look elsewhere. The call and response of foghorn and feedback of "Ghost Bitch" make it apparent that the band are still in their modernist phase - seeing just how far they can go in the destruction of musical conventions. Ditto for the locked grooves of noise which start off "Justice Is Might." The album ends with the seminal psycho-surf classic "Death Valley '69," the musical equivalent of a twisted desert horror film by R. Kern.

The bells of doomsday are here.

If you like Sonic Youth, check out:
Sonic Youth EVOL
Sonic Youth Washing Machine
Sonic Youth Dirty
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth Sister
Sonic Youth Goo
Sonic Youth Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
Sonic Youth Goodbye 20th Century
Sonic Youth NYC Ghosts & Flowers
The Swans Filth
Joy Division Substance 1977-1980
Sonic Youth

-- Lars Rosenblum-Sorgenfrei

Ink Blot Home
about | archives | contact | links
Sonic Youth


join our free newsletter!

Copyright © 1997-2002 Ink Blot Magazine. All rights reserved.