Sonic Youth

Barcelona: RUTA 66, 1994. Recently, the band have managed to put their differences behind them and a reunion tour has been mentioned; however, the success of Martin Kemp's acting career means that plans remain on hold. Sonic Youth: I dreamed of noise. The three non-Kemp members toured as a trio, but as Gary Kemp owned the rights to the name of Spandau Ballet, they had to go under the less-than-catchy moniker of 'Hadley, Keeble and Norman, ex-Spandau Ballet'. Julia, Ignacio and Jaime Gonzalo. As a result, Hadley in particular was left very short of money, and he ended up entertaining troops and taking part in the reality show Reborn in the USA. ^† Repackaged for CD by DGC with Confusion Is Sex in 1995. In the 1990s, Hadley, Keeble and Norman launched a failed court case against Gary Kemp for a share of royalties which they claimed they were due.

^* Reissued in 1988 by SST as Sonic Death -- Early Sonic 1981 - 1983. Gary Kemp did a little more acting, appearing in a supporting role in the Kevin Costner hit The Bodyguard, and in 1996 released a critically praised solo album, Little Bruises. Moore and Gordon are married and have a daughter, Coco Gordon Moore. Martin Kemp went on to land an acting role in the UK soap opera Eastenders, while Tony Hadley floundered trying to establish a solo career. Jim Sclavunos is currently involved in The Bad Seeds with Nick Cave, in addition to his own band The Vanity Set. The album bombed and Spandau Ballet — from whom Gary Kemp was already feeling estranged — split up for good. Bert was later involved in No Wave descendants Pussy Galore and Boss Hogg, among others. After a hiatus from recording during which the Kemps established themselves as credible actors in the gangster film The Krays, the band released Heart Like a Sky in 1989.

Former personnel include Richard Edson (drums 1981-1982), Bob Bert (drums 1982-1986), Jim Sclavunos (drums 1982-1983) and Ann DeMarinis (keyboards 1981-1982) Edson left the band to appear in movies such as Platoon and Stranger Than Paradise. The title track was a big hit in the UK, but the album did nothing in America. In 1994, journalist Alec Foege published a full-length biography of the band called Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth Story. Sonic Youth's career is also chronicled in Our Band Could Be Your Life, a study of several important American underground rock groups by Michael Azerrad. In 1986 Spandau Ballet signed to Epic Records and released Through the Barricades, which saw the band trying to move away from the pop/soul influences of True and Parade and more towards rock. The band was also slated to perform in 2004's Lalapalooza tour along with acts such as The Pixies and Flaming Lips, but the concert was cancelled due to lackluster ticket sales. At the end of 1984, the band performed on the Band Aid charity single, with Hadley taking a prominent lead vocal role; and in 1985, they performed at the Wembley end of Live Aid. Sonic Nurse had decent sales due to performances on TV talk shows including Late Night with Conan O"Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Its opening single "Only When You Leave" became their last American hit.

The band also showed their pop culture commentary and sense of humor with the track "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Conan Doyle Hand Cream", a faster-tempo song sung by Kim Gordon which spoofed the pop singer's life, including her short-lived relationship with rapper Eminem. But the followup, Parade (1984), was critically drubbed for failing to move the band's sound forward. Their next and most recent album was 2004's Sonic Nurse, which garnered critical acclaim and was mellower and poppier than previous work, but still maintained their sense of musical experimentation with SY trademarks such as feedback-rich guitar solos and alternate tunings. The album topped the charts on the both sides of the Atlantic and launched several hit singles such as "Gold" and the aforementioned title cut. This next album would be titled Murray Street in memory of their destroyed studio. It was at this point that Norman became the band's sax player. A jet engine reportedly smashed into the studio, destroying it. The image changed too - the cossack outfits and make-up of New Romanticism (which was dying as a fad in 1983 anyway) had been replaced by smart suits and well-scrubbed faces.

The band was busy working in their NYC studio, Murray Street, during the September 11, 2001 attacks. With newfound confidence and a cleaner, radio-friendly sound, Spandau Ballet finally broke into the mainstream with True (1983), an album whose title cut was a six-minute opus paying tribute to the Motown sound (and in some respects, Marvin Gaye). These records featured experimental artists such as Jim O'Rourke, Yoko Ono, and, on Goodbye 20th Century (1999), the works of experimental classical composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich and Christian Wolff. It was a massive hit. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band began releasing a number of records on their own Hoboken, New Jersey-based label SYR. Horn also took the Diamond album track "Instinction" and gave it a bombastic dance remix that sounded not unlike the work he would later do for Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Steve Shelley has been involved in running the Smells Like Records and SYR record labels, as well as playing in backing bands for Chan Marshall (Cat Power) and Two Dollar Guitar. The followup album Diamond performed poorly, despite a big hit with "Chant No.1", and the band met with veteran producer Trevor Horn, who advised them on how to revamp their image and sound.

Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore have played with many experimental/noise musicians, including William Hooker, Don Dietrich, Christian Marclay and Mission of Burma, among others. This was followed by "The Freeze" and "Musclebound" and the well-received album Journeys to Glory. Kim Gordon collaborated in Free Kitten, and started an MTV-adored fashion label X-Girl, based in L.A. The band eventually signed to Island Records and released "To Cut a Long Story Short", a British hit in 1980. In the meantime, members of the band diversified their talents. They began performing and generating positive buzz around London as the house band at the Blitz nightclub, which became regarded as the birthplace of a new 1980s music and fashion phenomenon called New Romanticism. Sonic Youth's influence as tastemakers continued with their discovery of avant skateboard video director Spike Jonze and their revival of Macaulay Culkin via a video directed by the very young Harmony Korine. The band were initially called 'The Makers', but changed their name after a visit to Berlin, the inspiration from graffiti on the walls of Spandau Prison.

They were particularly important in the growth of grunge: their 1991 tour with the then-unknown Nirvana being captured in the film 1991: The Year Punk Broke. Guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp and his brother, bassist Martin Kemp formed the band in 1979, with drummer John Keeble, lead vocalist Tony Hadley and Steve Norman, who initially played guitar but later switched to saxophone when the band changed musical direction. Managing to stay afloat in the cut-throat music industry financially while maintaining some sense of self and dignity, Sonic Youth have proved highly influential on underground rock music. As with their poppier rivals Duran Duran they 'broke America', albeit briefly. By Daydream Nation (1988), Sonic Youth had perfected this style, becoming virtuostic sculptors of guitar noise. Initially inspired by a mixture of funk, synthpop and New Romantic, they eventually mellowed into a mainstream AOR pop act. Starting with Bad Moon Rising and EVOL, the listener can hear the band beginning to craft pop songs from the raw stuff of feedback and distortion. Spandau Ballet was a popular band of the 1980s.

Sonic Youth have gradually incorporated more conventional elements of pop music into their work, while still maintaining an experimental quality. A very vocal camp maintains that Confusion is Sex in particular has never been equalled by the band; nevertheless, SY would not make records like Sonic Youth or Confusion ever again. Their first album--greatly indebted to Branca--plays very austere and reserved, consciously arty and layered, while their next two important projects, Confusion is Sex and Kill Yr Idols, are hyper-aggressive aggregates of swirling noise. Sonic Youth began in extremes.

I thought [hardcore] was very musical and very radical" (Julia and Gonzalo 51). "It was great," said Moore, "the whole thing with slam dancing and stage diving, that was far more exciting than pogoing and spitting.. Moore and Gordon, especially, were impressed by the intensity of the musicians involved, and their ability to organize nationwide. Besides Branca, Patti Smith, and the Stooges, another early influence was hardcore music of the early 1980s.

Drummer Steve Shelley played drums for the hardcore band the Crucifucks before joining Sonic Youth. They were associated with the "No Wave" art/music scene in New York City, but have outlasted most associated bands. Supposedly their name mocks the preponderance of bands with the name 'youth' in the title in NYC in the early 1980s.
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Their most recent release, Sonic Nurse was released on June 7, 2004. The band currently consists of Kim Gordon (bass guitar, guitar, vocals), Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Lee Ranaldo (guitar, synthesizer, vocals), Steve Shelley (drums 1986- present) and Jim O'Rourke (guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, laptop) (2000-present).
. Initially inspired by the noise experimentation of Glenn Branca—with whom most of the band have performed—as well as the heavy garage rock-acid-rock of The Stooges, they were known for using a variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and for applying screwdrivers or other preparations to guitars to alter the instruments' timbre.

Sonic Youth are an experimental rock group formed in 1981. Download sample of "Teenage Riot" from Daydream Nation. 1996 - "Little Trouble Girl". 1993 - "Whores Moaning - Oz '93 Tour Edition".

1993 - "Sugar Kane". 1992 - "Youth Against Fascism". 1992 - "100%". 1990 - "Disappearer".

1990 - "Kool Thing". 1989 - "Candle". 1988 - "Teenage Riot". 1986 - "Starpower".

1986 - "Into the Groove(y)" (as Ciccone Youth). 1986 - "Halloween II". 1986 - "Flower/Satan is Boring". 1985 - "Flower/Halloween".

SYR3: Invito Al Celo (SYR, 1998). Silver Session (For Jason Knuth) (Sonic Knuth Records, 1998). SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom (SYR, 1997). SYR1: Anagrama (SYR, 1997).

Kill Yr Idols (Zensor, 1983) ^†. Sonic Nurse (DGC, 2004). Murray Street (DGC, 2002). NYC Ghosts & Flowers (DGC, 2000).

SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century (SYR, 1999). A Thousand Leaves (DGC, 1998). Made in USA (Rhino, 1995). Washing Machine (DGC, 1995).

Screaming Fields of Sonic Love (DGC, 1994). Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (DGC, 1994). Dirty (DGC, 1992). Goo (DGC, 1990).

Daydream Nation (Enigma/Blast First, 1988). "The White(y) Album" (Enigma/Blast First, 1988, as Ciccone Youth,
with Suzanne Sasic, J Mascis and Mike Watt). Sister (SST, 1987). EVOL (SST, 1986).

Bad Moon Rising (Homestead, 1985). Sonic Death^* (Ecstatic Peace, 1983). Confusion Is Sex (Neutral, 1983). Sonic Youth (Neutral, 1982).