Sonic Youth

Barcelona: RUTA 66, 1994. Sadly, Jenifer was killed in an automobile accident in 1986 at the age of thirteen. Sonic Youth: I dreamed of noise. He is still married to Norma and lives on a ranch near Cotulla, Texas. Julia, Ignacio and Jaime Gonzalo. are avid team ropers and Strait hosts the annual George Strait Team Roping Classic. ^† Repackaged for CD by DGC with Confusion Is Sex in 1995. He and George Jr.

^* Reissued in 1988 by SST as Sonic Death -- Early Sonic 1981 - 1983. Strait enjoys fishing and riding motorcycles. Moore and Gordon are married and have a daughter, Coco Gordon Moore. In 2004, Strait topped the Astrodome attendance with 68,679 people coming to his rodeo concert at the larger stadium. Jim Sclavunos is currently involved in The Bad Seeds with Nick Cave, in addition to his own band The Vanity Set. The rodeo event moved to Reliant Stadium in 2003. Bert was later involved in No Wave descendants Pussy Galore and Boss Hogg, among others. The event set the record for paid attendance at the Astrodome with 68,266 people.

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. Since 1983, Strait has often appeared at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and recorded his album For the Last Time: Live From the Astrodome the last time the rodeo was staged at the Astrodome in 2002. 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. He also appeared as himself in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Grand Champion (2002). 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. He had a bit part in The Soldier (1982) and starred in Pure Country (1992). 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. Strait has acted in two feature films.

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. He also holds the career record for Country Music Association (CMA) nominations with seventy-three. 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. As of late 2004, Strait has had a record 50 #1 country singles. This next album would be titled Murray Street in memory of their destroyed studio. He was one of the best-selling country singers of the 1980s, and one of the few from that decade who survived the influx of pop-country singers like Garth Brooks in the early 1990s. A jet engine reportedly smashed into the studio, destroying it. This was followed by "Down and Out" and then a whole series of #1 singles, beginning with "Fool Hearted Memory" in 1982 (see 1982 in music).

The band was busy working in their NYC studio, Murray Street, during the September 11, 2001 attacks. "Unwound" was his first single and his first Top Ten hit. 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 also in 1981 that his second child, George Jr., was born. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band began releasing a number of records on their own Hoboken, New Jersey-based label SYR. Strait has stayed with MCA throughout his career. 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. In 1981, Strait went to Nashville, Tennessee to team with MCA and try a solo act.

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. An operator of one of the bars the band had played had connections at MCA Records. Kim Gordon collaborated in Free Kitten, and started an MTV-adored fashion label X-Girl, based in L.A. While playing with the band at night, Strait managed a cattle ranch during the day. In the meantime, members of the band diversified their talents. In the late 1970s, the band recorded several singles in a Houston studio that were released under the Dallas, Texas based "D" record label, but the band ultimately failed (though they do still play as George Strait's touring band under the same name). 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. They gained a regional following and opened for national acts such as The Texas Playboys.

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. The band played honky tonks and bars around south and central Texas and as far east as Huntsville and Houston. 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. While attending SWTSU, he joined the Ace in the Hole Band. By Daydream Nation (1988), Sonic Youth had perfected this style, becoming virtuostic sculptors of guitar noise. He graduated in 1979 with a degree in agriculture. 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. After leaving the army in 1975, Strait went back to school at Southwest Texas State University (SWTSU) in San Marcos, Texas.

Sonic Youth have gradually incorporated more conventional elements of pop music into their work, while still maintaining an experimental quality. While still in Hawaii, George and Norma had their first child, a daughter, Jenifer in 1972. 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. During the stint in the army, he began performing with an Army sponsored band, Rambling Country (who played off the base under the name Santee), when he was stationed in Hawaii. 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. In 1971, he enlisted in the United States Army. Sonic Youth began in extremes. They repeated their vows in a church in Texas a few weeks later.

I thought [hardcore] was very musical and very radical" (Julia and Gonzalo 51). After graduating from high school, Strait enrolled in college but dropped out and eloped to Mexico with his high school sweetheart, Norma. "It was great," said Moore, "the whole thing with slam dancing and stage diving, that was far more exciting than pogoing and spitting.. Strait counts country singers Merle Haggard, George Jones, Bob Wills and Hank Williams as his early influences. Moore and Gordon, especially, were impressed by the intensity of the musicians involved, and their ability to organize nationwide. He began playing with a rock band in high school, but his preference turned to country music. Besides Branca, Patti Smith, and the Stooges, another early influence was hardcore music of the early 1980s. His mother left the family taking his sister with her while he and his brother remained with his father.

Drummer Steve Shelley played drums for the hardcore band the Crucifucks before joining Sonic Youth. When he was fourth grade, Strait's parents divorced. They were associated with the "No Wave" art/music scene in New York City, but have outlasted most associated bands. The Straits would leave Pearsall on the weekends and the summers to work at the family's 2,000 acre (8 kmē) cattle ranch outside Big Wells, Texas. Supposedly their name mocks the preponderance of bands with the name 'youth' in the title in NYC in the early 1980s. His father, John, was a Junior High math teacher.
. Strait was born in Poteet, Texas and grew up in Pearsall, Texas.

Their most recent release, Sonic Nurse was released on June 7, 2004. George Harvey Strait (born May 18, 1952) is an American country singer. 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). 27, 2004.
. Retrieved Aug. 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. George Strait's Official Web Site (http://www.georgestrait.com/awards.asp).

Sonic Youth are an experimental rock group formed in 1981. "Awards". Download sample of "Teenage Riot" from Daydream Nation. 27, 2004. 1996 - "Little Trouble Girl". Retrieved Aug. 1993 - "Whores Moaning - Oz '93 Tour Edition". George Strait's Official Web Site (http://www.georgestrait.com/discography_main.asp).

1993 - "Sugar Kane". "Discography". 1992 - "Youth Against Fascism". CMA - Male Vocalist of the Year (1985). 1992 - "100%". CMA - Male Vocalist of the Year (1986). 1990 - "Disappearer". CMA - Album of the Year (Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind) (1985).

1990 - "Kool Thing". CMA - Entertainer of the Year (1989). 1989 - "Candle". CMA - Entertainer of the Year (1990). 1988 - "Teenage Riot". CMA - Album of the Year (Blue Clear Sky) (1996). 1986 - "Starpower". CMA - Single of the Year (Check Yes or No) (1996).

1986 - "Into the Groove(y)" (as Ciccone Youth). CMA - Male Vocalist of the Year (1996). 1986 - "Halloween II". CMA - Album of the Year (Carrying Your Love With Me) (1997). 1986 - "Flower/Satan is Boring". CMA - Male Vocalist of the Year (1997). 1985 - "Flower/Halloween". Strait Country (1981).

SYR3: Invito Al Celo (SYR, 1998). Strait From The Heart (1982). Silver Session (For Jason Knuth) (Sonic Knuth Records, 1998). Right Or Wrong (1983). SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom (SYR, 1997). Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (1984). SYR1: Anagrama (SYR, 1997). Greatest Hits (1986).

Kill Yr Idols (Zensor, 1983) ^†. Something Special (1985). Sonic Nurse (DGC, 2004). #7 (1986). Murray Street (DGC, 2002). Merry Christmas Strait To You (1986). NYC Ghosts & Flowers (DGC, 2000). Ocean Front Property (1987).

SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century (SYR, 1999). II (1987). A Thousand Leaves (DGC, 1998). Greatest Hits Vol. Made in USA (Rhino, 1995). If You Ain't Lovin', You Ain't Livin' (1988). Washing Machine (DGC, 1995). Beyond the Blue Neon (1989).