Hartley, Blog 6

The first time I heard "Teenage Riot" it was 3 in the morning. I was maybe 14 or 15, and I couldn't sleep, so I was listing to bootlegs of bands on YouTube. It just sort of popped up in the sidebar. And I clicked on it. Enthralled, I went from "Teenage Riot" to "Incinerate" and then "The Diamond Sea". And the rest was history. I was in love with Sonic Youth.

Taking 10 full years to build up commercial steam the came with the 1990 release of the album Goo (on Geffen records), Sonic Youth were originally champions of the New York Post-Punk scene in the 80's,* creating aggressive, out there, and ultimately awesome noise rock. Often treating their guitars more like machines then instruments, they obtained their sound through sevral nonstandard methods, including shoving objects under guitar strings, tons of nonstandard tunings, and tons and tons of feedback. While the band had a few pretty commercial singles, the meat of their work was really buried in the albums. This, as well as Sonic Youth's more artistic, noise driven approach to music allowed them to enjoy the reputation of a well respected band that absolutely everyone has heard of, of but few people have actually listened to.

Like many others, and basically everyone in punk, Sonic Youth drew their inspiration from the original protopunk icons (The VU, Iggy, Patti Smith, ext). And like many others, it's very easy to hear the Velvet Underground in their playing, in those layers of noise and long jams, and in the energy of the band itself. But Sonic Youth is unique, and for good reason. Moore's guitar playing is truly one of a kind, and really went on to define noise rock and alternative guitar in general. And with the entire band in full swing, churning out noise, sonic youth was truly a force to be reckoned with.