Weekly Artist Overview: Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth have earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as any influential rock group you can name; their achievements are that profound. They'll be eligible for the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame in just a couple of years, and they deserve election. They'd probably thumb their nose at the idea, and its unlikely the Hall would give them the credit they deserve. But calling them one of the greatest alternative rock groups ever is not as crazy as it would have seemed 20 years ago; they've stubbornly managed to persist, grow, mature, and influence without betraying themselves or their fans.

Nobody would have predicted such an opening to the Sonic Youth story when the band was formed in 1981. The original band consisted of guitarist Thurston Moore from Connecticut, guitarist Lee Ranaldo from Long Island, and Moore's girlfriend Kim Gordon, on bass. Both Ranaldo and Moore had played with avant-garde guitar noise composer Glenn Branca, and soaked up influence. Gordon had been active in New York's no wave scene for a few years.

Their live debut occured in the summer of 1981 in New York City at an event called the "Noise Festival", which Gordon and Moore had had a hand in setting up. A five-piece, Sonic Youth also featured Anne DeMarinis (who would depart before their first EP) on keyboards and Richard Edson on drums.

In the beginning, they were a loud rude noise. Still sounding a lot like Glenn Branca, influenced by the New York performance art milieu, owing a debt to the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, inadequately labeled punk, post-punk, and no wave, they abandoned any hint of formal rock structure. Their debut EP, released on Branca's label, is an abrasive wash of feedback, alternate tunings, crashes, and shrieks. Sonic Youth (1982), is testament to free-form atonality; it's a mighty tough listen.

Still, it was a sound that seemed to demand a second listen, and a third, and a fourth. While the free-form post-punk scene was full of pretenders who really couldn't play their instruments, Sonic Youth seemed to understand something about sonics. They hadn't mastered it; or even gotten control of it. But there was something defiantly challenging about their early music which was reinforced by their live shows; loud, chaotic affairs by all accounts. Bob Bert replaced Edson on drums in early 1983.

The band released their debut full length album in the summer of 1983. Confusion Is Sex is a continuation of the assault found on the debut EP, but here they seem to be getting a grip on the noise instead of the noise getting away from them. It's still a tough listen for almost anybody except their fans; the "songs" aren't really songs as much as they are sonic fragments; the sound is murkey, the feedback and weird tunings create quite a din; a brief cover of Iggy Pop's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is tossed in for cultural reference. What lyrics that were audible over it all sounded sociopathic and bi-polar. Once again, they produced music that seemed to demand closer listen even as it repelled; with the hindsight of two decades however, one can see the blueprint that was being laid. Despite the growth and maturity that would follow, this chaos is what has always laid at the heart of the band.

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