The band's ultimate indie masterpiece, Daydream Nation, was released in 1988 on Enigma records. A double album that remains focused and alternates between in-your-face and hypnotic, it provided the band with their biggest college radio hit "Teenage Riot", and featured a number of their most ambitious works to date, including "The Sprawl" and "Trilogy". "The Sprawl" begins with another Kim Gordon spoken intro before kicking into an urgent staccato rocker, before exploding in noise and receding in an extended hypnotic jam, all with their trademark tunings. This is the ultimate triumph their vision; all the noise that came before had led, against all odds, to one of the very best albums of the late 80's, one that would have secured their legacy had they never recorded another note again. The antiheroes had become heroes of the rock underground.
Enigma turned out to be too small for them; faced with bankruptcy, the label eventually folded. In 1990, Sonic Youth finally did the unthinkable, and signed with a major label, David Geffen's DGC records.
Moving to major labels after scoring indie success has ruined far more good bands than it has helped. Sonic Youth managed to make the transition with an audacious shrewdness, retaining complete artistic control over their albums, and even getting A&R positions as a deal-sweetener. Their major label debut, Goo, was released in 1990. Perhaps it would have been unreasonable to expect even more groundbreaking on the heels of the remarkable progression that preceded it. Still, it doesn't give any ground, with a creepy Karen Carpenter-themed song "Tunic", and Public Enemy's Chuck D guesting "Kool Thing", and titles like "Mary-Christ" and "Cinderella's Big Score". It was their first album to chart, at #96. Neil Young invited the group to open for him on his Ragged Glory tour. Many of these shows were at arenas; Sonic Youth played for the mainstream at last.
Sonic Youth also played a role in bringing Nirvana to DGC records in 1991. Grunge posed an interesting dilemma for the band; alternative tastes had changed, and so had the expectations of success in the wake of Nirvana's triumph. Perhaps unwisely, Butch Vig, who also produced Nevermind, was chosen to produce Dirty (1992). This caused an assumption among those still unfamiliar with the band that the music was going to be grunge; those familiar with the band feared the music would be grunge.
Article comments
1 - The Theory
nice write up. Sonic Youth has been one of my favorites for a while... though I tend to drift more toward 90s material... the material SY fans tend to scoff at, like Experimental Jet Set... whereas I cannot really enjoy listening to "Daydream Nation"
2 - beben
i from indonesia. i verylike song from sonic youth. grunge never die
3 - Diamond Sea
Well written, though NYC Ghosts & Flowers and Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star are both great albums imo and i don't consider them a failure.
I was a bit sceptical about their new 2006 album, Rather Ripped, but after listening to it lots of times i tend to like it a lot too !