Every now and then I get people asking for a playlist of every song mentioned in my videos: Well here's a Spotify link for this one: open.spotify.com/playlist/2BIRh11019nZgHKJVm9wL5?si=9ed75247aaac4d94 and the UA-cam Music one: music.ua-cam.com/play/PLooaZ33lSalchz8Yfs_H_6G3tUJOZsU4U.html&si=e6-saYIua25l-GyC
Glenn Branca is one of the most mindblowing artists of the 20th century, period, in any genre and medium. I was genuinely so depressed and gutted when he died, genuinely one of the greatest minds to ever turn itself towards guitars.
When you gonna do a story about My Bloody Valentine. Noticed you played 2 sec from their 1988 album, but Loveless was their magnum opus. I loved that one. Listen to it under the influence of H and it sounds totally different. Weird. But you'll have to take my word for it, as you surely never smoked anything but a weak blunt 😂
I was at their last concert ever, in Brazil, 2011. At the end, I was soaked in rain and crying a lot watching Lee's and Thurston's guitars touching, after they raised them and showed to the public. Kim was distant, with all that had happened, and could not wait to end the concert. But still, she gave it all. One of the most beautiful times of my entire almost 40 year old life. I'll take that to my grave.
@@corycourtney8923 totally - most people only know them because of Love Shack but they did so many great songs before their guitarists death from AIDs.
I ran one of the first early websites about sonic youth in the mid to late 90s. Just wanted to say that this video is truly great. So many people didn’t really get what SY was doing, but you are a wonderful exception! I’ve met and had conversations with both Lee and Steve. Amazing people! Keep it up!!
they epitomized the crossover between art rock, indie noise, and alternative rock...they embodied the ethos of D.I.Y. music culture and outsider music...their fluid sense of self in genre definition led from experimental to spanning the spectrum...they have influenced and inspired dozens of bands that came out of the 80's and 90's because they played any thing in any way they wanted to in the moment...there were no walls, and there was no boundary...that's why they're important and that's their lasting impact on our culture...
Back in the mid 90s my mate’s older brother visited the USA and came back with a bunch of obscure albums including Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. I was 13 and when I first heard the cacophonous art noise of tunes like Eric’s Trip and Cross the Breeze something clicked for me. I’d already heard a lot of alternative music via skate and surf movies but this was something profound - it was THE thing I hadn’t realised I’d been waiting for. It kickstarted a lifelong interest in art, culture, music, literature and NYC. I made the move to NY from Australia largely because of this early inspiration.
@@antlerbraum2881- true, we didn’t have SY but we did have some amazing music that should have been huge around the world… Unfortunately our cultural cringe and belief that if it doesn’t come from overseas it ain’t no good prevented them from surviving and growing. People like The Boys Next Door/Birthday Party, Ash Wednesday, Fetus and so on, actually did it - went to Europe - and left an indelible mark on music. More than most in Australia know.
Sonic Youth were a big part of my... er... sonic youth (!), alongside the likes of Pavement and Sleater-Kinney. While all my mates were arguing about Blur v Oasis I was over in the corner listening to Dirty Boots, and drawing eyes on the palms of each hand to mimic the internal artwork of Evol. Hard to pick a single favourite so here's a top three: 1) Dirty Boots, 2) Sympathy For The Strawberry, 3) Shadow Of A Doubt. Ask me again tomorrow and you might get three different answers though!
Washing Machine was the first SY album I bought, though I had been listening to them on tapes copied from friends before. My first reaction was shock, then curiosity, then love. The Diamond Sea is probably my fav Sonic Youth track, though they have sooooo many amazing songs and soundscapes. Thank you for making this video.
100% changed my whole musical life. I literally threw out all my old tapes and started my record collection over from scratch when Dirty came out. The opening riff of Schizophrenia is basically the only thing I can play on the drums. Star Power, Little Trouble Girl, Diamond Sea, and Chapel Hill are all classics too. That super cut off fuzzy riffs is like 30 seconds what the inside of my brain feels like. Loved it.
I saw them in a small Seattle street festival in the early 00's and the best I can describe it is that it was pure musical chaos and aggression in the best way possible. The audience was left confused and dumbfounded, it was hilarious but I loved it. You'd think that the audience would know what to expect by then but they were used to their radio friendly singles that were more mainstream.
This has to be one of my favorite videos of yours, and that is saying a lot since every one of your videos so far have been nothing short of awesome. All of the music you mentioned here was part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. I just recently saw Kim Gordon in upstate NY on her solo tour. She is still amazing.
It's seen as a landmark, maybe because it was a double album, but for me Bad Moon Rising and Evol are their best two. More concentrated, more diverse, more sonically interesting than Daydream Nation IMO.
This was beautiful and unexpected. I've been a fan for decades but still learned some new stuff. I had the privilege of seeing them play The Diamond Sea live at Kentish Town Forum in 1996. Hello Stewart Lee.
I'd love to see a video on the latter part of Sonic Youth's career. Their final albums are just as good as the first ones, imo. They're amazing. Their whole catalogue is astonishing.
Thank you for the wonderful video…takes me back to my teenage years and young adulthood. Empty Page, Stones, Expressway, Nic Fit. Feel blessed to have seen them live a handful of times…and makes me smile that my two girls enjoy their songs…a girlfriend paraphrased when she hears a SY song, she is reminded of my spirit. Hearing Hendrix for the first time at ten years old was mind blowing…didn’t have a similar experience until a coworker at the after school laundromat brought over his just released copy of Sister
I worked security at concerts for years in San Francisco and I have to say that Sonic Youth are some of the nicest folks I've ever met! Them, Johnny Cash (and his whole crew) and Pat Benatar! S.Y. put on incredible shows! I'll let you guess to who wasn't so nice. :)
@@johnchedsey1306 That's the way to do it. I worked in a mid-size venue and we had a saying: We saw bands on the way up and on the way down. So, if bands were especially rude to us, and there were a few, we would eventually see them on the backside of their careers. LOL
A lot of people dismiss Madonna as generic pop, but she was running in the same scenes as Sonic Youth and all these avant garde NYC scenes. She took all her influences in New York at the time and crafted herself into the penultimate pop star. Madonna is the coolest pop star we have lol I’m never surprised she has alternative fans because it’s all there across her discography.
Every single video I watch from this channel I end up wishing there was an associated playlist with all the songs featured. I wished it contained the songs mentioned from the band itself, but also their influences and other bands whose songs were influenced by the one featured. I’d like listening to them afterwards to soak up all the tendencies and sounds from the video. Great work btw!
I was at that concert in 1983 and the audience wasn't that 'sparse'. I went for SPK who had just been in the charts with Metal Dance & Danielle who I loved but not certain if was ever in the top 40 (unless you count the Indie charts). I had no idea who the thrashing US band was at the start until much later. I remember Kim asking if anyone had a spare bass string as I had just purchased a set for my chorded 8 string that had cost a fortune from Denmark St whilst I was in London for the day & thinking 'fuck that'. Some other guy clutching a mango, when mango's were a rare commodity, passed her one. If I could go back in time I would, hindsight. I still struggle with their music but I think that is the point. Nice to see Kim at Glasto the other week keeping the faith in her 70s - way to go girl.
My fav band, what a treat!! ❤️ difficult to pick just one favorite song but i do love the sonic nurse album a lot. Seen them twice live and they were incredible ❤️
I had a psychedelic experience at a Spiritualized gig on no drugs, just their strobe light and musc. I dunno what year it was, maybe 1996, Kate Radley was still on keyboaards.
Another great video!! As a SY fan for 38 years now and a sucker for everythings sonic, I have to say that, somewhat surprisingly, I learned a lot of new anecdotes and quotes from the band! Incredible work!
your videos are absolutely fantastic and this video had me have more of an appreciation for sonic youth, a band i have heard the back catalogue of and all their albums up to goo. i Loved some of their songs but not a lot else, though this has me wanting to revisit their catalogue. i think you doing a doc on sonic youth makes a lot of sense and to be honest i was waiting for you to touch on it. you make some of the best content on this site, docs i've rewatched countless times. i'm a musician myself and these videos both give me information on different eras of indie and rock music but also inspire me deeply to try and make my own impact. in every way possible, thank you, your videos are just fantastic. keep it up. i know you will.
SY were my last big teenage obsession. That word gets thrown around a lot these days, but I was genuinely in all the way with these guys, and they changed my life. I was already listening to a lot of indie stuff, but they flew under my radar I found them because I read an article that mentioned that they liked Philip K Dick, so Sister was the first album I bought, and it just spun my head around. I felt like I'd finally found my people, especially because they were so damn funny on records and in interviews. They were worth all the adolescent devotion I had left. At the time, I was also going clubbing and listening to dance music (the late 80s were just a feast of so many different sounds, and being a Sonic Youth fan didn't mean you couldn't appreciate dance and pop music), but these guys helped me find a live scene I could finally gel with--hardcore was just too much of a boy's club--and it seemed like every band or record they endorsed turned out to be solid gold: Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, Urge Overkill and Nirvana all found their way into my world via Sonic Youth's enthusiasm (I'm from Texas, so I already knew about the Butthole Surfers) mostly before they really bubbled into the indie radar. So I didn't miss a Sonic Youth show after that, if I could get there, throughout all the years until they broke up. I grew up, graduated from college and then grad school, went out into the world, travelled all oer, got married, and they were always with me. I saw them play some pretty lousy shows (in the 80s they had a reputation for playing short sets, which pissed off a lot of people I knew), and I also saw them be transcendently brilliant; you just never knew. Austin seemed to be a place they really liked. One night, Thurston Moore reached over the whole front-tow crush to hand me his (full) water bottle on a sweltering hot night at Liberty Lunch in Austin (I was out of my tree on mushrooms and it punctuated one of the best nights of my life). I literally don't know what my life would have turned out like if it hadn't been for these guys. They proved that you could be smart, educated, *and* punk rock as heck, and for nerdy kids like me, that was everything: you didn't have to pretend to be stupid or behave like you didn't come from the affluent burbs (there's a hilarious "interview" in one of the English weeklies (the NME, I think) where Gibby from the Surfers asks Thurston (son of a philosophy professor), "Do you have parents and shit?"--which was rich, considering that Gibby's own father hosted our local children's morning TV show here in Dallas-Ft. Worth). And Kim Gordon's messy tomboy style was exactly the look practical girls like me were going for so we could be comfortable at shows. Their demise was heartbreaking. It happened at a time when I was struggling in my own life with health problems and my own marriage was on the rocks. I sat shivah for a week when I found out--just moped and refused to deal with the world. They had a good run, and honestly their last few albums just didn't have the same spark as the first few, but I didn't care; they were always worth the time and attention. I miss them, still. Thanks for taking the time to provide an on-ramp for anyone who thinks that their music is difficult or unlistenable. I feel so lucky to have found them at exactly the right moment, and right at their artistic peak. Even if it was impossible to get a copy of EVOL in the shops until they finally signed to Geffen (my only means of listening to it for years was the copy in the UT music library). I want as many people as possible to find them, because they could potentially be someone else's favorite band for life, too. Cheers! Xoxo
Love this episode as I love so many of your documentaries. Sonic Youth was such an incredible group, you get the sense that they could’ve found success as anything from a power pop group to a dreamy shoegaze group… for all their experimental sound, they had an incredible ear for hooks
The most mind blowing fact from Kim's biography is that Sonic Youth were rehearsing in their practice room when the news came in that John Lennon had been murdered. They span entire eras!
20+ years later and their albums and live shows still give me so much variety and nuances to discover. Yes, they did mostly sound like noise at first but what a treat. I think some of the most rewarding music is the weird stuff that has a bit of a learning curve
I saw sonic youth on the dirty tour at the city gardens in Trenton n.j. I stage dived into another crowd surfer, hit the ground and split my bottom lip wide open. I took of my shirt, held it on my mouth and stayed for the rest of the show
Thank you SO much for this vid. I've adored their albums from bad moon rising until Daydream nation ever since I randomly came across Daydream when I was about 17 or so (I'm 41 now) and I worked my way back through their music then. Their later albums I also have some of but I don't think they have that same feeling of "wow-what am I hearing" than those earlier ones. Also you're vid gave me insight I never knew, especially about Mike Watts involvement, I probably did know before but I didn't know who he was because for some stupid reason I'd never got round to listening to Minutemen until about 2yrs ago (which was also a revelation). So much nuggets of info here and there, this vid was one I'm thoroughly pleased you made. You've turned a very shitty Monday I've been having from making me want to scream from frustration with business to sitting on my couch with my cat and partner while I watch this on with a grin on my face lol thanks again!!! Keep them coming! Also that Light up Gold album by Parquet Courts is awesome haha
Easily the best "take" on Sonic Youth I've ever seen. Couldn't stop watching once I started, which was at 4:30 am on a Monday morning, the beginning of my dreadful work week staring me in the face after actually cutting my face on accident when I fell out of bed after a nightmare where I fell out of bed into a table saw blade - I wish I was making it up. Back in the day, I listened to "Silver Rocket" and "Thersa's Sound World" like a thousand times on a car cassette I'd made. Wait - it wasn't "Silver Rocket" it was "Candle".
You have no idea how long I have been waiting for you to make this episode! Imagine my surprise and elation when I saw this on my feed just now. I have goosebumps and it only just started. THANK YOU!
You're right at the start, every band I play with wants to be at least a little like Sonic Youth, it's great. A band can never be Sonic Youth, but they can capture a similar energy from them.
So SO stoked to see this on my youtube homepage. I got into Sonic Youth way late in the game, but I've been inspired by their music recently and listening to it a ton, so this came at the perfect time.
At the 1994 Big Day Out in Sydney Australia, Sonic Youth ended their set with an extended jam of I Wanna Be Your Dog, joined on stage by Iggy, Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Mark Arm and another mudhoney member, can't remember which one! It was one of the greatest musical moments I have ever witnessed! Until seeing this Trash Theory I didn't realise how weirdly tuned and modified Thurston's and Lee's guitars were and I now understand why the two of them grabbed Blixa when he approached the rack! They wouldn't let him touch their guitars hahaha. Blixa contented himself with twiddling every knob on every amp instead! I wonder how much skin I lost and blood I spilt skateboarding whilst listening to Sonic Youth on my walkman in my teens...
I found Daydream Nation at Brash’s at Werribee Plaza in 1989… The week after I had bought Candy Apple Grey by Husker Du. Those two albums blew my mind apart as a 15 year old kid…! I had always loved the Jesus & Mary Chain’s noisiest moments, but finding stuff like the Smiths, Echo & Bmen etc to be missing something, but then DNation. Ahhh!!! A sprawling adventure of an album… with a Song called the Sprawl (Edit: omfg… I always wondered, but wasn’t sure about the neuromancer connection! I wrote this comment about 4 minutes into the video. So many answers, connections etc came after that point. Excellent work Trash Theory)… a journey, a Trip (!), a work of art that took me away from start to finish. Noise, quiet, travel, noise, introspection, throwing shit at the walls, everything is in there. Still love it, still one of my favourite road trip albums (& my daughters!). Still find guitar lines, drum fills & more that I have not loved enough today. Saw them with Helmet & Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy at the Prince of Wales in about ‘94/95(???). Only chance I ever had… WHAT a night!!! Also saw Madonna at the MCG, partly bc of SY Ciccone Youth adulation & my first girlfriends worship of Madonna… dressing almost gothy bc of Madonna who took Siouxsie style to new areas. I will be listening to Daydream Nation when I am 80. It is just that foundational to the world of music as a whole… but for me as well personally. No wonder it had been put in the USA Library of congress.
Saw them many, many times and can attest to them being one of the greatest live bands ever. Changed my life. Too many incredible songs to choose just one. ❤❤❤
You have a lot of videos that educate me about bands I don't know much about and I learn a ton, and I thank you for them. Then you do ones that are big, comfy chairs for me to sit in and revel in like this one. Thanks so much for both kinds!
@@hjvanderlinden😂😂it just flys out the window You gotta watch the motin' Thurston, your fuckin' memory just goes out the window We couldn't find it in the van at all, we wonderin' if you looked in that trash can When we threw out that trash, man, was the bag in your hand, did you dump it? Call later, bye" Source: LyricFind
At last! One of my favourite bands! Can't pick a song, but the album i love most is Jet Set... Thanks for this episode, and now i can only hope for Soul Coughing.
I first saw them live for the first time in Sydney on 30 Jan 1989. Changed my life. I'd been watching local indie bands a plenty, at the time not many OS indie bands toured Australia. They blew me away. Loved their energy. Rollins was touring at the same time and I saw him after the show and asked what he thought, he replied great but I've seen them play before and they were like bam! I'm thinking how can that be possible, that was the best show I had ever seen. I had Daydream Nation but following that gig I search every record shop for their back catalogue. Fun times. Thanks Trash Theory for another great video.
Now you got it right with me. This band and this album are landmarks to my artistic life as a musician. Great research, indeed. Despite the fact that "Diamond Sea" is my true Sonic Youth's favorite song, I'd choose the final trilogy of "Daydream Nation" as my favorite suite any day. "Teenage Riot" is, indeed, a mandatory favorite for me in the whole album, though.
Loved the video. It was a journey through my teenage youth (pun intended). Theresa’s sound world is my favorite song, and probably their most underrated imo. It was the perfect mix of their early days’ noise combined with the cleanest production they’d ever achieve
I remember going out to a live gig, it was a local bands last show. This gig was the night of my 19th birthday, but also the day covid 19 shut the world down. Before the band played over the speakers the venue's DJ played a decent chunk of Daydream Nation. I of course already listened to and owned it but that was a interesting moment to hear the album
As ever, fascinating stuff mate. Grew up on these guys and the bands they influenced and were influenced by. Favourite song is probably Youth Against Fascism, not exactly a super cool deep cut but I just fucking love it.
I discovered Sonic Youth with their album Goo, Mote is one of my favorites by them, it feels like a great balance between the more accessible songs on the album and their more traditional songs, it still blows me away
I just love the part in your videos where you list all the bands and tracks that were influenced by the said artist you discuss. And that "wait a minute... yes!" moment. Huge respect for your work, I'm always mesmerised by your ability to tell a story while analysing. Not to mention Sonic youth are one of my all time favourite musicians. Thanks for this video!
The best guitar album of all time. I bought this on cd for a road trip across the prairies as a young teenager , and it will always be forever weaved into my remembered idea of America. Thank you for such a great biography
Sonic Youth has been my favorite band for some years now and the reason why is exactly what you describe in the video. They prove that with sheer creativity you can make any music that you want, reinventing tools that have been used for decennia by reducing them to their most primal beginnings. They are the perfect example of music nerd punkers or diy'ers and i will always try and support those artists in the music industry, because i think these artists are truely the ones that are able to push us forward. Favorite tracks: -Pipeline/Kill Time -Silver Rocket -In The Kingdom #19 -She's in a bad Mood -Chapel Hill i could go on
They were such a great band, and such a pity it ended the way it ended. Last year, I saw Thurston Moore perform, which was great: he is still such an amazing player. But his band is just a collection of musicians who do a decent job, but just serve Moore's playing without remarkable artistic influence of their own. And that's when you release this chemistry of Sonic Youth, where all the band members contributed to its unique sound. What a truly great band it was. Luckily, I have my memories from back in the day. :)
I was 16 when the first EP was reissued in 1987. Still one of my favorites, along with many songs (like Sugar Kane, Tunic, Teen Age Riot and Death Valley '69 with the great Lydia Lunch). Still a fan!
I’m a fortnight late but hopefully you still see this. I want to say how much I love your videos and how much new music they introduce me to, how it shows me so many connections and shows me what to like about stuff. It’s honestly so great man. Keep doing it as long as you keep feeling it, because it’s such a great watch every time. Genuinely fills my heart to get such great investigations of artists I know and such great recommendations of new ones I don’t. Thanks man
Terrific overview on this band, who literally scrambled my DNA and still influence me greatly. Favorite 3: Teen Age Riot, Stereo Sanctity, Drunken Butterfly.
i love sonic youth so much. they impacted my teen years alot after my friends aunt introduced me to them when i was 11! some of my fav SY songs are definitely 100%, i dreamed i dream, sunday, into the groovey, the diamond sea, beat on the brat, mote shadow of a doubt and so many more theres just so many good ones!!!
One of my Top 10 albums ever made, though, truth be told, I only really enjoy a small handful of other SY songs from the rest of their catalog. There’s not a wasted note or word on the whole record, it’s stunning in every way. I never knew about the connection between Daydream Nation and Public Enemy’s Nation of Millions but I always felt a connection between those two albums - I suspect it’s a New York City in the late 80s thing.
I saw SY in the mid 80s and watched slack jawed as Thurston jabbed a screw driver between the strings and fretboard and The noises that screamed out of his backline blew us all away.... It was a revolutionary moment I'll never forget.
![Woo-hoo!: How Blur Mocked Grunge & Destroyed Britpop ["Song 2"] | New British Canon](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q29G7YDCq9Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Every now and then I get people asking for a playlist of every song mentioned in my videos: Well here's a Spotify link for this one:
open.spotify.com/playlist/2BIRh11019nZgHKJVm9wL5?si=9ed75247aaac4d94
and the UA-cam Music one:
music.ua-cam.com/play/PLooaZ33lSalchz8Yfs_H_6G3tUJOZsU4U.html&si=e6-saYIua25l-GyC
THANK YOU!
@@TrashTheory ❤️
Thanks! Now I don’t need to buy a CD player…
Glenn Branca is one of the most mindblowing artists of the 20th century, period, in any genre and medium. I was genuinely so depressed and gutted when he died, genuinely one of the greatest minds to ever turn itself towards guitars.
When you gonna do a story about My Bloody Valentine. Noticed you played 2 sec from their 1988 album, but Loveless was their magnum opus. I loved that one. Listen to it under the influence of H and it sounds totally different. Weird. But you'll have to take my word for it, as you surely never smoked anything but a weak blunt 😂
I hate watching Trash Theory because I have to pause the video every few minutes to add a song I've never heard before to my playlist.
That's a good problem to have
Ain't it the truth
Don’t watch then
Ooooh.... you must be from the Problem Solvers Caucus! @@austins.2495
@@austins.2495 It's a joke.
I was at their last concert ever, in Brazil, 2011. At the end, I was soaked in rain and crying a lot watching Lee's and Thurston's guitars touching, after they raised them and showed to the public. Kim was distant, with all that had happened, and could not wait to end the concert. But still, she gave it all. One of the most beautiful times of my entire almost 40 year old life. I'll take that to my grave.
My one and only SY show was at the Hollywood Bowl that year. Mind blowing..
I read her words on that I think you just described it perfectly again you can tell she was in pain though
I've been to Kim's show just this month, she's still amazing live.
Amazing comment
Definitely need a B-52s Trash Theory on tracks like Give Me Back My Man! Such a great band and such tragedy tinged with success.
This
It is CRAZY how good and under-rated a song Give Me Back My Man is.
@@corycourtney8923 Could we stop calling things underrated?
@@corycourtney8923 totally - most people only know them because of Love Shack but they did so many great songs before their guitarists death from AIDs.
Definitely. Those first two albums in particular are more than worthy of the TT treatment. It must be done! :)
I ran one of the first early websites about sonic youth in the mid to late 90s.
Just wanted to say that this video is truly great. So many people didn’t really get what SY was doing, but you are a wonderful exception!
I’ve met and had conversations with both Lee and Steve. Amazing people!
Keep it up!!
That's freaking awesome. Thanks for sharing that
they epitomized the crossover between art rock, indie noise, and alternative rock...they embodied the ethos of D.I.Y. music culture and outsider music...their fluid sense of self in genre definition led from experimental to spanning the spectrum...they have influenced and inspired dozens of bands that came out of the 80's and 90's because they played any thing in any way they wanted to in the moment...there were no walls, and there was no boundary...that's why they're important and that's their lasting impact on our culture...
I agree completely. And yet that entire paragraph could describe dozens of bands and artists. 🙂
@@jachyra9 what bands? which artists?
@@startervisions - David Bowie. Roxy Music. Joy Division. R.E.M. Black Flag. Jane's Addiction. Radiohead...
@@jachyra9 ...The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Queen...
‘ello ‘ello, been a while since our paths crossed so closely; other Dez… ♠️🏴☠️🙏🏿
Back in the mid 90s my mate’s older brother visited the USA and came back with a bunch of obscure albums including Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. I was 13 and when I first heard the cacophonous art noise of tunes like Eric’s Trip and Cross the Breeze something clicked for me. I’d already heard a lot of alternative music via skate and surf movies but this was something profound - it was THE thing I hadn’t realised I’d been waiting for. It kickstarted a lifelong interest in art, culture, music, literature and NYC. I made the move to NY from Australia largely because of this early inspiration.
I wouldn't call Daydream Nation obscure
Moving from Australia to New York is a major downgrade, I’m sorry you made that mistake :/
@@galetinmWell I’m sure when YOU were a 13 year old Australian kid in the mid-nineties you were well versed in alternative music.
@@austins.2495Yeah but Aus never had Sonic Youth mate
@@antlerbraum2881- true, we didn’t have SY but we did have some amazing music that should have been huge around the world…
Unfortunately our cultural cringe and belief that if it doesn’t come from overseas it ain’t no good prevented them from surviving and growing.
People like The Boys Next Door/Birthday Party, Ash Wednesday, Fetus and so on, actually did it - went to Europe - and left an indelible mark on music.
More than most in Australia know.
You can't overstate how important they were. The alt-rock explosion of the 90s would not have happened without Sonic Youth.
Sonic Youth were a big part of my... er... sonic youth (!), alongside the likes of Pavement and Sleater-Kinney. While all my mates were arguing about Blur v Oasis I was over in the corner listening to Dirty Boots, and drawing eyes on the palms of each hand to mimic the internal artwork of Evol. Hard to pick a single favourite so here's a top three: 1) Dirty Boots, 2) Sympathy For The Strawberry, 3) Shadow Of A Doubt. Ask me again tomorrow and you might get three different answers though!
Right on man, good taste, And for the record, in my opinion, Blur and Supergrass over everyone except Stone Roses.
Washing Machine was the first SY album I bought, though I had been listening to them on tapes copied from friends before. My first reaction was shock, then curiosity, then love. The Diamond Sea is probably my fav Sonic Youth track, though they have sooooo many amazing songs and soundscapes. Thank you for making this video.
I saw them tour that album in 1995. They were incredible
That really is a great album
@brandbird Diamond Sea is the song I play most, and before that dropped, Disappearer
100% changed my whole musical life. I literally threw out all my old tapes and started my record collection over from scratch when Dirty came out. The opening riff of Schizophrenia is basically the only thing I can play on the drums. Star Power, Little Trouble Girl, Diamond Sea, and Chapel Hill are all classics too. That super cut off fuzzy riffs is like 30 seconds what the inside of my brain feels like. Loved it.
Don't forget the amazing song jc
I saw them in a small Seattle street festival in the early 00's and the best I can describe it is that it was pure musical chaos and aggression in the best way possible. The audience was left confused and dumbfounded, it was hilarious but I loved it. You'd think that the audience would know what to expect by then but they were used to their radio friendly singles that were more mainstream.
I like Sugar Kane from Dirty. Noise pop loveliness
One of the most perfect songs ever written, in my opinion
Best noise break in the middle of a beautiful pop song, ever.
This has to be one of my favorite videos of yours, and that is saying a lot since every one of your videos so far have been nothing short of awesome. All of the music you mentioned here was part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. I just recently saw Kim Gordon in upstate NY on her solo tour. She is still amazing.
Holy crap, a video about my favorite album released on my birthday? Best gift ever! :D
Happy Birthday!! 🎉
Daydream Nation is hands down one of the greatest albums ever released.
Agreed, but it’s not even a top three best SY to me. That’s how great they were
Without a doubt. It's also the greatest album from the 1980s. Period!
@@itsjonathangray That part
@@itsjonathangray One of the best albums ever. They are in my top five bands and best ever live band I've ever seen.
It's seen as a landmark, maybe because it was a double album, but for me Bad Moon Rising and Evol are their best two. More concentrated, more diverse, more sonically interesting than Daydream Nation IMO.
In the Kingdom #19 is my favorite EVOL song. You just made me love it even more.
This was beautiful and unexpected. I've been a fan for decades but still learned some new stuff.
I had the privilege of seeing them play The Diamond Sea live at Kentish Town Forum in 1996.
Hello Stewart Lee.
I'd love to see a video on the latter part of Sonic Youth's career. Their final albums are just as good as the first ones, imo. They're amazing. Their whole catalogue is astonishing.
Thank you for the wonderful video…takes me back to my teenage years and young adulthood. Empty Page, Stones, Expressway, Nic Fit. Feel blessed to have seen them live a handful of times…and makes me smile that my two girls enjoy their songs…a girlfriend paraphrased when she hears a SY song, she is reminded of my spirit. Hearing Hendrix for the first time at ten years old was mind blowing…didn’t have a similar experience until a coworker at the after school laundromat brought over his just released copy of Sister
I adore this channel. The best of UA-cam! 🍸
@@DJL78 amen to that
I worked security at concerts for years in San Francisco and I have to say that Sonic Youth are some of the nicest folks I've ever met! Them, Johnny Cash (and his whole crew) and Pat Benatar! S.Y. put on incredible shows! I'll let you guess to who wasn't so nice. :)
I once worked for a touring band (not Sonic Youth, of course) and the first thing they told me was to always be nice to the venue staff.
@@johnchedsey1306 That's the way to do it. I worked in a mid-size venue and we had a saying: We saw bands on the way up and on the way down. So, if bands were especially rude to us, and there were a few, we would eventually see them on the backside of their careers. LOL
The eagles?
@@pjr5913 I never worked one of their shows. One of the worst, which isn't much of a surprise was Green Day.
They are absolute sweethearts! Lee is a treasure.
Love this! Please do a retrospective on no wave, punk funk, turntablism, and other nyc noise artists like Swans when you get a chance! ❤
A lot of people dismiss Madonna as generic pop, but she was running in the same scenes as Sonic Youth and all these avant garde NYC scenes. She took all her influences in New York at the time and crafted herself into the penultimate pop star. Madonna is the coolest pop star we have lol I’m never surprised she has alternative fans because it’s all there across her discography.
So glad I got to see this incredible unbelievabley original band live 5 times. They were my first proper rock concert when I was 15.
Poor you! Sorry to hear that.
Every single video I watch from this channel I end up wishing there was an associated playlist with all the songs featured. I wished it contained the songs mentioned from the band itself, but also their influences and other bands whose songs were influenced by the one featured. I’d like listening to them afterwards to soak up all the tendencies and sounds from the video.
Great work btw!
Yea, kids these days like to have everything spoon fed to them. God forbid you do a little research and exploration yourself.
@@austins.2495 Could I request that you not bring unnecessary snark to this space? I kinda liked the positive vibe...
I was at that concert in 1983 and the audience wasn't that 'sparse'. I went for SPK who had just been in the charts with Metal Dance & Danielle who I loved but not certain if was ever in the top 40 (unless you count the Indie charts). I had no idea who the thrashing US band was at the start until much later. I remember Kim asking if anyone had a spare bass string as I had just purchased a set for my chorded 8 string that had cost a fortune from Denmark St whilst I was in London for the day & thinking 'fuck that'. Some other guy clutching a mango, when mango's were a rare commodity, passed her one. If I could go back in time I would, hindsight. I still struggle with their music but I think that is the point. Nice to see Kim at Glasto the other week keeping the faith in her 70s - way to go girl.
I was also at that SPK show! I remember being disappointed that they had moved past their Leichenschrei phase.
My fav band, what a treat!! ❤️ difficult to pick just one favorite song but i do love the sonic nurse album a lot. Seen them twice live and they were incredible ❤️
Trash Theory is the best UA-cam channel period. Thank you so much for making cool videos about interesting music.
Trash Theory is criminally underrated
Best live gig i ever 'experienced'.
Well, them and a Spiritualized concert i saw on mushrooms!
@@-xirx- orbital at tribal gathering 1997 after dropping a whole pill and sharing half a wrap of speed with a mate - who says the drugs don’t work!
I had a psychedelic experience at a Spiritualized gig on no drugs, just their strobe light and musc.
I dunno what year it was, maybe 1996, Kate Radley was still on keyboaards.
This just dropped as I was getting lunch and the timing couldn’t be more perfect 😢
Another great video!! As a SY fan for 38 years now and a sucker for everythings sonic, I have to say that, somewhat surprisingly, I learned a lot of new anecdotes and quotes from the band! Incredible work!
your videos are absolutely fantastic and this video had me have more of an appreciation for sonic youth, a band i have heard the back catalogue of and all their albums up to goo. i Loved some of their songs but not a lot else, though this has me wanting to revisit their catalogue. i think you doing a doc on sonic youth makes a lot of sense and to be honest i was waiting for you to touch on it. you make some of the best content on this site, docs i've rewatched countless times. i'm a musician myself and these videos both give me information on different eras of indie and rock music but also inspire me deeply to try and make my own impact. in every way possible, thank you, your videos are just fantastic. keep it up. i know you will.
SY were my last big teenage obsession. That word gets thrown around a lot these days, but I was genuinely in all the way with these guys, and they changed my life. I was already listening to a lot of indie stuff, but they flew under my radar I found them because I read an article that mentioned that they liked Philip K Dick, so Sister was the first album I bought, and it just spun my head around. I felt like I'd finally found my people, especially because they were so damn funny on records and in interviews. They were worth all the adolescent devotion I had left.
At the time, I was also going clubbing and listening to dance music (the late 80s were just a feast of so many different sounds, and being a Sonic Youth fan didn't mean you couldn't appreciate dance and pop music), but these guys helped me find a live scene I could finally gel with--hardcore was just too much of a boy's club--and it seemed like every band or record they endorsed turned out to be solid gold: Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, Urge Overkill and Nirvana all found their way into my world via Sonic Youth's enthusiasm (I'm from Texas, so I already knew about the Butthole Surfers) mostly before they really bubbled into the indie radar.
So I didn't miss a Sonic Youth show after that, if I could get there, throughout all the years until they broke up. I grew up, graduated from college and then grad school, went out into the world, travelled all oer, got married, and they were always with me. I saw them play some pretty lousy shows (in the 80s they had a reputation for playing short sets, which pissed off a lot of people I knew), and I also saw them be transcendently brilliant; you just never knew. Austin seemed to be a place they really liked. One night, Thurston Moore reached over the whole front-tow crush to hand me his (full) water bottle on a sweltering hot night at Liberty Lunch in Austin (I was out of my tree on mushrooms and it punctuated one of the best nights of my life).
I literally don't know what my life would have turned out like if it hadn't been for these guys. They proved that you could be smart, educated, *and* punk rock as heck, and for nerdy kids like me, that was everything: you didn't have to pretend to be stupid or behave like you didn't come from the affluent burbs (there's a hilarious "interview" in one of the English weeklies (the NME, I think) where Gibby from the Surfers asks Thurston (son of a philosophy professor), "Do you have parents and shit?"--which was rich, considering that Gibby's own father hosted our local children's morning TV show here in Dallas-Ft. Worth). And Kim Gordon's messy tomboy style was exactly the look practical girls like me were going for so we could be comfortable at shows.
Their demise was heartbreaking. It happened at a time when I was struggling in my own life with health problems and my own marriage was on the rocks. I sat shivah for a week when I found out--just moped and refused to deal with the world. They had a good run, and honestly their last few albums just didn't have the same spark as the first few, but I didn't care; they were always worth the time and attention. I miss them, still.
Thanks for taking the time to provide an on-ramp for anyone who thinks that their music is difficult or unlistenable. I feel so lucky to have found them at exactly the right moment, and right at their artistic peak. Even if it was impossible to get a copy of EVOL in the shops until they finally signed to Geffen (my only means of listening to it for years was the copy in the UT music library). I want as many people as possible to find them, because they could potentially be someone else's favorite band for life, too. Cheers! Xoxo
Love this episode as I love so many of your documentaries. Sonic Youth was such an incredible group, you get the sense that they could’ve found success as anything from a power pop group to a dreamy shoegaze group… for all their experimental sound, they had an incredible ear for hooks
The most mind blowing fact from Kim's biography is that Sonic Youth were rehearsing in their practice room when the news came in that John Lennon had been murdered.
They span entire eras!
20+ years later and their albums and live shows still give me so much variety and nuances to discover. Yes, they did mostly sound like noise at first but what a treat. I think some of the most rewarding music is the weird stuff that has a bit of a learning curve
I saw sonic youth on the dirty tour at the city gardens in Trenton n.j. I stage dived into another crowd surfer, hit the ground and split my bottom lip wide open. I took of my shirt, held it on my mouth and stayed for the rest of the show
So glad I got to see a bunch of their shows over 30+ years... miss 'em
I have listened to this album a thousand times and know every song inside out. But i didn't know the history behind it. Thanks for the information.
Thank you SO much for this vid. I've adored their albums from bad moon rising until Daydream nation ever since I randomly came across Daydream when I was about 17 or so (I'm 41 now) and I worked my way back through their music then. Their later albums I also have some of but I don't think they have that same feeling of "wow-what am I hearing" than those earlier ones.
Also you're vid gave me insight I never knew, especially about Mike Watts involvement, I probably did know before but I didn't know who he was because for some stupid reason I'd never got round to listening to Minutemen until about 2yrs ago (which was also a revelation). So much nuggets of info here and there, this vid was one I'm thoroughly pleased you made. You've turned a very shitty Monday I've been having from making me want to scream from frustration with business to sitting on my couch with my cat and partner while I watch this on with a grin on my face lol thanks again!!! Keep them coming!
Also that Light up Gold album by Parquet Courts is awesome haha
9:44 "Are you sure this is the band we read about?"
That's pretty fucking hilarious.
Another mini doco masterclass.... many thanks
Easily the best "take" on Sonic Youth I've ever seen. Couldn't stop watching once I started, which was at 4:30 am on a Monday morning, the beginning of my dreadful work week staring me in the face after actually cutting my face on accident when I fell out of bed after a nightmare where I fell out of bed into a table saw blade - I wish I was making it up. Back in the day, I listened to "Silver Rocket" and "Thersa's Sound World" like a thousand times on a car cassette I'd made. Wait - it wasn't "Silver Rocket" it was "Candle".
You have no idea how long I have been waiting for you to make this episode! Imagine my surprise and elation when I saw this on my feed just now. I have goosebumps and it only just started. THANK YOU!
Swell Maps was also a huge influence and is one of my favorite experimental bands
thanks!
@@alexanderclaylavin YW
Yess Swell Maps OWN!!!!
Thank you for continuing to make some of the best content UA-cam has to offer.
You're right at the start, every band I play with wants to be at least a little like Sonic Youth, it's great. A band can never be Sonic Youth, but they can capture a similar energy from them.
I fell in love to "Daydream Nation" once. 10/10 would recommend.
What lovely timing. I just fell into a weeks long Sonic Youth kick when this video should appear.
Best doc yet!
Really well done!
And Sonic Youth rules.
So SO stoked to see this on my youtube homepage. I got into Sonic Youth way late in the game, but I've been inspired by their music recently and listening to it a ton, so this came at the perfect time.
Im liking it in advance, will check it later. Trash Theory never dissapoints.
At the 1994 Big Day Out in Sydney Australia, Sonic Youth ended their set with an extended jam of I Wanna Be Your Dog, joined on stage by Iggy, Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Mark Arm and another mudhoney member, can't remember which one! It was one of the greatest musical moments I have ever witnessed! Until seeing this Trash Theory I didn't realise how weirdly tuned and modified Thurston's and Lee's guitars were and I now understand why the two of them grabbed Blixa when he approached the rack! They wouldn't let him touch their guitars hahaha. Blixa contented himself with twiddling every knob on every amp instead!
I wonder how much skin I lost and blood I spilt skateboarding whilst listening to Sonic Youth on my walkman in my teens...
I found Daydream Nation at Brash’s at Werribee Plaza in 1989…
The week after I had bought Candy Apple Grey by Husker Du.
Those two albums blew my mind apart as a 15 year old kid…!
I had always loved the Jesus & Mary Chain’s noisiest moments, but finding stuff like the Smiths, Echo & Bmen etc to be missing something, but then DNation.
Ahhh!!! A sprawling adventure of an album… with a Song called the Sprawl (Edit: omfg… I always wondered, but wasn’t sure about the neuromancer connection! I wrote this comment about 4 minutes into the video. So many answers, connections etc came after that point. Excellent work Trash Theory)… a journey, a Trip (!), a work of art that took me away from start to finish.
Noise, quiet, travel, noise, introspection, throwing shit at the walls, everything is in there.
Still love it, still one of my favourite road trip albums (& my daughters!).
Still find guitar lines, drum fills & more that I have not loved enough today.
Saw them with Helmet & Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy at the Prince of Wales in about ‘94/95(???).
Only chance I ever had… WHAT a night!!!
Also saw Madonna at the MCG, partly bc of SY Ciccone Youth adulation & my first girlfriends worship of Madonna… dressing almost gothy bc of Madonna who took Siouxsie style to new areas.
I will be listening to Daydream Nation when I am 80.
It is just that foundational to the world of music as a whole… but for me as well personally.
No wonder it had been put in the USA Library of congress.
Saw them many, many times and can attest to them being one of the greatest live bands ever. Changed my life. Too many incredible songs to choose just one. ❤❤❤
You have a lot of videos that educate me about bands I don't know much about and I learn a ton, and I thank you for them. Then you do ones that are big, comfy chairs for me to sit in and revel in like this one. Thanks so much for both kinds!
Thurston ? This is Watt .. Calling 📞 From Providence Rhode Island .
@@hjvanderlinden😂😂it just flys out the window
You gotta watch the motin' Thurston, your fuckin' memory just goes out the window
We couldn't find it in the van at all, we wonderin' if you looked in that trash can
When we threw out that trash, man, was the bag in your hand, did you dump it?
Call later, bye"
Source: LyricFind
Thurston and Kim changed my life forever. Together or not they are still the King and Queen of noise 💜🫶🏻
Sonic Youth 4ever
One thing is for sure: they didn't change your life for the better.
At last! One of my favourite bands! Can't pick a song, but the album i love most is Jet Set... Thanks for this episode, and now i can only hope for Soul Coughing.
Fantastic video on Sonic Youth, you do a great job!
I first saw them live for the first time in Sydney on 30 Jan 1989. Changed my life. I'd been watching local indie bands a plenty, at the time not many OS indie bands toured Australia. They blew me away. Loved their energy. Rollins was touring at the same time and I saw him after the show and asked what he thought, he replied great but I've seen them play before and they were like bam! I'm thinking how can that be possible, that was the best show I had ever seen. I had Daydream Nation but following that gig I search every record shop for their back catalogue. Fun times. Thanks Trash Theory for another great video.
This was long overdue. :)
An excellent summary of one of my favourite ever bands. Thank you. 😊 🙏🏿
Now you got it right with me. This band and this album are landmarks to my artistic life as a musician. Great research, indeed. Despite the fact that "Diamond Sea" is my true Sonic Youth's favorite song, I'd choose the final trilogy of "Daydream Nation" as my favorite suite any day. "Teenage Riot" is, indeed, a mandatory favorite for me in the whole album, though.
One of yr hands down best takes. Thanks!
Loved the video. It was a journey through my teenage youth (pun intended).
Theresa’s sound world is my favorite song, and probably their most underrated imo. It was the perfect mix of their early days’ noise combined with the cleanest production they’d ever achieve
That one is really good, always loved it
I remember going out to a live gig, it was a local bands last show. This gig was the night of my 19th birthday, but also the day covid 19 shut the world down. Before the band played over the speakers the venue's DJ played a decent chunk of Daydream Nation. I of course already listened to and owned it but that was a interesting moment to hear the album
who's youth'ing their sonics rn?
Always
Saw them play Daydream Nation the whole way through ❤
Your videos are amazing thank you for creating and sharing 🖤
As ever, fascinating stuff mate. Grew up on these guys and the bands they influenced and were influenced by. Favourite song is probably Youth Against Fascism, not exactly a super cool deep cut but I just fucking love it.
"Silver Rocket" and "Cross the Breeze" are my favorites. I still feel great influence of Sonic Youth and this particular record.
I discovered Sonic Youth with their album Goo, Mote is one of my favorites by them, it feels like a great balance between the more accessible songs on the album and their more traditional songs, it still blows me away
This video made me love the band and Daydream Nation even more - thank you!!!
As always another stunning TT vid, well worth the wait.
My favourite band of all time. Not just because of their music, but how their music changed my perspective of what music could sound like.
Favourite song would have to be “Skip Tracer” from Washington Machine.
I just love the part in your videos where you list all the bands and tracks that were influenced by the said artist you discuss. And that "wait a minute... yes!" moment. Huge respect for your work, I'm always mesmerised by your ability to tell a story while analysing. Not to mention Sonic youth are one of my all time favourite musicians. Thanks for this video!
You got the whole thing right. You did an excellent job. You know a secret or two about goo. ROCK ON!
Big no wave fan and nyc native, born in the early 70;s , never understood the popularity of this band. I haven't stopped trying = won't stop
Right on! They're so overrated. I will give kim credit for getting me into royal trux. Now there's an underated band.
The best guitar album of all time. I bought this on cd for a road trip across the prairies as a young teenager , and it will always be forever weaved into my remembered idea of America. Thank you for such a great biography
Sonic Youth has been my favorite band for some years now and the reason why is exactly what you describe in the video. They prove that with sheer creativity you can make any music that you want, reinventing tools that have been used for decennia by reducing them to their most primal beginnings. They are the perfect example of music nerd punkers or diy'ers and i will always try and support those artists in the music industry, because i think these artists are truely the ones that are able to push us forward.
Favorite tracks:
-Pipeline/Kill Time
-Silver Rocket
-In The Kingdom #19
-She's in a bad Mood
-Chapel Hill
i could go on
Daydream Nation is arguably one of the greatest albums of all time. I wish there was more music like it.
My favorite band of all time. Did a 180 turn in my musical direction and I'm never looking back
Been waiting awhile for a video like this, Thank you! 🎉😊
One of the most formative bands ever for me... one of the all time greats IMO.
Evol and Sister changed my life and I’ve been obsessed since
They were such a great band, and such a pity it ended the way it ended. Last year, I saw Thurston Moore perform, which was great: he is still such an amazing player. But his band is just a collection of musicians who do a decent job, but just serve Moore's playing without remarkable artistic influence of their own. And that's when you release this chemistry of Sonic Youth, where all the band members contributed to its unique sound. What a truly great band it was. Luckily, I have my memories from back in the day. :)
I was 16 when the first EP was reissued in 1987. Still one of my favorites, along with many songs (like Sugar Kane, Tunic, Teen Age Riot and Death Valley '69 with the great Lydia Lunch). Still a fan!
I’m a fortnight late but hopefully you still see this. I want to say how much I love your videos and how much new music they introduce me to, how it shows me so many connections and shows me what to like about stuff. It’s honestly so great man. Keep doing it as long as you keep feeling it, because it’s such a great watch every time. Genuinely fills my heart to get such great investigations of artists I know and such great recommendations of new ones I don’t. Thanks man
Terrific overview on this band, who literally scrambled my DNA and still influence me greatly. Favorite 3: Teen Age Riot, Stereo Sanctity, Drunken Butterfly.
Great Sonic Youth doc. I was a teenager when Sonic Youth put out EVOL. Changed my musical world. Daydream Nation was so fucking cool.
Punk rock changed our lives. Now I know where that line came from. Thanks for the awesome history. I found so much music since finding yr Channel🤘
i love sonic youth so much. they impacted my teen years alot after my friends aunt introduced me to them when i was 11! some of my fav SY songs are definitely 100%, i dreamed i dream, sunday, into the groovey, the diamond sea, beat on the brat, mote shadow of a doubt and so many more theres just so many good ones!!!
R.I.P. James Chance
Lee Ranaldo is an awesome guitar player. I saw him perform at a coffee shop in an ambient jazz trio. He knows several magical chords!
He's the coolest guitarist ever. Beautiful singing voice. I saw him in a jazz noise trio - epic.
One of my Top 10 albums ever made, though, truth be told, I only really enjoy a small handful of other SY songs from the rest of their catalog. There’s not a wasted note or word on the whole record, it’s stunning in every way. I never knew about the connection between Daydream Nation and Public Enemy’s Nation of Millions but I always felt a connection between those two albums - I suspect it’s a New York City in the late 80s thing.
I saw SY in the mid 80s and watched slack jawed as Thurston jabbed a screw driver between the strings and fretboard and
The noises that screamed out of his backline blew us all away.... It was a revolutionary moment I'll never forget.
One of the best bands to discover when you're young and yearning to hear something out there and totally different
I love Kim Gordon's album "The Collective." My kids tell me it's Tick Tock influenced and I have no idea what they're talking about. I still love it.
YES!!! At last, you've made a video for Sonic Youth! They are TOTALLY one of the best punk bands ever!
Thank you Trash Theory! You've made my week! 🤠🎸