Sonic Youth Tickets

Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is a seminal American alternative rock group formed in New York City in 1981. Sonic Youth are renowned for a glorious form of noise-based chaos.Currently, the group comprises Thurston Moore (guitars and vocals) Lee Ranaldo (guitars, vocals and organ) Kim Gordon (bass guitar, guitar, and vocals) and Steve Shelley (drums).

Sonic Youth were associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City in their early career, but have outlasted most associated bands. The group was the part of the first wave of American post-punk groups. However, they successfully carried out their interpretation of the punk rock ethos throughout the evolving American indie underground that focused more on the DIY ethic of the genre rather than its specific sound. Their work earned them moderate mainstream success. They have also been successful in proving themselves as one of the leading alternative rock groups of their time.

The guitar symphonies of Glenn Branca, the heavy protopunk of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground and the punk poetry of Patti Smith were their inspirations.

Sonic Youth were greatly appreciated for their innovation.By using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre, they redefined rock guitar.

History
Origins
Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo had good experience of performing in various short-lived punk rock groups. They happened to perform both together and separately. Ranaldo was a member of composer Glenn Branca's electric guitar ensemble; Moore and eventually Kim Gordon would also perform with Branca. Moore and Gordon decided to form a band where Gordon would play bass guitar and Moore would play guitar.

A number of different names including Male Bonding, Red Milk, and the Arcadians were used by the band in different times.

Moore organized a 10-day festival at the White Columns gallery in SoHo in June 1981. The band then known as the Arcadians' first show was the part of this festival. A performance by Branca's ensemble was also included in the "Noise Fest" festival. Moore, Gordon, drummer Richard Edson and keyboardist Ann DeMarinis made up the band line-up at this event.

Shortly before this concert, Moore came up with the name "Sonic Youth". He combined the name of Fred "Sonic" Smith of the band MC5 with the trend of reggae artists such as Big Youth featuring the word "Youth" in their names.

Diversification and side projects
In the meantime, members of the band diversified their talents.

Kim Gordon collaborated in Free Kitten. Based in Los Angeles, an MTV-adored clothing label X-Girl was started by her. Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore have played with many experimental/noise musicians. These include William Hooker, Nels Cline, Tom Surgal, Don Dietrich, Christian Marclay and Mission of Burma, among others. The Smells Like Records record label is run by Steve Shelley. He also plays in backing bands for Chan Marshall (Cat Power) and Two Dollar Guitar.

Gordon had occasionally played guitar with the group from Sonic Youth's earliest days. She began playing guitar more frequently about the time of A Thousand Leaves and Washing Machine. It resulted in a three-guitar and drums lineup. A shift for the group's sound was experienced these songs.

A series of highly experimental records were released by the band on their own Hoboken, New Jersey-based label SYR during the late 1990s and early 2000s.The music was mostly instrumental. The album and track titles and even the liner notes and credits were in different languages: SYR1 was in French, SYR2 in Dutch, SYR3 in Esperanto, SYR5 in Japanese, and SYR6 in Lithuanian.

Recent events: 2000-present
Sonic Youth has found a following in the community of neo-jam band fans in the early years of the 21st century. The band has the honor of performing at the 2003 Bonnaroo Music Festival. A large collection of jam bands were featured in this festival. Some prominent jam band musicians have long noted the influence of Sonic Youth; in the Phish documentary Bittersweet Motel, a Sonic Youth poster can be seen in the band's recording studio.

The band's album Daydream Nation is referred to be their best work. This album was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2006.

The Destroyed Room: B-sides and Rarities was released by the band on December 12th, 2006. Tracks previously available only on vinyl, limited-release compilations, b-sides to international singles are featured in this album.