The History of Sonic Youth

My favorite band of all time. I had the pleasure of seeing them live three times. Awesome video!

appreciate the context surrounding the band, didnt know too much about their personal history🔥

Love them. Thanks for this, really informative and well-delivered.

Turns out he was thirstin' all along.

Very well done video I’ve been looking for something well spoken, condensed and detailed like this for a long time in video form!

Sonic Youth is my all time favorite rapper

I gotta say, as a Sonic Youth fan for now over 20 years (!?!), this was a blast to watch, well researched and edited, and it reinvigorated my love for this incredible band. I was very fortunate to have seen them live three times, twice in 2006 and in 2008, all in southern california. Those shows I still regard as one of the best concert experiences I've ever had. It's no easy feat containing SY's 30 year long history in less than 30 minutes, but you did excellently! I feel I should point out that one very significant part of SY history you did not mention that merits inclusion was the gear theft that occurred in July 1999 - overnight after a gig in Orange County CA, a Ryder truck containing nearly all of their touring instruments and equipment was stolen. In addition to drums, amps, pedals, and basses, 27 guitars - used for the various alternate tunings, all uniquely modified and irreplacable - were gone. As of 2023 only 4 guitars have been recovered. This massive loss of their key instruments forced the band to re-approach their songwriting, both dig out old guitars and attain new ones, and as a result the band's sound evolved into a cleaner, jam/psychadelic infused sound, while still exploring the wall of noise experiments, shown in albums like NYC Ghosts & Flowers & Murray Street. So that "bass" you mentioned being at Kim's apartment when Thurston first visited was actually not a bass but a guitar with a crazy connection between them: it was a Korean made "Drifter" guitar that belonged to a friend of Thurston's first pre-SY band The Coachmen, he had played it occasionally and through traveling hands it ended up in Kim's possession. He saw she had the guitar and that was definitely an ice-breaker in their developing friendship and later romance. That Drifter guitar became one of the first SY instruments, and in the mid-80s it was converted into a 4 string (tuned F#-F#-B-B), the frets ripped out, and played by Thurston using drumsticks on "Eric's Trip" on Daydream Nation. Sadly the Drifter was among the numerous guitars, amps, and gear that was stolen in July 1999 and was never recovered.

That photo of Thurston with Metal Machine Music brings me so much joy for some reason. Great video

I saw them in 1991 on a belgian festival (pukkelpop), been a fan since confusion is sex. Nirvana opened the festival (they where pretty unknown back then)

Your channel is so good!

really enjoyed this video...the presentation was so nice...felt like i was sat in a room with you...which is so much more enjoyable than these modern day, fast cut...zoom in...trendy vids so many channels like to do these days. so rare to hear a complete sentence without it being chopped up and edited so much!! Anyway, i've subbed and will be looking forward to seeing more of your content. good luck with the channel :)

Great summary. One thing you kinda missed is what exactly made their sound so different. Firstly, they almost never used standard guitar tunings. Daydream Nation sounds so interesting because it is all alternative tunings. Lee Rinaldo was really innovative. Also Kim's droll vocals (influenced by Patti Smith) which are half spoken word, half singing. A lot of bands were influenced by them but couldn't quite replicate that sound or feel.

Really nice overarching summary. Nice content and flow

1978. A great year in rock.

"Drugs and Other Forms of Debauchery" is a great name for a new band's first single!

First time I heard about Sonic youth was in connection with Ministry. Radio DJ strangely found a connection between this two bands and did pretty good program. Since then I'm listening both. Well.. 🙄 I would like to watch same kind of video on Ministry 😊 please. Now .. clicked like button and Subscribed 😉

I love your videos. It was the Devo one that first dropped into my 'recommend list'. I love Devo, had a great afternoon drinking with them during the Smooth Noodle Maps Tour. Also love REM and that vid is great. REM are awesome. But all your videos are great, even hardcore fans will learn things about their fav bands. Anyway, keep up the good work, these videos are awesome. Do Camper Van Beethoven, The Strawbs, The Jam....so many great bands to cover, literally history is your oyster! lol

Great video! I think Beck would be a cool artist to do next!

Great video!

Thank you for this video, would love to see something like this about Green River and Connan and the Moccasins