When did you start Listening to the Youth?
 

How did you come to find SY, what was your first album, where were you, and what were you doing?

I was in Alaska at Mammoth Music grabbing albums with a lot of distortion on them: Pearl Jam, Pumpkins, Soundgarden...Goo. I listened while I worked on a painting in my dorm room. I went back a couple of days latter and bought Evil, Sister and Confusion, as well as PIL's Flowers of Romance.
I stopped listening when alt become pop (1993) until this year.

1996 and i got daydream nation in the mail. i remembered them from letterman and beavis and butthead though i never checked them out until 9th grade.

I think it was 2004 year, and Sonic Nurse realese. Yes I love that album, one of my faves, it was something different, that I haven't heard before. this is the main reason. then I've downloaded Murray St, and excitement not ended yet. after this I started buying CD's by them, NYC G&F was next.

I think I bought the 100% single out of curiosity in 2003 and bought Sonic Nurse when it was released in 2004. I can't believe I've only been listening to them for 5 years!

It was in 2004 too, in the Summer to be precise, I was 13 (I'm born 1990), and still a Linkin Park fan.
I had discovered The Hives (which I still like four years later) a few months ago, so I went to a Virgin Megastore to buy one of their CDs, and they played the Nevermind (What Was It Anyway?) video on the big screens. I was totally impressed cause I thought it was catchy and yet I had never heard something like that before. I then checked NYC Ghosts & Flowers and it pretty much changed everything I knew in music - within six months I didn't listen to Linkin Park anymore and begin discovering more and more bands

Funny...i found S.Y in 1990...( i think i'm 99 )...when i saw the "100%" video, and i fell in love for the sound and style of them.
Then i went to the record store and i bought "Daydream Nation"... my first album... today i have 24 works of sonic art.
My ears and mind never more were the same since then.

I started listening to them 3 or 4 years ago, which isn't bad considering I'm only nearly 16.

Cool! you found a video two years before the album was released! How did you do that?

Me, I bought DDN after reading a review in the Village Voice. Best of the year or something. Oddly, I didn't get Goo until the reissue. I bought Dirty second hand in a store in Missoula Mt on my way to Alaska. And then I was hooked.

Actually, before Dirty, I bought Confusion is Sex and really didn't like it. Probably wouldn't have bought Dirty if it was full price.

I'd have to say I wasn't a big fan until A Thousand Leaves. I just about wore out the CD.

And, since someone already mentioned it, I bought at least a couple of CDs at Mammoth Music.

It's always refreshing and uplifting to see that they're still inspiring younger generations of fans considering just how bad the landscape of popular music is now. As for myself, I've been listening to them heavily since the late 90s (high school)

1992/3 i bought "Dirty" at Coconuts. Next "Sister." etc. "EJST&NS" was my first one to buy new.

I was seventeen, soooooo...2005. Someone lent me DDN, which I didn't like much. Then I bought Dirty blindly and liked it. Then some dude in my class sold me Sonic Nurse for three bucks and I really liked it. Decided to go back to DDN afterward and I progressively fell more and more in love with it.

I'd been a fan of New York bands like the Ramones and Television for awhile, so I'd always known about them. The Silver Rockets and Kool Things: 20 Years of SY documentary was shown on TV, so I watched it, the only track title I could remember was Teen Age Riot, so I bought Daydream Nation.

i'm a radiohead fan. i was reading about this b-side of 'em.. 'permanent daylight'.. it was supposed to be a tribute to sonic youth ... and it was a favourite.

so i got daydream nation and loved it... it just grew on me.. now theyre my fav band ever :P

And, since someone already mentioned it, I bought at least a couple of CDs at Mammoth Music.[/quote]

Was not Mammoth Music great!? Mammoth bucks and all. What an era!

2000?
Middle school.
Year punk broke VHS.
Dirty for my birthday.

Forget that, it was in grade school.

1987 read a review of sister in people nagazine. NBext year saw 120 minutes premiere of Teenage Riot video, got my fucking ass blown out my ears, and bought DDN. It was everything and all and more than I ever thought possible from an album.

I wish I wasn't so young. So much of what I listen to was done before I even heard of it.
I'd rather put something out on FMP than win a million dollars.

2002

First three CDs:
Dirty
NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Murray Street

i was 13. someone showed me the song 'plastic sun', and i was hooked.

I bought Dirty when I was 12 after reading some reviews about it being a good place to start.

dude, same thing. Though I bought Dirty because it had the most songs.

I did because it was the only one in stock. I'm glad I started with it though, it's got easy to digest songs. If I had started with DDN I think they would have been pretty long to hold a 12 year old's attention.

Yeah. I was heavy into nirvana at the time so it helped.

I was listening to the pumpkins loads and some guy on a forum said that Siamese Dream and Goo are his favourite albums. I couldn't find Goo till a few months later.

I think I got Murray Street second. Can't remember when I got Goo. I got all the major ones within a few birthdays though.

I got all their albums in just under a year. I had a bit of trouble finding EJSTNS though.

Living next to bullmoose is great, they had everything in stock at the time. I had to order Confusion online though.

In 1984 I was flipping around the left side of the dial and came across the tail end of "She's in a Bad Mood". My life was instantly and forever changed. I picked up Bad Moon Rising soon thereafter a few months after that traded in a bunch of Styx and Rush albums for a copy of 360 degrees of Simulated Stereo by Pere Ubu.

Bought DDN in October of 2004, haven't looked back since.

Sonic Youth 37 and I got into SY at the same month of the same year. Epic!

1992? I was 13 and I bought Dirty because I read some great reviews. Actually, I was going to buy The Lemonheads, but the cashier at Tower Records was really cute and was wearing a SY shirt. When I was that young this seemed like a great way to impress this girl. Obviously, she never asked me out (or spoke to me), but I did get REALLY into Sonic Youth.

I maintain that ATL is overrated.

That's irrelevant. Pumpkins have nothing to do with the amount of glorification that SY fans put into ATL. Perhaps I should have specified that it is overrated by fans. It's not a bad album, just don't see why everyone thinks it stands out from SY's other achievements.

I was in high school and my brother came back from uni with a stack of CDs. I took to them like a fly to shit and one was Daydream Nation.

Nah hits of Sunshine just drags on at the end. I like Karen Koltrane though.

I still like some variety in it though, you know? Like it's just them playing a short two chord progression through a flange box with no changes for ages.

About a year ago, actually, after spending all of the 90's making fun of one of my best friends for liking them (for there is no limit to a high school metalhead's elitism). I heard "Kool Thing" on a total whim a while back and was surprised at how dark it was, so I picked up Goo and was impressed by it (especially "Mote" and "Titanium Expose"). Went back an album to Daydream Nation and was absolutely blown away - seriously one of the best albums I've ever heard in any genre. I still get goosebumps every time "Rain King" comes on.

Took me 17 years to "get it", but I finally did! I only wish I was still in touch with my friend so I could tell he was right.

This is probably very typical for a SY fan in his early 30s:

around 91 when I was 13-14. I friend of mine got some mixtapes that I copied, with punkrock and all the classic 80s stuff: SY, dinosaur, big black, black flag etc. All these bands kicked so much more ass the current favorites like Billy Idol (duh)

And then, of course, Nevermind came, and nirvana became like the BEST BAND EVER. So I based on what I heard on the mixtapes and Kurts t-shirts I bought Dirty when it came out, and that was record so noisy and rockin ´It was the coolest record I´d ever heard! They where even cooler than nirvana... :eek:

1992
a friend of mine put dirty on
totally not yet really impressed while digesting your usual Nirvana fanatacy
was untill 1994 and the utterly blessed EJSTANS I got into them
then heard Washing Machine exclusively on Belgian radio with Lee and Thurston commenting on the new tracks
>>>>> SOLD!!!!!