Early Sonic Youth
 

To my shame I am not familiar with the first 3 SY albums: Sonic Youth, Confusion Is Sex and Bad Moon Rising. The next one, EVOL, is possibly my favourite. The reviews for the early works are not great, should I try them or maybe I should spare a dissapointment? I'm not really into no wave.

i've not heard them either, to my shame.
I think we should both go and get all 3 and stop putting it off

it's never a dissapointment. it's always a discovery.

Bad Moon Rising is my favorite SY release. Confusion is Sex is near too. I don't know where you've read bad reviews? Most reviews are read seem to judge these records as amazing

Here's one from Allmusic.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0:pvev97yakr5t

listen for free here:

http://www.last.fm/music/Sonic+Youth/Sonic+Youth

http://www.last.fm/music/Sonic+Youth/Confusion+Is+Sex

http://www.last.fm/music/Sonic+Youth/Bad+Moon+Rising

Exactly where shifts around, but I'd always place Confusion in my top 5 SY records. You need it. Now.

Confusion is Sex blew my mind when I heard it for the first time. I don't care for the reviews. Imho Sonic Youth, Confusion is Sex, Bad Moon Rising and EVOL are their best albums

Those first three albums are all amazing, each in their own unique way.

1) Sonic Youth - If only because it is one record that doesn't fit into a certain series of records. Basically, they've never done anything else that sounds quite like it. An early insight into an early Youth. Richard E's polyrhythmic percussive attack, strange guitars played in standard tuning. It wouldn't happen (much) again. Young and searchin', + it shows. Thirsty for blood they'd later find on Confusion is Sex....

2) Confusion is Sex - BRUTAL. The Youth shake hands with hardcore, and run amuck. Violent, wild, sexy. Rusted street lamp scrawl. Trash in the streets. Discarded love notes. Black Flag meet noise and the youth sense the future...chaos.

3) Bad Moon Rising - SY at their darkest. Charles Manson and Death Valley. Endless desert highway drone. No AC. H O T as F U C K. Halloween and being fed up with boring/Satanic imagery so popular amongst heavy metal youth circa '85. Brave Men Run (from Lydia Lunch)...


I really recommend checkin' out all three. That's just me, though.

I think it might be possible, that someone who likes for example "EVOL" and "Sister" don´t like three first lp`s (or first 4, if you count "Sonic Death"). That´s because EVOL is first real melodic Sonic Youth lp. Of course "Bad Moon Rising" has already melodies, but not so fully than Evol. Playeru and Sonicbebs, I Think you should start with "Bad Moon" and if you like that, then buy the first lp. Confusion is the most aggressive and chaotic Sonic Youth lp (or maybe Sonic Death). If you like Syr-records and "In a Fishtank", then you like the first one´s too! These first lp´s are very important to me, but so are all the sonic albums! : )

Bad Moon Rising is the ARCHETYPE of SY, like saying you're a Stones fan but never heard Exile on Main Street

everything SY put out in the 80s is essential, especially if EVOL is your favourite record

reading that i wonder if that guy spent for than 30 seconds listening to the record

Very nice description...I would reccomend all 3. Even if you don't quite like them at first, they have a way of one day dragging you in and you can't get enough.

I've never heard their self-titled debut, but I do like Confusion. I love EVOL and Bad Moon Rising is sort of hit and miss. Confusion has the no-wave influence to it and a lot of the songs like Protect Me You have a great haunting quality to them.
I heard on a radio show that Confusion was recorded for $2,000 and they had a few problems. The reel-to-reel machine chewed up some of the tape, so they had to smooth it out and patch it up. Then, after that, somebody spilled a can of Coke all over the master copy. There was no money to re-record the album, so they just cleaned it up as well as they could.

Fuck reviews.

mmm... Bad Moon Rising...

Sy is the last album I bought by them. Make sure you buy the remaster edition with x tracks.

If i was left on a vacant island with one CD from their early period it would be the ST release. Assuming I had hydro and a CD player

I'm listening to the self titled now, for the first time in a while, and damn is it great. One of those albums that always surprises me by again surpassing my memories of its awesomeness. Also, The Good and the Bad rocks so hard that it makes me wish Thurston would play bass on a few more tracks, just out of interest...

- Sonic Death : it's an experience in itself, very abrasive and a faithful document of their very early -live-days. Very raw.
- Sonic Youth EP: interesting in that in a way it sounds nothing like Confusion for instance. Their cleanest record (with Murray, maybe). But classics on there. Get it on wax.
- Confusion : eerie and mysterious, abrasive at times too, lots of stuff with harmonics and screwdrivers; like a manifesto of things to come.
- BMR: their most abstract record, loud and scary. You can't pretend you're a SY fan before you have at least heard this one once. It's a milestone.Better get this one on wax too if you can.

I think, it is a little funny, that at least two people say from "Bad Moon" that it is dark, loud and scary. "Bad Moon" make me feel more positive than negative feelings (if there´s is negative feelings, I think we people need all kind of feelings). I think "Bad Moon" is etheric, an album full of light. Of course there is kind of insanity and murder especially in lyrics, but there´s lots of bright elements in music. I think it´s very different if you compare it to the first album, Confusion and Sonic Death. Maybe it´s not a milestone of Sonic Youth (I think), but is very meaningful album to me (I like also the cover, maybe it´s the best Sonic Youth cover). And Sonic Youth never made anything after that album, that is even near of it. I think 1st album, Confusion and Bad Moon are all very personal in Sonic Youth discography.

These three records are among the greatest rock music ever created.

Bad Moon Rising is my favorite album by anybody in any genre, Confusion is Sex is one of the most powerful artistic statements ever laid to tape, and the first record is a pristine document that actually reflects the melodic/dissonant things to come more than either of those albums.

While I get completely annoyed with the "Sonic Youth haven't done anything worthwhile since Daydream Nation" crowd, and completely love many of their records from the '90s and '00s, I have to admit to believing at heart that the earliest recordings were the greatest. It's just that nobody had ever made anything like Confusion or Bad Moon before they did. Certainly there was stuff like early Suicide or Pere Ubu that you can compare to them stylistically (and yeah they lifted some sounds from Branca and other no wave people), but those two albums are such original statements of music that had never been heard before. And it's damn brilliant enrapturing music too, pushing the limits of what electric guitars could do in rock music the most they'd been pushed at least since Hendrix well over a decade before.

I don´t know, is here anybody else who thinks like me, but when I hear "the Eternal" first time, I was very excited and think: this is best record they´ve made!!! Of course the eighties records have something that the nineties and 2000 records don´t have (I think it has something to do with the young age of the artists). But I think Sonic Youth is band, that is not trying to be something they aren´t. You can hear, if the band tries to be younger than it is (you can hear that very well from "the Stooges" latest record. I like very much maturity, that is heard from Sonic Youth 90 and 2000 -records. Even they are mature, they definetily not are boring or have any kind of "dinosaur" -symptoms that many old bands have (for example U2).

Their early 80s stuff is so ugly, and brilliant. The self-titled, and Confusion to an extent are very primitive, in a good way! Bad Moon Rising has more of their identifiable, signature sound, but with almost no polish/restraint. The intro to Ghost Bitch is so badass.