Sonic Youth Gossip - Your Favorite Rock Group's Favorite Rock Group

http://www.kittymagik.com/interviews....asp?artist=23

"I feel that Sonic Youth's influence on music today is incalculable. When I think back to how much I loved EVOL, Sister and Daydream Nation during my formative years, it leaves little doubt in my mind how much SY opened up the vocabulary of guitar music for everyone. Music will never be the same for me and that's the best thing I can say about a band." - James Baluyut of +/- and Versus

"Sonic Youth were primarily responsible for exposing me to 'fine art' as a teenager. I had no resources growing up in Kentucky, so their albums became a key to discovering really great artists, writers, filmmakers, etc. I can't imagine where I'd be today if I hadn't heard of Lisa Suckdog! Maybe a successful lawyer?" - Cody Critcheloe of Ssion

"When they were youth they had the wisdom to play music so ageless that you can never outgrow it. That's why they are youth forever, because they're always pushing and getting better. Actually I'm going to need them to stop getting better now-it's scary!" - Greg Saunier of Deerhoof

"Sonic Youth's commitment to art, politics, music, and fun continue to set an example for artists and those of us in the music community that we should always be grateful for." - Molly Neuman of Bratmobile

"The first one I got was Confusion Is Sex. I had never heard anything like it and I went right ahead and wrote the lyrics to "Inhuman" on my bedroom wall in soft no.2 pencil. My mom saw that shit and was like, 'Are you on drugs?' and I was like, 'Yes, but it's not their fault. I learned it by watching you, etc.' Time went on and then in interviews Thurston Moore turned me onto shit like Harry Pussy and Pork Queen, so thanks guys or I would still be listening to post-Bon Scott AC/DC." - John Dwyer of The Coachwhips

"Their commitment to other bands is truly righteous and transcends the ego...the whole '90s was informed by late '80s Sonic Youth-whether or not you liked their band, their music, image and ideas played a large part in defining the climate of American underground music at that time." - Tobi Vail formerly of Bikini Kill

"I still have the flyer from the show I saw, August 23rd, 1989, Melody Ballroom, Portland, OR. It is a Raymond Pettibon illustration of two young mods in a car with the title 'Sonic Youth Live: Plus these two hot bands: Nirvana and STP.' If ever a show changed a kid's life that was it for me. Sonic Youth's music to me was purest expression of freedom I had seen. It was raw and rebellious and smart and sophisticated at the same time. All five members seemed like artists and composers of a culture that seemed completely new to me. I could see a glimpse of a lifestyle that was radically different from the corporate suburbia that I was supposed to be attracted to. They were cool and the woman in the band seemed like an equal partner. I knew then, that in some way, I wanted in." - Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney

"After watching Thurston play his guitar for years with whatever he could jam underneath the strings, I quickly understood that scales and chords had very little to do with emotion. Sonic Youth taught me it was ok to really let loose on stage, and that in fact, my tendencies to slam my guitar into my pedal steel are just fine. Sonic Youth is all about the moment despite having 'songs.'" - Chris Funk of The Decemberists

"The first time I heard them I found this bag in a bush with two things in it-a bong made from a shampoo bottle and a Sonic Youth tape. I hit the bong and popped in the tape and haven't been the same since." - Pall Jenkins of The Black Heart Procession

"The music Sonic Youth made during their first five years has influenced me probably more than any other single band."-Jarrett Silberman of Young People
I came aboard with Confusion is Sex when all my hardcore friends thought they were too "arty." Their music not only reflected the schizophrenic nature of growing up in this society of mixed media and mixed signals, but tended to calm my nerves by offering what seemed to be the only suitable soundtrack for the movies in my head. - Alec Bourgeois of Dischord Records

"I don't know how they've changed music, but I know when I was in 5th grade they blew my mind and I will forever be grateful. they changed my musical life...hopefully for the better." - Steve Touchstone of xbxrx

"Whether it's art, literature, or music, they not only have a deep understanding of it. They also have a way of supporting it and spreading it. They're just always aware." - Aaron Hemphill of Liars
"Sonic Youth are one of those great anomalies that only seem to pop up every once in a while in any given culture. They belong in that upper echelon of American artistic innovators with William Burroughs, Jackson Pollack, the Velvet Underground, Charles Ives. But at the same time, at least from a distance, they seem to have a very down-to-Earth quality that's kept them from burning out. Like they can keep getting recharged by stepping back and being 'real people,' rather than getting stuck in the bullshit American 'star' thing that's killed off so many of our best creative minds." - Zack Wentz of Kill Me Tomorrow