Going to go out on a limb here and talk about my other favorite band, Phish.
Before you dismiss them as some crappy jam band (I actually dislike that genre name and scene for that matter), let me share some of the parallels I find between Phish & Sonic Youth:
Both Rock.
Both play improvisational music.
Both experiment musically.
Both are a force to reckon with live.
Both started in a "grassroots" manor in the early 80's. (Phish in 1983).
Both have always had a strong DIY ethics.
Both have multiple lead singers.
Both have a kick ass drummer.
Both have shared the same recording engineer/producer : Jon Siket
Both make me dance like a madman out of control.
Like I said above, I am not a fan of jam bands at all, I never thought of phish as a jam band, more of an American band that happens to play many styles of music. At a phish concert you are more apt to find me jumping around, head banging-rocking out-devil horns up in the air style. For me it's all about the music at the moment getting into my head and making my body move.
Listening to each part of the music individually yet as a whole at the same time.
I've made a little sampler of live recordings that can be downloaded here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ws6b4fmdvcy5ypp