[FYB]

Old thread but thought I'd chime in...I wonder if in 2015 more people would now say Killing Joke is at least as influential if not more influential than Sonic Youth. Killing Joke is really one of the big three postpunk bands, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Killing Joke, and they did all sorts of crazy and experimental things with music and guitar that even probably influenced Sonic Youth, let alone tons of other bands, for years more than Sonic Youth did. If you listen to, e.g,. Killing Joke on Revelations, Fire Dances, and Nighttime, even their earlier two albums, or Siouxise and the Banshee's Join Hands album, or even the song Monitor on Juju, etc, they really do predate some experimental things Sonic Youth did. (Incidentally, same with King Crimson, they did a lot of experimental things Sonic Youth did later, if you listen to their album Red or Larks Tongue in Aspic, or even their less-good 80s stuff). Killing Joke--their early records, up through Nighttime, are hugely challenging and experimental and often have drums and guitar and bass parts and tones and song structures that are highly influential on music as we now know it, including likely on the music of Sonic Youth.

The thing is, Killing Joke, Siouxsie, and Joy Division influenced tons, tons, tons and tons of bands, and it would be hard to think that Sonic Youth, who were so into music and obscure bands and experimental bands, would not have listened to a ton of these three original postpunk bands and have been influenced by them. Check out, e.g, Revelations and Fire Dances by Killing Joke--not just some of the guitars, but I think a lot of the really crazy drumming by Steve Shelley on Sister and Daydream Nation is possibly influenced by the crazy tribal, tom-heavy, complicated Killing Joke drums, as well as the song structures and guitar sounds, etc.

That said, there is a lot of not-good Killing Joke, their best records are probably Revelations, Fire Dances, and Nighttime, in my opinion. Most of their stuff after Nighttime, especially their 90s stuff could be mostly considered really bad. That said, I really like Evol, Sister, and Daydream Nation, and never liked Sonic Youth's post-Goo stuff very much, but the best of Killing Joke and Sonic Youth are amazing. Anyway, I think more and more people realize how influential bands like Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Killing Joke are, they really influenced all of punk/postpunk/emo/experimental/alternative music, at least as much as if not more than Sonic Youth I would think, even just given that by the mid/late 80s/90s when SY hit their stride, Killing Joke etc. all had already been very influential for a very long time. Killing Joke were already very popular in the early 80s, influencing the very musical environment in which Sonic Youth started getting popular in the late 1980s/1990s.