Sonic Youth "A Thousand Leaves" new album in stores may 5 1998 Sonic Youth began in 1981 downtown New York City - Thurston Moore - guitar, vocals Kim Gordon - bass, guitar, vocals Lee Ranaldo - guitar vocals (Ann Demarinis - keyboards - played early on for a very short bit) the 1st drummer was: Richard Edson this is the band that made the 1st eponymously titled mini-LP released in 1982 by Neutral Records, a label founded by NYC guitar/composer Glenn Branca. Lee and Thurston were witness to the original 1976/77 NYC CBGB/Max's scene of Television, Patti Smith, Suicide, Ramones, etc. Kim was in L.A. studying as a visual artist. She came to NYC, met up with Thurston and they started playing during the era (1978/79) of what is termed No Wave----harsh, challengeing abrasive music informed by rock, noise, jazz and modern composition/experimentation. Through the mutual acquaintance of Glenn Branca - then known as a remarkable iconoclast of the new radical rock composer scene - they joined forces with Lee-who was playing with Glenn's ensemble. With cheap guitars tuned to various hot rodded tunings they wrote songs like no one else. The vibe was fresh and, though mirroring the nihilism of no wave, had notions of forward positivity. - Richard Edson left to be replaced by Bob Bert, and for an interim, Jim Sclavunos. These drummers helped record the 1983 LP "Confusion Is Sex" again on Neutral. Young post-punk hardcore bands like Black Flag, the Minutemen, Meat Puppets and Butthole Surfers became contemporaries and Sonic Youth bought a van and crashed around the USA all through the 1980s playing in front of initially small, and completely freaked out, audiences. Bob Bert toured with the band as it travailed through Europe throughout early 1983. - They released an EP of their most outward and wild music to that point called "Kill Yr Idols" only in Germany (Zensor Records) and from the Euro tour a self-released cassette titled "Sonic Death" (Ecstatic Peace, Thurston's own label, which he still maintains) In 1984, after sending tapes to specific independent record labels (remember, at this time there weren't many dealing with underground music as such, and most of them seemed to reside in the U.K.)--they got a call from Blast First - a new label in London who had been dealing with Lydia Lunch - who Thurston had been playing with in a band called In Limbo (also featuring Richard Edson-drums and Jim Sclavunos-sax). They recorded the "Bad Moon Rising" LP and Blast First released it. Gerard Cosloy, who had interest in the band started work at a label in the U.S. called Homestead and released it statewide. They also released a 12" entitled "Flower/Halloween"-----their sound had developed into a more mature pop/noise hybrid with a genuine experimental flair for structure. They went to London and destoyed all who heard and watched. At that point the U.K. scene was touting the death of the electric guitar and Sonic Youth, in a New York minute, wiped that concept out. They encouraged Blast First to bring over Big Black and the Butthole Surfers to further the explosion of recognition for the new U.S. underground. Things have not been the same since. Upon return to the U.S. from the 1984 touring Bob Bert up and left (later to join post-SY noise freaksters Pussy Galore). Steve Shelley, from Michigan, was asked to join after sending cassettes of his bands The Crucifucks and Spastic Rhythm Tarts to Thurston. Lee and Thurston saw Steve play a hardcore matinee at CBGB with the Crucifucks and knew he was the choice. - Steve's formidable drum skills upped the bands musicality a level and everyone yelled, "hup!" Black Flag had a label called SST in L.A. and in the mid '80s this was considered the premier vanguard of underground, independent music being made in the USA. SST signed Sonic Youth in 1986, who left Homestead (sorry Gerard..) but stayed with Blast First for the U.K. and Europe.-- Sonic Youth recorded "EVOL" expanding on their dusted, mesa-boogie explorations of the American landscape and all it's mysteries. In 1987 they recorded "Sister" which would inspire legions of gig-goers a 1/2 generation younger than SY (Pavement, Sebadoh, etc.). This LP touched on themes of hyper-irreality and dislocution. After touring non-stop they stopped and decided to leave SST for a record deal with Enigma (now defunct) and recorded "The Whitey Album" under the aegis of Ciccone Youth - an idea borne from the fact of Madonna, who at one point was making out with a friend of theirs to becoming a superstar on the cover of Time magazine. It was an effort to create music that was completely studio based and skullfucked. Mike Watt, while sitting in on the "Bad Moon Rising" sessions helped formulate the idea recording a cover version of Madonna's "Burning Up" while Ciccone Youth recorded "Into the Groove" (as "Into The Groove(y)")---that was where the Madonna flirtation ended (save for the cover art) and the rest of the session was complete out/machine groove/psyche. Sonic Youth then recorded "Daydream Nation" a double LP which brought them to the attention of the critical elite winning them year-end best of awards up the butthola. This LP encapsuled all that had been brewing musically and lyrically with the band through the 1980s. At decade's end they departed company with Blast First and Enigma and signed to a major label, Geffen. - This was considered insane by many on watch as their was really no history of independent undergound bands, besides maybe REM, succeeding within the realms of the corporate music industry which they helped build an alternative to. They released the LP "Goo" in 1990 and then "Dirty" in 1992. Both Lps were chock block full of heady, heavy swirl and strum. They noticed a new generation of music lovers digging them and their contemporaries on a massive scale. And then Nirvana sold a zillion records and the industry was a new deal----sort of. SY toured and toured and in 1994 they released the odd and rather zapped LP "Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star" In 1995 they headlined the mythological Lollapalooza tour and toured with REM and in 1996 they released "Washing Machine" a dixie-fried noise rock lightning storm.- In 1997 SY built a studio, played the Tibetan Freedom festival for the 2nd year running and recorded a series of Eps on their own homegrown label SYR. This music was extrapolated, mostly instrumental forays into wild improvisatory meditations and sub/conscious structural creations. This work helped develop the current 1998 LP "A Thousand Leaves" - for more info on this LP - see Byron Coley's text enclosed.