Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City and formed in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was also a member of the band from 1999 to 2005, and Mark Ibold was a member from 2006 to 2011.
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City to begin an art career. There, she formed Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981. She and Moore married in 1984, and the band released a total of six albums on independent labels before the end of the 1980s. They would subsequently release nine studio albums on the major label DGC Records, beginning with Goo in 1990. Gordon was also a founding member of the musical project Free Kitten, which she formed with Julia Cafritz in 1993.
Lee Mark Ranaldo is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.
Daydream Nation is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on October 18, 1988. The band recorded the album between July and August 1988 at Greene St. Recording in New York City, and it was released by Enigma Records as a double album.
Interpol is an American rock band from Manhattan, New York. Formed in 1997, their original line-up consisted of Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, Carlos Dengler, and Greg Drudy (drums). Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino. Dengler left to pursue other projects in 2010, with Banks taking on the additional role of bassist instead of hiring a new one.
Stephen Joseph Malkmus is an American musician best known as the primary songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement. He performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Pavement, and as a solo artist.
Bailter Space is a New Zealand shoegaze and noise rock band that formed in Christchurch, in 1987 as Nelsh Bailter Space; they had previously recorded as The Gordons. Its members are Alister Parker, John Halvorsen, Brent McLachlan. After releasing seven studio albums, numerous EPs/singles and a career retrospective compilation, Bailter Space went on an extended hiatus in 2004. They returned in August 2008 to play the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan.
Sister is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in June 1987 by SST Records. The album furthered the band's move away from the no wave genre towards more traditional song structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach.
Sonic Youth is the debut EP by American rock band Sonic Youth. It was recorded between December 1981 and January 1982 and released in March 1982 by Glenn Branca's Neutral label. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth lineup with Richard Edson on drums. Sonic Youth differs stylistically from the band's later work in its greater incorporation of clean guitars, standard tuning, crisp production and a post-punk style.
Murray Street is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 25, 2002, by DGC Records. Murray Street is the first album by the band to feature Jim O'Rourke as an official fifth member to bolster the group's sound.
"Kool Thing" is a song by American rock band Sonic Youth, released in June 1990 in the United States and September 1990 in Europe, as the first single from their sixth studio album Goo. The song was inspired by an interview bassist/singer Kim Gordon conducted with LL Cool J for Spin. Although he is never mentioned by name, the song's lyrics contain several references to LL Cool J. Gordon's lyrics make reference to several of the rapper's works, including the single "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and the album Walking with a Panther. She also repeats the line "I don't think so", which appears in LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali". Chuck D also contributed spoken vocals to the song.
Bad Moon Rising is the second studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on March 29, 1985, by Blast First and Homestead Records. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, including references to obsession, insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism, and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans.
The Eternal is the fifteenth and final studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 9, 2009, by Matador Records, their first and only on that label. It was their first studio album in three years, making it the band's longest delay between studio albums.
Goo is the sixth full-length studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 26, 1990, by DGC Records. For this album, the band sought to expand upon its trademark alternating guitar arrangements and the layered sound of their previous album Daydream Nation (1988) with songwriting that was more topical than past works, exploring themes of female empowerment and pop culture. Coming off the success of Daydream Nation, Nick Sansano returned to engineer Goo, but veteran producer Ron Saint Germain was chosen by Sonic Youth to finish mixing the album following Sansano's dismissal.
Between the Times and the Tides is the ninth studio album by the American alternative rock musician Lee Ranaldo, released on March 20, 2012 on Matador Records. His first release on Matador Records and since Sonic Youth's indefinite hiatus, the album features a more straightforward songwriting approach to his prior material and includes guest musicians such as Nels Cline, John Medeski and Leah Singer. The album was originally intended to be a minimalist acoustic album but its sound was developed by Ranaldo during its recording at Echo Canyon West in Hoboken, New Jersey during a seven-month period in early 2011.
Smart Bar Chicago 1985 is a live album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on November 13, 2012, on Goofin' Records. It features a live 4-track recording of the band's performance at the Smart Bar in Chicago, Illinois, on August 11, 1985, during the tour in support of Sonic Youth's second studio album, Bad Moon Rising (1985).
Coming Apart is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Body/Head, a guitar duo composed of Kim Gordon and Bill Nace. It was released on September 10, 2013, on Matador Records. Recorded in Easthampton, Massachusetts in late 2012, Coming Apart features experimental noise rock arrangements alongside largely feminist-themed lyrics. The album features loose re-workings of the traditional folk song "Black Is the Colour ", and "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" by Nina Simone.
No Waves is a live album by the American experimental rock duo Body/Head and was released on Matador Records on November 11, 2016. Recorded during a performance at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, the album features improvised versions of material taken from the duo's first studio album Coming Apart and the single "The Show Is Over". It continues the project's trend of rejecting traditional musical structures and utilizing various methods of distorting their sound.
Bill Nace is an American experimental guitarist and visual artist, from New Jersey. Nace has collaborated with Joe McPhee, Steve Gunn, Thurston Moore, Yoko Ono, Okkyung Lee, and Kim Gordon. With Gordon, Nace is part of the experimental electric guitar duo Body/Head.
