How were you introduced to Sonic Youth?
 

Back in 86 or 87 I was a huge Stooges fan. I listened to Iggy all the time. I was splitting my time between two groups of friends. One was the Lower East Side and Queens hardcore punk scenes and the other was a group of gothy friends.

My friend Giovanna looked like she really rode the line between the scenes. She wore pointy women's Doc Martins and dressed all in black. She always wore red eyeshadow that gave her kind of a sickly, sexy, appearance. I was driving her in my beat up Grey Ford Granada and popped in an 8-track that I recorded of the Stooges and she had this look that she used to get when she was passionate about something. "Frank, you HAVE to check out Sonic Youth!" she continued "They make the most amazing music and if you love the Stooges you're definitely going to love them."

and I did.

I checked them out after seeing them on The Simpsons when I was 12 or 13. I knew I had something special then.

The year was 1986-87. I was 13-14, at a friend's parent's house. I picked up an issue of People magazine. In it was a review of sister.
it said that the band was the aural equivalent of spending time in an automobile wrecking yard.
The pic looked like 4 serial killers, not like "rock stars"
I bought daydream nation when it came out, based solely on that. I knew no one that listened to them

saw the sugar kane video on TV in 93

Was convinced by reviews of music i was into at the time that i should have a go. Bought Daydream Nation. Wasnt hugely amazed. Bought Evol and Confusion is Sex. Was.

Heard them on John Peel, ATL-era. I'd read articles and thought they sounded like a good idea, but took a while to hear any actual music.

Reading magazines around the time of Evol.

someone lent me sonic death sometime around 91/92 and that was that.

Bought "Sister" in 1987, haven't looked back since (except for all the times when I have).

cufs and sleves

then it was butons and clis

i saw them on letterman playing bull in the heather. i saw thurston moore on 120 minutes interviewing beck and mike d and then i read something abut them also, so i decided to order daydream nation for free from columbia house. i quickly had to buy a bunch of their stuff so i already had like 8 of their cds in less than a six month time period.

growing up with the radio in the early 90's was impossible to escape "kool thing"; it was also impossible to flip through spin and not see them mentioned every three sentences as the kings of kool and how kool they are and how great musicians they are because they are kooler than you. i hated "kool thing".

years later, while getting into at the drive-in, jesus lizard, drive like jehu, jimmy eat world, mineral, etc. i would see sy's name being tossed around by band members and the press to describe the skronky, noisy moments. checked out "teenage riot" and "schizophrenia" and thought they were like r.e.m. only slightly better.

afterwards, i saw a clip from later with jools holland of the band playing "sugar kane"; i pretty much watched it like 20 times in a row trying to figure out if it was the same band and getting my mind blown for every time i kept rewatching it. not long after, i bought dirty.

the radio. i was newly arrived to amerikkka in the early 90s and i heard kool thing in WHFS (said station no longer exists). while everything else in that "alternative' radio was fun yet forgettable, kim's horny voice struck a chord deep in my soul. so i found out the name of the band, went to the record store, and picked up a copy of whatever they had-- EVOL-- which blew my mind. EVOL has been my favorite youf record ever since.

Sugar Kane on MTV when Dirty came out. It was love at first sight.

87...friend had Daydream Nation on tape.

Providence spoke to me, deeply.

I had a friend who was in to them when I was in high school, and I'd heard that Kurt Cobain really liked them. We were in a really shitty punk band. I went to Hastings and found the 100% cd single. "Genetic" is still my favorite SY song.

you may be floatzing there but, seriously, the first time i listened to daydream, "providence" was the only track i liked.

totally not floatzing.

if mammary serves me, I thought that some of the songs were too long. [tonguesmilie:emote]

at that time, most of my favorite songs clocked in at under a minute...

I was young and foolish then. these days, the diamond sea isn't long enough.

i used to be like that, hated the long songs.

when i first heard ddn, i was already very familiar with sy but a) the remixing/remastering on my dgc cd copy was awful, very slick and samey and b) most of the songs don't seem to be songs but jamming with attempts at songwriting on top of it, with the jamming not deciding whether they still want to be atonal noise explorers or rocking out without the "rock".

my.
next.
band.
name.