The desert birth of sonic youth.
 

So, while I do understand that Sonic Youth came out of New York's No Wave scene, I still feel like Sonic Youth's brilliance was born in the desert wastes of California. There's a doom there never revealed until them. Death Valley '69. The Mojave Desert of the Gila Monster Jamboree. Are early Sonic Youth an urban depression or a natural nightmare?

I may be partial to the desert despair as I feel it informs me. I used to backpack the Sierra. But couldn't it be both? Somewhere between the two?

Sonic youth is guitar music for the western sahara.

The desert, harvested wheat fields, concrete, maybe even the ocean... it's all in there.

I know what you mean pbradley, I'm not sure if you've heard the Made In USA soundtrack, but theres a real desert feel to that record in particular

Agreed.

Made in USA is one of their best albums too.

yeah it is really good. i actually found it today at a record store for 4 bucks. best 4 bucks i have spent for a cd.

Marilym Moore sounds very foggy to me. I used to listen to EVOL at my old apartment a lot which was closer to the sea and the bleakness of the track work well with the fog rolling in a distant fog horns.

Bad Moon Rising is a very desert-at-night album to me. The intro to Candle also has a desert feel to it.

i would give anything to have been at Gila Monster (theres a few pages about it in that new Psychic Sonic Youth Story that are really visual about it), i think Sister and Evol are total desert records.

when i listen to sister i think of the future. i guess after finding out that a lot of it is based off pkd, i think that. bad moon rising will have to be my desert pick.

Sonic Youth always makes me think of the streets of some great sprawling city...doesn't have to be NYC...just somewhere with a billion strange characters and just as many possibilties for a night on the town stretching out over the next several years.

Where everything's showing its age...right down to the sidewalk.

That's why I like Sonic Youth.

As a writer, I'm always compelled with that concept and those images.

Always have.

The Mojave Desert gigs they played are probably the most fun to watch out of all their shows on youtube.

I spent £25 on that CD! arrghh!!

Bad Moon Rising to me is very urban, the music contained within the album is a true reflection of the album cover. Some big city at night during late october, cold, the smell of burning stuff, people everywhere, a multicloured sky at sunset, smoke rising everywhere because of the cold air, people wearing flannel, etc. It's one of my favourite albums because of its cohesivness

Yeah, that's another one that makes me think of that.

The older the album, the more I get that image.