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I heard Sonic Youth on the freeform radio station from UC Davis which I was hooked on early. This radio station converted me from a breakdance-obsessed kid into a listener with eclectic tastes.
First time I dialed it in, they were playing a Kraftwerk song that I recognized from the "Breakin': Electric Boogaloo" soundtrack, and then the DJ mixed into some gloomy/doomy British postpunk, and eventually threw on some stuff by The Fall and Wire. I wrote these names down on an index card and intended to buy their stuff at the mall. Back then, I thought that every record and cassette ever made was for sale at either the Wherehouse or Musicland/Sam Goody....little did I know I had slipped into the portal to obscurity.
I was listening for a few years before a Sonic Youth song had struck me to the point that I wrote the name down and began hunting for it. I was about 12 or 13, and the song was "Tom Violence." By then, I had discovered Barney's Records in Davis, and they carried more independently released stuff that I was hearing on the radio.
I got "Evol" on cassette and wore it out, and replaced it with the LP a few years later. None of my other friends liked them despite my incessant urging for them to listen....not until "Daydream Nation" hit.
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