[greenlight]

nice to read yr. stories.

it was in the university. somebody put goo into tape player and i was hooked straight away. then i've started to borrow/buy other albums and i'll tell you i love them. i saw 100% video way b4 i heard goo, i liked video and music, but wasn't really exploring sy, i think i wasn't in music at that time, well i liked metal at that time.

[Danny Himself]

I'm going to copy something in here that I posted in a different thread a long while ago:

Definitely it's the youth's Daydream Nation. I know, I know- cliché, but it did everything for me.

I was about twelve or thirteen, and my parents had just broke up. Being at that particular age in which life already feels hard enough, the emotional baggage I had to drag around with me got me down.

On the advice of The Simpsons, I intended to check out Sonic Youth. I need some music that I could hold onto at the time. So I went to a record store and bought two SY records, Dirty and Daydream Nation. I didn't listen to them until later that night, when I went to my mother's new flat (she had moved out because she caused the breakup). My room there was cold, bare, and was lit too harshly by the big light. It had a huge mirror on one wall, no curtains, and a shitty foldout bed. I pulled in a small stereo and stuck on Daydream Nation. I sat on the bed and pressed 'play' as the room's atmosphere started to get me down.

Teen Age Riot, as if from nowhere, floated into the room with a ghostly riff. Spirit desire. We will fall. Spirit desire. We will fall- and then the riff floated back outside with its vocal friends. I felt really sad. But Teen Age Riot was not over, no- it had just began. Just like my life.

The instruments all announced their presence one by one- Thurston's guitar, Kim's bass, Steve's drums, and finally Lee's guitar, as the song exploded energetically. Thurston began to sing. Immediately I felt like I had a friend in the room. His voice was so indifferent to everything- like he'd seen it all before a million times and it had come to nothing. "Everybody's talking 'bout the stormy weather, but what's a man to do but work out whether it's true?". Thurston guided me through the situation calmly, his wisdom sprawling through the song until the end.

I sat and reflected through Silver Rocket. It was just a bit of background listening at that time. Then The Sprawl started. The guitar danced in, and Kim began to tell me what was up. Another friend had come in. "I grew up in a shotgun row, sliding down the hill, out front were the big machines- steel, and rusty now I guess" she chatted, her childhood just a memory now, and though so much had happened, she was fine. She sang me to a thoughtful doze, as the song deconstructed and fell apart.

Much like Silver Rocket, 'Cross The Breeze was a song for background listening as I thought away. I sat with my ghostly sonic friends in the cold room, staring at my reflection in the mirror. Things aren't so bad, they tell me. Achoo... brancafest.. Lee whispered. What? "I can't see anything at all! All I see is me." - I nodded in agreement. I couldn't see anything past myself at that moment. I had another friend. Eric's Trip might as well have been Danny's Trip.

Thurston told me the whole thing was just Total Trash- and I believed him. I was open for any suggestions. The cold harsh room had just disppeared now- I was transported to that NYC street corner as depicted in the CD photo. Lee told me to put it all behind me. These times are such a mess. So just pick up the past and say 'yes'. KICK IT! Hey Joni..

By now I was convinced that Sonic Youth were the shit and nothing else I'd heard before was worth listening to. Rain pattered onto the window and I looked outside. It was nighttt. Providence faded in rather unnoticably- Mike Watt left me dreamscape messages about some shit as Thurston played piano in a distant room. The album was just blowing my mind. It was my new best friend.

There it was again, a guitar announcement- Candle. Thurston was back. I didn't know what the fuck he was singing about but it all made sense. Cocker on the rock? Man. I was just going with whatever he said because SY was all that mattered at that point. Lee got me a bit apprehensive with Rain King, but Kim reassured me I had Kissability.

The Trilogy played out very well. Whatever had happened, the city was still a Wonder town. I was feeling a little sleepy as Hyperstation kicked in. This album was pretty demanding. I fell out of sleep and hit the floor when it all kicked off and Eliminator Jr. came on. The rhythm was kicking and the drums were thumping and the sonix just keep playing, and, and..

snap. Daydream Nation was gone, and the only sound left was the whir as the CD span round to the beginning.

I was motherfucking hooked on Sonic Youth. I went out and got all their records, scoured biographies and sought thousands of pictures of them. Through that time though, I discovered everything else I listen to today (other than SY of course): Dinosaur Jr, Cat Power, Nirvana, Black Flag, The Ramones, The Stooges, The Beach Boys, Sun Ra, fucking BECK. Sonic Youth had enough sophistication in their music to keep me open minded to all avenues of genre- Jazz, rock, punk, [tasteful] pop. Musically, I was BORN! Daydream Nation entered me into another world, in which I live in right now.

And I'm loving the world I live in.

Without Daydream Nation, music probably wouldn't have been as important to me as it is these days. I would have never picked up an instrument or joined a band. Music is my world, thanks to this album.

[Trasher02]

TOYMACHINE
Jump off a building!

ED T'S part

[marsvoodoo]

on 2002 i was into bands like vomito negro, à;GRUMH... and eventually started to listen to throbbing gristle. then one guy said "if you like noise you should try to listen to sonic youth... download murray street", and i did, and the reaction after listening without much atention was, "oh, boring rock stuff, i don't like it" (even if i already like some rock bands).
some time later one girlfriend sent me a cd with lots of mp3s, and there was a thousand leaves, murray street and nurse. still it didn't work, listened without atention, and... "boring rock stuff".
soon after i started to give more atention to the "boring rock stuff", like placebo, and i was feeling that i wanted something more.. more... more better.
one day the same girl of the cd, then ex-girlfriend, e-mailed me Sunday. i remember of listening to it on the bed, enjoying some lazyness, and it was OH FUCK THAT'S IT!!!
next day i told another girl "oh, i was listening to a sonic youth song yesterday and OH FUCK THAT'S IT!!", and she sent me the 100% video. in the following weeks, every morning, after waking up to go to the university, i listened to sunday and watched the video at least three times. i download some albuns, first sister, then confusion is sex, and the first ep (and, later, every single one), and remembered of the cd that the ex-girlfriend had sent to me, and when i was already obsessed, i was at a friend's house and he played teen age riot. this song have that kind of magic, and i became more obsessed.
one year ago when they came to brazil i was convinced that they are my favourite band, and, well, they are.
now i'm trying to collect the vinyls and stuff.

[touch me i'm sick]

jsut heard it playing here and there and i was like. what the fuck i need this

[sonicl]

I think I saw SY mentioned in an article that also mentioned The Jesus and Mary Chain. I liked JAMC, the name Sonic Youth stuck in my head, I saw and bought either Halloween or DV69 (I can't remember which came first). My bank account hasn't been the same since.

[Androol]

almost 15 yrs ago i smoked a joint with friends and they put on evol

[matt g]

in 91-92 i had heard bits of goo and wasn't so impressed, later as dirty was coming out and sy was on the mtv here and there and i was impressed with how they didn't seem to care about mtv or anything like that, plus the nirvana connection, so i checked out dirty, and i just didn't get it still, fast forward to the beginning of college, hanging out at someone's casa and they was playing the 1991 vhs and damn, it just all made sense to me finally!

[guitarpro]

Saw em on Letterman in 94 and been a fan ever since.

[yumopal]

i hated them when i first bought their album daydream nation and listened to them.
iwas searching for records and some people on the internet recommanded that album. that's why i bought it. anyway i throw it away . dust covered record. daydreamnation was it.

someday i just picked it up again and listened to it while walking down the street . the sunlight was shoooting and 'daydream nation' was plyed.
u know the first song is teenage riot. the noise and rhythm and vocal ... something got me hooked . i went behind the wall and started to dance!!
i don't know if somebody saw it~ kkkk

then i bought dirty, sister, goo and so on ..

[Malachi_Constant]

Confusion is Sex/Kill yr. Idols. It hit all the right buttons and scared my lamer friends. Really. One kid listened to "Shaking Hell" and really believed these cats had sold their souls to Satan.

To this day, it's probably my favorite SY album.

[Grodey]

I read this Nirvana book, and it kept mentioning this fucking weird band called Sonic Youth. I went on Amazon, and everybody kept saying Daydream Nation was their best album. I bought it, and I thought it was the biggest piece of shit I had ever heard in my life. About 4 months after that, I gave it another chance, and I've loved them ever since.

[finding nobody]

There will be no topping Danny's story. But here's mine!

February 2004
I'd been planning on buying on a Sonic Youth record after seeing Daydream Nation is Kurt Cobain's journals. So, one weekend day my Dad drove me to Best Buy. I seen Daydream Nation on the shelf looking at me. Picked it up along with Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.
On the way back home I put on the Bob Dylan album, I was much more eager to hear it because I already knew a couple of the songs.
When I got dropped off I came inside and put Daydream Nation on the DVD player and called my Girlfreind at the time on the phone.
While chatting away for almost all of the album I liked it right away. I just liked how the songs didn't end at 3:00. They didn't need to. And it was best that they didn't.
Over the next couple of weeks I was playing the album non-stop. Including the time I had 100 degree temperature. I just remember laying in the bed delerious while The Sprawl was playing. Pure bliss.
After playing this cd over and over again for about a month I decided I needed more stuff by Sonic Youth. So, I came on old blue and made thread for people to suggest my next album to buy. I took someone's advice and got Sister. I didn't like it at first, but it's sense grew on me. And it rules.
I slowly completed my Sonic collection and the rest is history.

[EvdWee]

i guess it was 2004 when i got a copy of daydream nation and sister from someone who recommended it.
in these days i used to do the dishes after diner. with a little separate kitchen containing its own cd-player i decided to give it a go. every evening in the week.
it took me a while, but i like it. afterwards i changed daydream nation for sister which i liked much better.
then i got dirty, but i didn't really like it at first, so i put it away. then i got to murray street and sonic nurse. these albums where mindblowing to me.
afterwards i completed my collection of sonic albums after sister. i still don't have evol/bmr of sy. just too less money.

[racehorse]

few years back, in gatwick airport awaiting flight to germany for school trip.
i had a bunch of euros as emercency money for the trip, but i was (am) an irresponsible fucking kid so i thought i'd blow it in the HMV. i was browsing, looking for sonic youth because i'd seen their name on a guy's t shirt once before. this guy played in a band and knew all the cool bands and was much, much cooler than i could ever have hoped to achieve. we're talking different levels here. (or so it seemed to me)
in my hand, walking down the aisles i already had found The Fall live at witch trials and a record by The Cocteau Twins. my eye caught hold of Dirty, it was the cheapest one there, so i thought, fuck it, why not, this might be cool.
i was not expecting the sonic heaven that emerged from my headphones into my virginal earlobes at that moment when i slammed the disk into my walkman. wandering around gatwick airport departure lounge, feeling a new sort of crazy punk rock rebellion inside myself, evoked by this music. fuck! if this band could make an album w/ screeching feedback (i know now that this was their cleanest release to date) then man, i didn't need to go back to my school party! fuck em!!!
eventually the album shrieked it's last dying squeals as the teachers were whipped up into a frenzy searching for me. i wondered up, picked up my bags and got on the plane. never been the same since!!
life was changed!
phew!

[Dead-Air]

I was listening to the radio in '84, a big Zeppelin, Rush, Yes fan (age 18) at the time, and got bored and started flipping the dial around. I hit the tail end of "She's in a Bad Mood" on KCMU (the once god-like Seattle college station that went to shit and then became KEXP). The dj came on and it was this totally spaced out chick and when she said "That was "She's in a Bad Mood" by Sonic Youth..." I instantly realized that everything I knew about rock music to that point was wrong. There was more power and crazy artiness in the few seconds I heard of that tune than in all the heavy metal and art rock albums in my whole pathetic collection. I never turned back.

[EMMAh]

Ummm, I randomly ordered Daydream Nation with the points from my Air miles card.

[Magic Wheel Memory]

Went on a date with Kim, got her drunk and went back to her place. Things started getting frisky in her living room. Next thing you know, Thurston appears from behind a bookcase wearing a bunny costume. Then, Lee comes downstairs riding Steve bareback. Before I knew what was happening, the five of us were getting it on. I knew it was something special when I woke up the next morning with our five bodies intertwined and I didn't feel the slightest bit awkward. We've been in love ever since.

No, wait a minute, that wasn't Sonic Youth. Wrong band! No, with Sonic Youth, it was all about the music.

[clever name]

In the early 2000's I saw Linklater's criminally underappreciated SubUrbia and "Sunday" infected me. I bought the (out-of-print) soundtrack and listened to that song 1000 times.

Shorly thereafter Assayas' demonlover caused a minor stir at Cannes and I copped the SY-dominaterd soundtrack. This music was decidedly not rock and roll, but it beckoned in the way that only their stuff can.

A month later I got Nurse on a total whim (the cover looked cool) and it pulled me into a vortex of unmitigated sonic hysteria from which I have yet to fully recover.

The only two major SY releases which I haven't devoured are EVOL & BMR. My hands-down favorite for now, though, is the monochromatic NYC Ghosts & Flowers.

[LittlePuppetBoy]

2 words: Teenage Riot