Sonic Youth [EP]

Performer: Sonic Youth
Engineer: Don Hunerberg
Producer: Sonic Youth
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Richard Edson. All songs written by Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth: Thurston Moore (vocals, guitar); Lee Ranaldo (guitar); Kim Gordon (bass guitar); Richard Edson (drums). Though Sonic Youth's first EP is the least of their major works and was the only one to not receive reissue in 1995 by DGC, it's not a complete blunder. Awkward and rather formative, the record sounds like a fusion of no wave and an early Factory band. A couple tracks ("The Burning Spear," "I Don't Want to Push It") match the best of Confusion Is Sex, steeping itself in death disco and minimal scree. Thurston Moore yelps, Kim Gordon rambles, and the guitars go plink-plink-plink. Tumbling and tinny tribal drums are provided by Richard Edson, who would be seen as an ill-intentioned parking attendant four years later in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. ~ Andy Kellman

Uncut (p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's accomplished stuff, the band declaring their avant-rock intent from the start." The Wire (p.63) - "[T]he group's signature guitar chimes -- sweet, eerie, skewed, detuned -- are present and correct from the first bar."

Drawing equally from punk rock and new-music pioneers such as John Cage and Glenn Branca (whom guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo both played with), Sonic Youth employed a palette of white noise that deconstructed punk-rock orthodoxy into radical new configurations. Seemingly the opposite of what major labels would want in a band, Sonic Youth inked a deal with Geffen records in the late 1980s and caught the ear of a certain mainstream listenership. With the release of their 16th proper studio album, RATHER RIPPED, in 2006, Sonic Youth secured their position as icons of underground and alternative culture.

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