EVOL

Performer: Sonic Youth
Engineer: Martin Bisi
Producer: Sonic Youth; Martin Bisi
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Sonic Youth: Thurston Moore, Lee Renaldo (vocals, guitar); Kim Gordon (vocals, bass); Steve Shelley (drums). Hinting at the cartoon-like flash of GOO, E.V.O.L. anticipated Sonic Youth's evolving pop sensibilities, while keeping one foot in the world of clamoring drones that marked their earlier work. Sonic Youth allowed these mainstream influences to come to light on E.V.O.L., something they had resisted during the band's KILL YR IDOLS art-rock days. On E.V.O.L. ("love" spelled backwards), Sonic Youth honed the sparkle and chaos that permeated their sound. The shimmering "Tom Violence" affirmed, not only in name, their ability to be dangerous, while the haunting "Shadow Of A Doubt" secured Kim Gordon's position as one of rock's most intriguing monologue artists. The loping "In The Kingdom #19" invoked the beat era and Andy Warhol's "Car Crash" series ("smoke and flames, all right!"), giving the song a warped sense of originality and humor. E.V.O.L. was also the precursor to Sonic Youth's later, more pop-oriented albums, proving that beneath their white noise and art-rock posturing was a deep respect for rock's more mainstream roots. The final cut, "Bubblegum" was the perfect example. Written by Kim Fowley, the ringleader behind The Runaways, "Bubblegum" worked well with Gordon's deadpan vocal style, and proved the notion few at the time suspected: Sonic Youth knew how to rock.

Spin (p.78) - "New York's most sensationalist loud-rock quartet since Kiss ride yr skull-strewn expressway across wide-open vistas to the opposite coast..." Spin (5/01, p.110) - Ranked #31 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records" - "Waist-deep in art noise but wanting to mosh...SY wrestle with song forms and lose, thrillingly..." Q (7/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time". Q (7/96, p.144) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a sexy, warped, threatening record which switched between swaggering riffs like `Starpower' and `Green Light' and whispered, melodic ballads like the wonderful `Shadow Of A Doubt'..." CMJ (1/5/04, p.18) - Ranked #17 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1986" Melody Maker (5/4/96, p.58) - "...what's cool about Sonic Youth is their detatchment, the feeling that they're consummate art school poseurs contriving sullenness, self-loathing and rage. They don't mean it, maaan....all manicured noise and manufactured nihilism..."

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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