#328 - Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
SONIC YOUTH BIO
Sonic Youth formed in New York City in 1981. The founding members were Vocalist/Guitarist Thurston Moore, Bassist/Vocalist Kim Gordon, and Guitarist/Vocalist Lee Ranaldo. After cycling through a few drummers, Steve Shelley took over full-time in 1985. They emerged from the experimental new wave art and music scene in New York before evolving into amore conventional rock band and becoming a prominent member of the American noise rock scene. They released a self-titled EP in 1982, but the band's first studio album, "Confusion Is Sex" came out in 1983. Gordon and Moore married in 1985, the same year Bad Moon Rising came out, which was a self-described reaction to the state of the nation at the time. The band finally found a legitimate music label in SST in 1986, and released EVOL that year (Neil Young called this album a classic). In 1987 Sonic Youth they released Sister, which was a loose concept album partly inspired by the life and works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It sold 60,000 copies and received very positive reviews. The band soured with the SST label, and switched to Enigma Records, which was a branch of Capitol Records. This sets the stage for today's album, Daydream Nation.
The band's name came from combining the nickname of MC5's Fred "Sonic" Smith with reggae artist Big Youth. Sonic Youth's influences included the Velvet Underground, along with The Stooges, Branca, Patti Smith, and Public Image Ltd. They were also influenced by 1980s hardcore punk after seeing Minor Threat perform in 1982, Moore declared them "the greatest live band I have ever seen".
The 1988 success of this album vaulted them into more success in the 1990s, releasing albums like Goo, Dirty, and their best-charting release in the United States (#34) "Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star.
In 2011, Gordon and Moore divorced, and Sonic Youth played their last ever live gigs in Brazil. The band has said there won't be any reunions
BACKGROUND – DAYDREAM NATION
The fifth and the first major album of the group was released in October 1988, and was recorded in New York City during the previous Summer. This is widely considered Sonic Youth's masterpiece. The producer and sound engineer, NIck Sansano usually worked with hip hop artists (Public Enemy's "Steel in the Hour of Chaos" being one of his works), but was aware of the band and their aggressive sound. It is generally considered an alternative rock, indie rock, art punk, and post-punk album, with the record being notable for its unorthodox guitar tuning and song structure The album has the feel of Neil Young combined with punk acts like Husker Du and Green River. This album was also a big influence on Nirvana.
Sonic Youth's standard songwriting method involved Thurston Moore bringing in melody ideas and chord changes that the band would spend several months fashioning into full-length songs. Instead of paring the songs down as the group did with previous records, the months-long writing process for Daydream Nation resulted in long jams, some lasting over half an hour. Several friends of the band, including Henry Rollins, had praised the band's long live improvisations and told the group that its records never captured them. With Moore on a writing spree, the album ultimately had to be expanded to a double album. the longer tracks worked to Sonic Youth's advantage, allowing them the space to lay down solid melodic structures and then use them as a framework for extended jams
It did not chart in the United States, but it reached #99 on the British albums chart. Three singles with accompanying music videos were also released: "Teen Age Riot", "Providence" (in the UK), and "Candle". A live version of "Silver Rocket" for subscribers to Forced Exposure (an independent music magazine) was also released.
In 2002, Pitchfork ranked Daydream Nation as #1 on their list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s (the album dropped to #7 in the 2018 list). It also placed at #13 on Spin magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985 to 2010, #30 on Slant Magazine's "Best Albums of the 1980s", and #45 on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. The Spin Alternative Record Guide named it the ninth best alternative album in 1995, and it was ranked 11th on Guitarist's 2000 list of the 101 essential guitar records.
This album was chosen to be preserved in the Library of Congress in 2006.