Sonic Youth was a New York rock group formed in 1981 by Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo, with Steve Shelley on drums from 1985. Coming out of the no wave scene, the band built songs out of guitar noise, feedback and improvisation, and moved from small independent labels to a major label without dropping its experimental side. The band stopped playing in 2011. The first EP appeared in 1982 on Glenn Branca's Neutral Records; Ranaldo had played in Branca's guitar ensemble. EVOL and Sister came out on SST, Daydream Nation (1988) on Enigma, and Goo (1990) opened a run of albums on DGC.
Long before streaming services, podcasts, or even the compact disc, there was Tellus - a radically ambitious publication that imagined recorded sound as an exhibition space. Founded in 1983 in downtown New York, Tellus transformed the humble audio ca…
Washing Machine is the ninth studio album by the American experimental rock band Sonic Youth, released on September 26, 1995 by DGC Records. It was recorded at Easley Studios in Memphis, Tennessee and produced by the band and John Siket, who also eng…
A Thousand Leaves was Sonic Youth's 10th studio album and the group's first major effort to be recorded at their own Echo Canyon studio in NYC. Free from the constraints of paying for costly studio time, the band was able to work at their desired pac…
Sonic Youth's eighth album, Goo, was their first for DGC / Geffen. The album marked their major label debut, featuring arena rock staples like "Kool Thing" and "Dirty Boots" deep in its grooves.
This allowed Sonic Youth to enter the mainstream w…
2025 stock The Destroyed Room: B-sides And Rarities, a band-chosen collection of near-hidden Sonic Youth gems. The album brings together songs from throughout the band's career with Geffen, focusing on tracks previously available only on vinyl, limit…
Recorded in late 1981 at Radio City Music Hall and originally released on Glenn Branca's Neutral label, this remastered and expanded vinyl reissue includes the self-titled debut record plus live material from '81 and a track from a previously unheard…
25th Anniversary Edition. Goodbye 20th Century is a double album of covers of Avant-garde recordings by Sonic Youth and collaborators. SYR4 features works by avant-garde classical composers such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, and Christian Wolf…
Sonic Youth on Superior Viaduct!!! In October 1987, four months after the release of their critically acclaimed Sister LP, Sonic Youth showcased their latest work in a blistering set at Cabaret Metro, Chicago. The concert was introduced by Big Black'…
** Original copies of this rarity. Factory sealed. Few copies available ** A legendary compilation with contributions from no less legendary figures/bands like William S. Burroughs, Sonic Youth, Diamanda Galas, Michael Gira, Coil and many others. "Ea…
Hits Are for Squares is the first greatest hits album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 10, 2008, by Starbucks Entertainment. The album features 15 songs spanning Sonic Youth's career since the release of their debut studio album in…
Color vinyl. "Culled from three 1985 gigs in the UK during a transitional and transcendent time in the band's story, Sonic Youth's The Walls Have Ears appeared/disappeared as a 2LP set in 1986, not just a live album but an artful tapestry full of liv…
2024 repress. "Daydream Nation was Sonic Youth's sixth full-length, their first double-LP, and their last for an indie label before signing with Geffen. Widely considered to be their watershed moment, the album catapulted them into the mainstream and…
The final U.S. show, a triumphant and blistering bookend to the storied career of one of the most influential bands in rock music, featuring a unique and expansive eighty-five minute set list that spans Sonic Youth’s nearly three decade catalog. Rece…
BACK IN PRINT ON VINYL! While 1995's Washing Machine LP moniker was a thinly-veiled jab at the corporate aesthetic ("no, you cannot turn Sonic Youth into a household appliance brand", the band even considered changing its name to Washing Machine but…
For the third of Sonic Youth's sound experiment series, they teamed up with legendary nosie-nik Jim O'Rourke. Building on the ideas from the brilliant extended version of "The Diamond Sea" (from Washing Machine); the series explores the (mostly) inst…
The Dutch title that literally translates to "Bedrooms with Whipped Cream" and harkens back to the band's experimental days. On three tracks spread over 28 minutes, Sonic Youth work out extended, hypnotic themes for non-existent psychological case st…
In mulling over their career, it’s staggering to realize that Sonic Youth not only delivered a healthy slab of releases as a unit but also have a myriad of shelved material still waiting for broader ears. While the group’s current Bandcamp abode lays…
Originally slated to be a seven-inch single to follow up their self-titled debut, Sonic Youth ’s Confusion Is Sex blossomed into the band’s first album: a brain-bludgeoning, completely fried endeavor of dissonance and disarray, a perfect soundtrack …
Received a 9.8 rating on Pitchfork. “Let’s get something straight. There is no album in the entire corpus of indie rock—not Loveless, not Surfer Rosa, not Psychocandy—that reaches the heights of invention, joy, and magic of Sonic Youth’s sublime fif…
Touring in support of theIR classic LP, Daydream Nation, Thurston, Kim, and the gang rolled into Austin's legendary Liberty Lunch club for what would turn out to be one of the most highly regarded live dates in the group's history. With a track list …
In Spring 2010, Sonic Youth gathered at their Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, New Jersey, to watch the rushes of a new film, Simon Werner a Disparu, by French director Fabrice Gobert. They spent the following few weeks recording music which was t…
In celebration of The Infinite Mix, The Vinyl Factory releases the soundtrack to Cameron Jamie's ‘Massage The History’ by Sonic Youth. Cameron Jamie has described his films as ‘a way to visit hidden worlds within our world.’ In Massage the History,…
Sonic Youth’s second full-length LP Bad Moon Rising was originally released on Homestead and Blast First in 1985. The album is a fascinating examination of “the junction where hippie idealism [meets] the cold hard world,” says guitarist Lee Ranaldo, …
" The slow-burn sounds of Sonic Youth’s 1986 rehearsals to score Ken Friedman’s spooky highway film Made In USA are yet another mile marker in the band’s long and varied existence, now being issued as Spinhead Sessions (named for the North Hollywoo…
"EVOL" was Sonic Youth's fourth album, significant for one fairly obvious reason: the addition of Steve Shelley behind the kit. Steve joined the band in mid 1985, and this is the first album he plays on. EVOL also features the first real "guest appea…
"Silver Sessions were taken from an evening when Sonic Youth had to do vocal overdubs for 'A Thousand Leaves' - the band upstairs was hammering out some funky metal overdrive and we couldn't "sing" properly - we decided to fight fire with molten lava…
Another installment of Konkurrent's fantastic series which invites bands to record while touring Holland, giving 2 days to record 20-30 min of whatever they want. In June 2001 SY played the Holland Festival. For their studio time they invited the Dut…
The sixth edition of the SYR series is a live recording of the April 12, 2003 benefit concert held at and for The Anthology Film Archives, the international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of avant-garde and independent cinema. In …
Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth is an album by Sonic Youth with Mats Gustafsson and Merzbow. It is the eighth release in the SYR series. It was released on July 28, 2008. It will not be released on vinyl. The album is recorded the first July 2005 on the R…
Another great installment in Sonic Youth's SYR series, this one features two engrossing, lengthy pieces : 'J'Accuse Ted Hughes' and 'Agnes B Musique'. The former was recorded at All Tomorrow's Parties 2001, when the band were premiering material from…