''Silver Session for Jason Knuth'' is an EP by American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of th ...

. It was released in 1998, credited to record label Sonic Knuth.

Content

The EP's eight tracks consist entirely of guitar

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

with occasional drum machine. It was dedicated to Sonic Youth fan Jason Knuth, who committed suicide, with proceeds from the record's sales donated to the San Francisco Suicide Prevention Hotline. The liner notes, written by

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. M ...

, contained an explanation of the record:

''Silver Sessions'' astaken from an evening when SY had to do vocal overdubs for ''
A Thousand Leaves ''A Thousand Leaves'' is the tenth studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on May 12, 1998, by DGC Records. It was the band's first album recorded at their own studio in Lower Manhattan, which was built with the money they had m ...
'' – the band upstairs was hammering out some funky
metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...
overdrive and we couldn't "sing" properly (?!). We decided to fight fire with molten lava and turned every amp we owned on to 10+ and leaned as many guitars and basses we could plug in against them and they roared/howled like airplanes burning over the pacific 'sic'' We could only enter the playing room with hands pressed hard against our ears, and even then it was physically stunning. We ran a sick, outmoded beatbox through the P.A. and it blew out horrendous distorted pulsations. Of course, we recorded the whole thing, and a few months later we mixed it down into sections, ultra-processing it to a wholly other "piece". In a way, it's my favorite record of ours – I hope Jason nuth, to whom the release is dedicateddigs it. Keep on, keep on, keep on.

Critical reception

Jason Birchmeier of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

wrote, "Of the many strange recordings released by Sonic Youth over the course of their long career, few measure up to ''Silver Session for Jason Knuth''". Describing ''Silver Session'' as

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extrem ...

, he called it "an interesting addition to their catalog, intended mainly for loyal fans."

Track listing

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1998 EPs Sonic Youth EPs Instrumental albums Experimental rock albums by American artists Noise rock albums by American artists