''Sonic Death'' is a live album by American rock 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 1984 on cassette tape by the

Ecstatic Peace! Ecstatic Peace! is a record label based in Easthampton, Massachusetts, founded in 1981 by American musician Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The label name is borrowed from a line in Tom Wolfe's 1968 nonfiction novel ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid ...

record label.

Content

''Sonic Death'' contains live recordings from 1981 to 1983. Many of the tracks on the album appear only as fragments, often with no breaks between them. Most of the songs are live versions of tunes from Sonic Youth's first three releases, ''

'', '' Confusion Is Sex'' and the ''

Kill Yr Idols ''Kill Yr Idols'' is an EP by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in October 1983, originally only in Germany, by record label Zensor. Release ''Kill Yr Idols'' was released in October 1983, originally only in Germany. ...

'' EP. Because Sonic Youth used many different alternative tunings, but could not afford to travel with separate instruments for each tuning in the band's early years, members of the band can be heard changing tunings between songs.

Release

The album was originally released as a cassette tape on

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 ...

's Ecstatic Peace! label. It was later re-released on cassette and released on CD by

Blast First Blast First is a sub label of one-time independent record label Mute Records, founded in approximately 1985. It was named after a phrase taken from the first number of the radical Vorticist journal '' Blast'', published by Wyndham Lewis in 191 ...

and

SST Records SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equip ...

. It is currently out of print.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

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: "''Sonic Death: Early Sonic 1981-1983'' captures the early incarnation of Sonic Youth at their noisiest and artiest", but calling it "often ..unfocused and tiresome." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' called it "a compilation of poorly-recorded live performances."

Track listing

The album's cover has no track listing, and CD versions consist of only one track, or two tracks (depending on the release), matching the two sides of the original cassette. The following is a list of songs that can be recognized clearly. Side A # "The Good and the Bad" (fragment) # "She Is Not Alone" (fragment) # "The Good and the Bad" (fragment) # "The World Looks Red" # "Confusion Is Next" # "Inhuman" (fragment) # "Shaking Hell" (fragment) # "Burning Spear" Side B # "Brother James" (fragment) # "Early American" # "Burning Spear" (fragment) # "Kill Yr Idols" # "Confusion Is Next" (fragment) # "Kill Yr Idols" (fragment) #"The World Looks Red" (fragment) # "Shaking Hell" (fragment) # "(She's in A) Bad Mood" (fragment)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1984 live albums Sonic Youth live albums Ecstatic Peace! live albums SST Records live albums