''Sonic Death'' is a
live album by American rock band
Sonic Youth.
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 Aci ...
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, ''
Sonic Youth'', ''
Confusion Is Sex'' and the ''
Kill Yr Idols'' 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. Mo ...
's Ecstatic Peace! label. It was later re-released on cassette and released on CD by
Blast First 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 equipm ...
. It is currently out of print.
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine 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 databa ...
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