A lot of the lyrical ideas do have a lot of meaning in a way, although it is somewhat abstracted.
Anyone who grows up with parents who are very influential, there are cases where people run away from that if they have parents who are really lame.
April Wine were that early '70s band. I always liked those early '70s Canadian rock bands, 'cause they always had this chunky, meaty sound.
Buddhism has become a socially recognized religious philosophy for Americans, whereas it used to be considered an exotic religion.
Each member does whatever they want with the song and it totally changes it from whatever idea I hear around it. It turns it into a Sonic Youth song and completely away from it being a solo song.
Every now and again, the alternative culture is cherished by the mainstream for what it is, rather than how it should be, like the mainstream popular music.
I certainly don't sit around in the morning making pancakes listening to Whitehouse or anything.
I don't really care about, Oh I really have to sell these things.
I find it discouraging to see these bands taking this really simplistic element from Nirvana and employing it to their own success.
I grew up in the early '70s in New England.
I have to reign myself in a lot.
I never do releases to try and make or break some contemporary band.
I never go back and listen to the recorded document. The thrill comes when the balance can be attained. Everyone in the room can have a shared, communal rock experience.
I really want to do a book on the history of the no-wave music scene in New York, how it extended out and formed lots of other things. It was such a great visual culture.
I wanted to hear the songs in the way that I had written them, which was very basic. All I wanted was drums and another guitar, and I was just going to sing.
I was surrounded by nature and trying to come to terms with this blissful nature versus the inhumane mentality of war. People were being deluded by someone using the word peace.
It's American Alternative radio stations that bug me. We're considered Alternative, but don't expect us to be played next to Blink 182 and Offspring. We're hardly of that generation.
It's hard for bands to stick it out because people grow up, and it never really pays off. If you're looking for some sort of payoff, it's not gonna happen.
Kids think of us as being totally over the hill.
Lyric writing is an interesting process in Sonic Youth. There's three people writing now, and we've all had a lot of interest and involvement with expression through words.
Most people can't tell now who wrote what. I like that blurring of identities within the band. because it becomes a unified thing that can't be related to other forms of historical poetry.
No one really gets rich doing this. A couple people do, Black Sabbath does. We don't sell any records anymore.
Nova Scotia College contacted us; it was really early on... they asked if we wanted to do a symposium. We just sat around and talked to some students.
Recording tends to restrict too much experimentation, 'cause when you're making a record it's a part of you, for that time it's your whole fabric.
Rock'n'roll saved my soul.
Some of the most wonderful moments for me musically were machine made and plastic.
The band has a liberal philosophy - that's sort of a given.
Traditional songwriting, to us, is where the experimental nature comes in. We're all involved with so much outside activity with really hardcore, experimental music-making.
We always try to encourage more songs sung by Kim, because there are always requests for it. I certainly don't want to ball hog all the singing.
We had wanted to a fairly large theater tour. We're doing Lollapalooza. You play to 20 times as many people as you'd ever be playing to.
We never notate our music, so you can try to replicate it, but you don't really have it.
We sat around, for the first time ever, and wrote lyrics all together, trading lines. We had some Star magazines lying around.
We're all very sensitive that Jim has the shortest history with the band. He wants to be somewhat of a free agent. I'm just going to let time dictate how Jim's future evolves.
We're like old people now playing music. I'm so glad we stuck it out because it's a lot better. I used to feel kind of anxious. Now our apprenticeship is over.
We're playing all these weird festivals, usually outdoors.
We've never had a gold record. We make more money from being active, working, publishing, we have a great catalog. We never really had any hits.
When we tour the songs, they tend to get more and more expansive, and actually evolve over time until they are something quite different.
Whenever I can afford to do something, I do it.
With these reissues, listening to these tapes, it seemed very crude to me. There's no way I'd ever want to play like that again.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!