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We've been around long enough that there have certainly been people at every stage of our career telling us about one or another record being influential to their lives in one way or another. It's always nice to hear that stuff.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
Sonic Youth played one show before we even had a drummer. It was just me, Kim, and Thurston. The lights slowly went down, and the set was just 30 minutes of feedback.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
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Sonic Youth was a collective. There's something fantastic about the idea of making music is a social activity.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
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.
Thurston Moore Sonic Youth -
Everyone's so interior now, they're not really looking around them. They're on their phones.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
I have to reign myself in a lot.
Thurston Moore Sonic Youth -
When Sonic Youth writes music, we write everything in a very communal way. It doesn't matter who brought something in initially; it all gets transformed by the band.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
A friend of mine introduced me to Thurston Moore because she thought I would like him. He was playing with the tallest band in the world, the Coachmen. They were sort of like Talking Heads, jangly guitar, Feelies guitar. Anyway, it was love at first sight. His band broke up that night. And we started playing.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth
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Sometimes, you don't know where your inspiration's going to come from.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
I am basically a shy person, so performing sometimes helps me focus - having all those people concentrate their attention on you. I don't see it so much as becoming another person onstage; it's more exploring a different side of your personality.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
I'm a relatively shy person, but I love being challenged and putting myself in positions that are scary.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
It's amazing how many things you can do when you're just pretending.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
We're playing all these weird festivals, usually outdoors.
Thurston Moore Sonic Youth -
I've never been a huge Zeppelin fan, much to the chagrin of everybody else in my former band. But certainly those Pink Floyd records, I was really into them, especially 'Dark Side of the Moon.'
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
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'Daydream' brought us to the top of the heap of the indie-college market and recognition by all of our peers; 'Daydream' kind of capped off everything we set out to do when we started as a band, in terms of, like, wow, wouldn't it be great to make a record that a lot of people liked and listened to?
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
Signing to a major, there weren't many bands from our sphere that were doing it. I mean, obviously R.E.M. had done it, and Husker Du and the Replacements had done it, and maybe Soul Asylum, but that was probably about it. Those four bands were pretty much the only ones from that milieu that had signed to a major.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
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.
Thurston Moore Sonic Youth -
I gravitated to New York City in the late '70s to pursue a career in visual art, which is what I trained in at university.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
There's only so many small shows you can do. A lot of the smaller things are more side project things. Not everything is appropriate for Sonic Youth to do.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
You're always going to feel like you're catching up, and part of that is just balancing work and motherhood and the whole feeling of needing to please, which I do think girls and women feel more than men.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth
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I'd rather have vinyl and a download code than a CD any day.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
In Sonic Youth, at the end of 'Expressway to Yr. Skull,' we'd tap on the backs of our guitars to get this low-level feedback, and if I leaned forward, and the guitar hung off my body, it would resonate differently.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth -
Rap music is really good when you're traumatized.
Kim Gordon Sonic Youth -
I'm so used to knowing what to do with an electric guitar and amplifier, but with an acoustic guitar, it's different, but I still have an amp and a whole bunch of pedals.
Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth