Sonic Death [Import, Live]

Sonic Youth | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Import [Generic]
• ASIN: B0000073YQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,340 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sonic Death - Sonic Youth

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Controversial confrontational cacaphonics, August 15, 2000

By 

A. Moore "evilcat" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sonic Death (Audio CD)

My copy only has one track not two, so it's even heaveier going!

This album is excellent... almost the equivalent of the SYR series only 15 years earlier. Snippets of actual songs from early Sonic LPs show up but they're not the point of this, the instrumentals are.

It just shows how much fun being in Sonic Youth is, despite their reputation for po-faced pretensiousness... they put The World Looks Red on in double-speed and it still sounds kewl!

I think they were just having fun, and what everyone forgets is originally this was a fan club only release on Thurston's Exstatic Peace! label -- it was never meant to be a best-seller.

Bear that in mind, listen to it on headphones and have fun -- it's like a musically rollercoaster -- scary and exhilerating!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, March 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sonic Death (Audio CD)

This isn't for fans of Goo or Dirty. It's Sonic Youth's noisiest and most abrasive album. If you like Confusion is Sex, you'll love this. It's got awesome versions of The Good and the Bad, Confusion is Next, The Burning Spear, Kill Yr Idols, Early American, and some really cool instrumental stuff. All the songs are noisier than the studio versions, even the songs from Sonic Youth's weird early 1981 period. My only complaint is that Lee doesn't play the power drill on Burning Spear!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a cultural artifact of a bygone era in avant garde rock, April 28, 2003

By 

Matthew Brewer (somehwere in time) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sonic Death (Audio CD)

To get the full power of this recording you really have to invent a time machine and go back to the early eighties and see Sonic Youth perform live. An example of the early, raw power of this band. Back when they first started they were constantly redefining their sound with new kinds of chord progressions, feedback, distortion and just plain weirdness before settling into the corporate mainstream with more accessible recordings of their music. Still a great band though, especially live. The best early work by this band also includes Bad Moon Rising and Evol.