[troutman]

With our 5th pick in the draft, troutman's K-Tel Sound Explosion, selects in the US East of Mississippi Category, from New York, New York, SONIC YOUTH:

http://www.sonicyouth.com/



http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...ifuxqr5ld0e~T1
Sonic Youth was one of the most unlikely success stories of underground American rock in the '80s. Where contemporaries R.E.M. and Hüsker Dü were fairly conventional in terms of song structure and melody, Sonic Youth began their career by abandoning any pretense of traditional rock & roll conventions. Borrowing heavily from the free-form noise experimentalism of the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, and melding it with a performance art aesthetic borrowed from the New York post-punk avant-garde, Sonic Youth redefined what noise meant within rock & roll. Sonic Youth rarely rocked, though they were inspired directly by hardcore punk, post-punk, and no wave. Instead, their dissonance, feedback, and alternate tunings created a new sonic landscape, one that redefined what rock guitar could do. Their trio of independent late-'80s records — EVOL, Sister, Daydream Nation — became touchstones for a generation of indie rockers who either replicated the noise or reinterpreted it in a more palatable setting. As their career progressed, Sonic Youth grew more palatable as well, as their more free-form songs began to feel like compositions and their shorter works began to rock harder. During the '90s, most American indie bands, and many British underground bands, displayed a heavy debt to Sonic Youth, and the group itself had become a popular cult band, with each of its albums charting in the Top 100.

Goodbye 20th Century, Hello New Sonic Youth Biography
http://www.saucerlike.com/articles.php?x=display&id=19

Q: I love the title of your book. What do you think was the role of Sonic Youth’s music in the transition to the 21st century?

A: Thanks—I like the title too (and happily admit that I cribbed it from their own album). I thought it was perfect in that Sonic Youth, along with a few of their peers, really did seek to remake and remodel the idea of pop music—songwriting, collaboration, guitar tunings and such—and remove it from any long-held connections to vernacular music (blues, country, and such). They weren’t the only ones to experiment with those notions and structures, but they were really were among the first of a new breed of rock band.

Dirty Boots


Teenage Riot

One of the best records of the past decade Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" is for my money not only the best SY album, but the best rock record or just record period in the past decade or so of good old rock n' roll, or 'alternative', if you must, since anything electrified passes as an alternative to good music nowadays. From the great and unforgettable "Teenage Riot" to "Trilogy" and the fantastic "Providence", this is an album that was ahead of it's time them, and stands the test of time now. The fantastic guitar structures and dynamics of the songs make for an absolute treat for the ears and mind. - Steve Albini

Incinerate