Why are so many of you in Grindcore bands?
 

Don't get me wrong, It's not a bad thing, but given that you are fans of Sonic Youth it's a surprising kind of genre to be apart of.

I dunno if I'm in a grindcore band, but my band was associated with it and certainly a few of my older bands definitely were grindcore (though not straight-up grindcore; I'm more inspired by Le Scrawl than Napalm Death), so I feel a bit qualified to answer this. The noise, simplicity, power, speed, even experimentation, etc. of grindcore is probably what initially attracts people to it. I, myself, as a youngster, usually cared about two things: speed and complexity. So, yeah.. grindcore!

But.. I do have trouble with your statement "as fans of Sonic Youth". I think Sonic Youth fans probably -- and it's the reason I still frequent this board, despite the frustrations -- have the most open taste in music of any other band, simply because they have tons of fans and all are into Sonic Youth for different reasons and come from different backgrounds and like different things. Personally, my favorite genres are surf, glitch, death metal, whatever weird stuff Polvo is, and jazz -- I'm sure someone else is into country, folk, grindcore, polka, r&b more. So, yeah, I think "being into Sonic Youth" doesn't necassarily mean you only like alternative rock and/or noise. I know that wasn't the point of your post, I'm just saying.

I think it's hard to be in a grindcore band for a long time, because your tastes, erm.. maybe not "mature" but.. it's hard to play that type of music for years without doing something different. But I think many people making music are attracted to the rage and simplicity of it, and in a lot of ways that actually parallels what a lot of people like about Sonic Youth: the noise offers release. Maybe Sonic Youth isn't the fastest band around, but they do stir up a .. youthful .. ruckus and I think I can find tons of similarities in thinking and so-called revolution between SY and grindcore. So, yeah, it definitely seems likely to me.

why not? grind is the shit (sometimes literally).

i love playing over superfast beats and the challenge of doing an actual song in under a minute (that's especifically talking about my band).

i always thought the lesson behind sy is being open minded. just ask thurston, he listens to everyone from like ornette coleman to venom.

I have no clue, I just like them. Not all of them obvioiusly but...
Like other people said, I'll listen to a lot of different music, but I go crazy when things are simple and fast.

Good points. It's interesting that there aren't many bands like Sonic Youth that can inspire people to play music of a completely different genre.

And saw(y), I'm not saying it's weird, just interesting.

profile of typical sy fan in the early 80's: swans, lydia lunch, einstürzende, birthday party.

profile of typical sy fan in the late 80's: hüsker dü, replacements, dinosaur jr, meat puppets, butthole surfers (maybe).

profile of typical sy fan in the early 90's: nirvana, mudhoney, dinosaur jr, flaming lips.

so which one is which?

swa(y): sore throat, yeah! i was listening to them the other day, fantastic.

fyi: jim o'rourke contributed to the fear of god tribute album.

I've actually heard a fair number of people stereotyping Sonic Youth fans. Most of the time they're really far off.

Can you give me a few suggestions for some grindcore bands to start with? Seems like an interesting style.

You can check out Death. Napalm Death is definitely good...

this is very true, all of my music is written for experimental theatre and dance, I don't currently play in any bands.....

I like death screams, they are fun.
Here's another question:
Why grindcore as opposed to, uhh, Thrash Metal for instance.

^Yeah gd question... not many anthrax or megadeth fans here, huh? wonder why?

I like metallica's first 4 albums.

my band rocks
http://myspace.com/thelilypadofdeathdestruction

we're the most grinding grindcore band around

Consider yourself added.
Wait, your name isn't Pedro or Cameron ....

Metallica's early stuff is revolutionary... But I think they were a bit misunderstood by many... They were really into the stooges and the misfits and the whole punk energy attitude thing... By the time they got to St. Anger, things had changed a whole lot. Actually it's quite similar to what Sonic Youth is experiencing, in a way. I remember everyone ripping on Rather Ripped on this board, when it came out, which is understandable, considering it appears light years apart from what Daydream Nation was...

yeah man, I grew up with that stuff! shit! I am that dude with the dinosaur jr shirt ! fuck!

I have seen nirvana, dinosaur jr, mr bungle, mudhoney, pavement, sebadoh, all in their prime. I am that indie dork. Oh well. Someone's got to represent for the slackers!

I was a "typical" fan in the late '80's but I did not like husker du at the time and have never liked the replacements (BORING!!!!!), and I HATE the fucking MEAT PUPPETS country trock bullshit!

the typical sonic youth fan in late 80's was more into Jane's addiction, dinsoaur jr, butthole surfers, etc

I was also an old metalhead
progressing from quiet riot and Crue and def leppard in the early 80's to megadeth metallica testament slayer in the later 80's.

I LOVE ride the lightinig. Fight fire with fire.

first of all, if you want to listen to grindcore AVOID death, they are death metal, technical death metal to be more precise, bunch of solos and tempo changes.

the basic most essential grind bands:

napalm death (FIRST TWO ALBUMS ONLY)
carcass (first two albums, starters of death/grind and gore/grind)
terrorizer
anal cunt (especially their earlier stuff)
brutal truth
nasum
DISCORDANCE AXIS
pig destroyer
fear of god
siege
ganglia (digigrind)
s.o.b.

second of all, i grew up on thrash and still listen to a fair amount of it, i mean, i go nuts with municipal waste and they don't play a single original note, it's all straight up 80's thrash.

dude, a couple of weeks ago i was going to see kreator, probably this saturday i'm seeing celtic frost and there's a chance i might get to see sodom in november. among the living is amazing, a couple of months ago i even broke out master of puppets (still rules) and slayer is my favorite live band besides sonic youth...hell!!! just last week i rocked dark angel's darkness descends.

i think, later today, i'll be spinning coroner's mental vortex, it's been a while.

if your question was, why i play in a grindcore band (and "grindcore" being a very loose term here) and not a thrash band, a) grindcore is more suitable for a one man band, b) there's not much room to improve over thrash, the only thing to do is pull a municipal waste, c) because grind is more of a challenge and more open to experimentation and d) because it's a lot more fun to play riffs over blastbeats, trying to keep up, than playing parallel guitar melodies.

that said, i think monosodic is equal parts grind and no wave, plus other shit in there.