The Band Most Influenced by Sonic Youth?
 

Just listened to some podcast talking about SY being one of the most influential bands of recent years. Everyone goes on about this and its probably true, but which band do you think has been most influenced by them?

hmm. Unwound? (who I also love, so don't flame me).

A good question, this. Offhand, it's hard to think of a particular group who has been influenced by the substance of SY, as opposed to the surface sounds - Lord knows there's been enough SY imitators over the years (various Brit-watchers will be aware of AC Temple, f'instance). One name that I immediately thought of was Pavement, at least int their earlier days, with their skewed take on the SY dissonance through tuneage ethos. And you could to a certain degree draw a line from "Xpressway To Yr Skull" to Dead C (Im thinking of the likes of "Driver UFO").

What Im talking about though I guess is the influence of earlier SY. As for post-"Daydream Nation", my knowledge is not so hot, I'm afraid....

DUSTdevils, first Mark Ibold band. love them!

I'd agree about AC Temple in terms of the pre-Daydream Nation era.

FUCKING HELL! That's almost exactly what I was going to post.

Great minds think alike, innit.

Nickelback

It's an interesting question this. They influenced an enormous amount of people, yet the most SY-sounding bands are probably in their bedrooms right now, working out 'alternative tunings', and how to get weird sounds off their guitars, maybe suddenly realising that that is not like that that it should be done.

They aren't a band like The Beatles, say, where a certain type of melody is very much their own and you borrow wholesale.

Well said, dear.

Sonic Youth has created such a massive discography that ranges in style so much, nearly any artist/group can be influenced. Anywhere from Arab on Radar's herky-jerky mentality to Pavement's whinings could be attributed to Sonic Youth.

polvo were inspired by them.

Now, sonic youth are inspired by polvo ("what we know"!).

PS:

That's exactly what I was going to say. I bought that back in the day and I instantly thought "whoa, Sonic Jr."

that made my day.
thanx.

good thread.
i dont know offhand, maybe trail of dead? (im not a huge fan but a friend of mine was). i agree about the pavement thing, the weirdly tuned guitars and the noise.

I think most bands influenced by Sonic Youth know better than to imitate their sound. It's more the spirit of the thing. I think Kim Gordon's influence on Bikini Kill and other grrrl bands is huge. My Bloody Valentine were clearly listening to American bands like Husker Du and Sonic Youth when they transformed from a twee pop act into their beloved shoegaze combo. The post-rock scene owes a lot to them. Nirvana, Mudhoney, and a bunch of other "grunge" bands.

The most? My Bloody Valentine, without Sonic Youth, would sound a lot more like Zen Arcade than they already do.

Anyone that creates prolific and innovative music

i have been told that Blonde Redhead are Sonic Youth-y.

Carsick Cars: http://www.myspace.com/carsickcars

U2.

Yep. Dust Devils were actually too close for comfort in my book, but you nailed the answer there.

that's what i was going to say.

sure there's tons of bands with alterna-tuned guitars and bad voices and play feedbacking instrumentals, but few share their (former?) mission of sound exploration and composition.

to answer the question of the thread, my vote goes for the boredoms, as they are inspired by sy and have taken their approach of exploring everything from pure cacophony to more tuneful, composed material and also have an open policy concerning collaborators and number of side projects (i do think, though, that there's (was?) some counter influence going on here, bore's super roots series vs the syr series, for instance...)

The two that immediately came to mind is Pavement and Unwound. Polvo for sure too. Too bad all of these bands are now defunct (I guess Polvo is reuiniting but whatever)

Probably Polvo and Unwound are the clearest choices. The Swirlies is another good one.

I don't think Sonic Youth and Pavement really sound alike, sure Pavement uses some alternative tunings and all but they're entirely different bands.

~Jeremy~

yeah, Car Sick Cars, chineese SY :-).

Poem Rocket's another good one.

I suggest Spraydog. SY infleunce goes beyond unusual tunings and feedback solos.

Swervedriver.

My band Tubby Boots.

Mine :)

Placebo (no, I don't like this band).

Project A-KO
www.myspace.com/projektako

a few years ago, I also found a Czech band sounding like Sonic Youth in their DDN era but I forgot their name

How about we name every band who uses fender jags/jazzmasters. Obviously.

This is why I never post in this forum.

Action Beat.

funny, some informed me about this one not so long ago somewhere else :)

looking at your replies on this topic, it's better this way :p

In this topic, I'm only interested in discovering bands and have a "hey-this- sounds-quite-like-SY"-feeling from start to end.

thanks for all who contributed so far

...with drumsticks. alt. tunnings. fuzz pedals.

Yakari
www.myspace.com/yakarimusic

I'm sure that there's more identical indie bands mimmic'ing SY tunes, but as for major label bands, I always thought that Pavement sounds influenced by them. And I always thought the Smashing Pumpkins had a little SY vibe..... especially when that song "1979" came out. I just couldn't hear it without thinking they were cop'ping SY.

Another one would be Explosions in the Sky

and in general....... pretty much every rock band popping up today in some way or another, where influenced by Nirvana.... and as most rock bands today sound like other bands that were influenced by Nirvana.... I think Cobain was highly influenced by SY. (if that makes sense?) So countless bands are indirectly influenced by Sonic youth.

Oasis, aka Mirage.