Artists in 2010s
 

Hi!

I used to listen a lot to Sonic Youth in the 90s together with bands like Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Blonde Redhead.

Somehow I got into other areas of music and now it seems impossible to find a way back. Which bands and artists are the Sonic Youths of the 2010:s?

If you have any ideas, feel free to share them and get me back on track!

/Niklas

sort of nonexistent... but along the lines of abstract sound art, you have people like Michael Pisaro and Graham Lambkin making interesting music nowadays.. individually, as well as in collaborative scenarios. it's hard to think of a modern group or band with the same impact or presence of sonic youth, what about autechre?

on another note,
http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/
http://cosmicjams.blogspot.com/2009/...on-run-cd.html
http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.c...-do-volume-one

jason lescalleet makes warped sounding music using tape machines, turntables, field recordings, etc.

http://erstwhilerecords.com/ discography is littered with gems, playing/recording scenarios where two or more disparate-sounding artists are put together, for interesting results. it's all loosely generalised as electro-acoustic improvisation

https://oliviablock1.bandcamp.com/album/heave-to

also, this fuckin rules

Niklas, just to clarify, when you say like the Sonic Youth's if the 2010s, do you mean the more dischordant and adventurous end but still melodic and song based rock music?

as for rock music, deerhoof and wilco are still putting out records.. deerhoof has a series of high quality albums (with super-sounding riffs, dope drumming), spanning the last thirteen years. ever since Reveille came out in 2002

tthere are many lofi sy influenced bands these days and most of them suck or are just whatever

Yep. The problem with this inquiry is that it asks an awful lot of band. They have to have that 90s guitar-based indie thing going on, but they have to do it in a refreshing, non-derivative way. It's a tough nut to crack. Many have tried and failed.

http://noticerecordings.bandcamp.com...ings-2005-2014

Haptic have made some excellent recordings.. here are two examples, though it goes beyond "sy-influenced" into some rich and detailed sound worlds (minimal/drone territory)

how about the dead c, or goslings?

goslings are amazing

I haven't liked anything I've heard from Goslings, and the Dead C are fantastic but markedly more leftfield than SY.

I'll write a list tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/sv78Eulq79M - acre thrills
https://youtu.be/DrTV7eP3Id8 - talker

us maple made some of the greatest guitar music of the last twenty years, if you're not already familiar

Toilet & Bowels: I guess I need both ends, both the adventourous part and the melodic part. I mentioned Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Blonde Redhead here above and I guess they also combine these different aspects of music, even though I realise that Sonic Youth have done it in the most original way.

Ohsees

https://youtu.be/-LElqwoBOJE - "china steps"

Public Strain is a great album. check out "drag open" or "untogether"

the opening track has blazing, droning viola/violins.. john cale-like. the album recalls vu, sy and others -- blatantly. it's beautiful

Yeah, Women's Public Strain is absolutely one of the more markedly Sonic Youth-esque albums of the last several years. I don't think it's any more blatant than a lot of other bands who've taken cues from SY (Trail of Dead's Source Tags & Codes is a high profile and at this point very old example, but it's such a transparent grab for the sound of Daydream Nation that it makes Women look absolutely fresh by comparison.)

I'm glad someone mentioned Thee Oh Sees, and while I agree that they're a ball bustingly incredible band that can certainly claim SY as an influence, I would also argue that they don't actually sound much like SY at all. At least not in their current incarnation.

Perfect Pussy is a tough sell because they got a lot of indiscriminate hype in 2014 just for being a female fronted punk band. I know a lot of people on this forum didn't catch the bug, but their debut full length album really is an impressive and refreshing boundary testing post-punk record. There is a very obvious Sonic Youth influence in their sound, though it took me a few listens of their self-titled lp before I really heard it. It's in the spaces between songs, sort of, and in the moments when they let their hardcore sound stretch out a bit. I don't think they should be written off just because they got some heavy media attention. Their debut was one of my top 10 records of 2014, and they put on an a damn good live show.

As far as composers and sound collages go, I can't help but point to Ben Frost. He's definitely more of a maximalist than Sonic Youth, but his music has strong melodies that are heavily layered and pushed to the absolute max by multi-instrumentation and extreme volume. It's noise, but it's also anthemic. It's electronic AND organic. It's digital maximalism peppered with elements of analogue minimalism and it's fucking intense as hell. Listen to 2014's AURORA LP and accompanying VARIANT EP if you're interested.

Along similar lines, and another example of digital and analogue hybridizing, is Fuck Buttons, and sister act Blanck Mass. Not a hell of a lot of direct SY or YLT influence... more Boredoms. Fuck Buttons have yet to release an album that failed to make it into my favorite records of that year. They're getting better too, I'd say.

Also, 2015's A Year of 13 Moons by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has some really exquisite guitar based compositions and sounds. It's varied, touching on ambient and shoegaze as well as noise-influenced guitar squalls, but it's all quite beautiful. Doesn't punish like Ben Frost and Fuck Buttons.

Gnod.

Infinity Machines is an incredible album! I totally overlooked it, goddamn me!

Dude, what. are. you. saying.