After a lot of wooing from executives, Sonic Youth went with Los Angeles-based Geffen Records, in part because Geffen would allow them complete creative control. Sensing the Next Big Thing, Browne recounts, the major labels swarmed the band. “Daydream Nation” garnered ecstatic reviews and sold well for an independent release. Rolling Stone presciently described the album as “the sound of the New Rock Nation rising.” David Browne’s biography of Sonic Youth, “Goodbye 20th Century,” is as much a chronicle of the combustion of music and popular culture they helped ignite as it is an earnest portrait of the band and examination of their work. They sounded like they’d come from the future - or the hippest, grittiest block in New York City at the very least - on a mission to change rock ‘n’ roll. Oozing with detuned guitars, hoarse spoken/sung/shouted vocals, near-abstract lyrics and crescendos of noise, there was nothing to compare it to. Sonic YOUTH roared to the front of the underground music scene in 1988 with “Daydream Nation,” a double-LP still regarded as their masterpiece.
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