Bad Moon Rising (album)
Encyclopedia
Bad Moon Rising is the second studio album
by the American alternative rock
band Sonic Youth
, released on the New York
independent record label
Homestead Records
in 1985. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, and includes references to obsession and insanity, Charles Manson
, heavy metal
, Satanism
and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans
. Each side of the original vinyl was a mostly continuous cycle of songs, except for the album's closer "Death Valley '69
".
Released to strong reviews from the underground music press, Bad Moon Rising was the first Sonic Youth album to combine the band's experimental material with transitional pieces and segues. Distributed by Blast First
in the United Kingdom
, it was the band's first release on the distributor. Sonic Youth released one single from the album, "Death Valley '69", which did not chart in either country. The album's cover is a photograph by artist James Welling
.
in 1981 by guitarists Thurston Moore
and Lee Ranaldo
and bassist Kim Gordon
. The band signed to Glenn Branca
's Neutral Records
, releasing the Sonic Youth
EP in March 1982. As Sonic Youth released a number of albums and EPs to increasing critical acclaim, including Confusion is Sex
and Kill Yr Idols
in 1983, several drummers joined and left the band. Bob Bert
rejoined Sonic Youth after the Confusion is Sex tour in mid-1983. The New York press largely ignored Sonic Youth (as well as the noise rock
scene in the city), until after a disastrous London debut in October 1983 that actually received rave reviews in Sounds and NME
. When they returned to New York, the queue at CBGB
for the band's concerts went around the block.
By mid-1984, Sonic Youth were playing almost once a week in the city, but its members started to realise there was little future in their musical approach; Moore later said "it was getting to the point of overkill". They retreated to the rehearsal room, retuned their guitars and changed their equipment so they were unable to play their old songs, and began writing new material. After a period of intense songwriting, the band entered Before Christ Studios in Brooklyn, New York with producer Martin Bisi
, who had recorded early rappers and local avantists such as Elliott Sharp
, in September 1984 to record their next studio album.
as “a melancholic, meowing slide line playing off a delicate stack of crystalline arpeggios.” "Intro" segues into the next song, "Brave Men Run (In My Family)," named after a painting by American artist Edward Ruscha
. The song begins with a single riff repeating for a minute, before Gordon murmurs “Brave man run in my family/Brave men run away from me.” The riff fades into the album's third song, "Society Is a Hole," “a one-chord hymn to big-city anomie”. Sonic Youth's use of transitional pieces in the album was inspired by their live shows, which featured either Moore or Ranaldo tuning guitars for up to five minutes while the other played slow transitory guitar riffs or prerecorded sound collages.
"I Love Her All the Time" features extensive prepared guitar
by Ranaldo and the use of one chord, with a noise section in the middle; like many of the album's songs, it focuses on texture and rhythm rather than melody. The second side of Bad Moon Rising, which comprises the experimental "Ghost Bitch" (which features Ranaldo on acoustic guitar and references Native Americans' first encounter with European settlers), "I'm Insane," and "Justice is Might," expands on the soundscape concept; the songs feature repeating guitar riffs that segue from one song to the next, while Moore and Gordon mumble cryptic lyrics.
Death Valley '69, the album's closer, was the result of a collaboration between Thurston Moore and New York singer and poet Lydia Lunch
.
All tracks except 10–11 were recorded and mixed at Before Christ Studios, Brooklyn, N.Y.C. between September and December 1984. Tracks 10–11 were recorded and mixed at Radio Tokyo, Venice, California in January 1985.
Tracks 9–12 appear only on the CD releases. Tracks 10–11 were also released as the "Flower/Halloween
" single. The Torso release and original vinyl Homestead release come with a lyric insert.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, released on the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Homestead Records
Homestead Records
Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...
in 1985. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, and includes references to obsession and insanity, Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Each side of the original vinyl was a mostly continuous cycle of songs, except for the album's closer "Death Valley '69
Death Valley '69
"Death Valley '69" is a song by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth and is the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. The song was written and sung by Thurston Moore and fellow New York musician Lydia Lunch, and recorded and produced by Wharton Tiers in July 1984...
".
Released to strong reviews from the underground music press, Bad Moon Rising was the first Sonic Youth album to combine the band's experimental material with transitional pieces and segues. Distributed by Blast First
Blast First
Blast First is a sub label of one-time independent record label, Mute Records, founded in approximately 1985. It was named after a phrase taken from the first number of the radical Vorticist journal Blast, published by Wyndham Lewis in 1914...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, it was the band's first release on the distributor. Sonic Youth released one single from the album, "Death Valley '69", which did not chart in either country. The album's cover is a photograph by artist James Welling
James Welling
James Welling earned both a BFA and an MFA at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia , where he studied with, among others, Dan Graham. He emerged in the 1970s as an artist for whom photographic norms and the representational field itself were and remain contested and problematized...
.
Background and production
Sonic Youth was formed in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1981 by guitarists Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
and Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
and bassist Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
. The band signed to Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
's Neutral Records
Neutral Records
Neutral Records is an independent record label. Glenn Branca ran the label during the No Wave and post-punk scene in the Lower East Side, New York, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Among their releases were early records by Swans and the first EP by Sonic Youth as well as Confusion is Sex....
, releasing the Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
EP in March 1982. As Sonic Youth released a number of albums and EPs to increasing critical acclaim, including Confusion is Sex
Confusion Is Sex
Confusion Is Sex is Sonic Youth's first studio album, originally released on 12" vinyl in 1983 on Neutral. It was reissued on SST Records in 1987 and on CD in 1995 on DGC with extra tracks from the Kill Yr Idols EP. The album features a live cover of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". The cover...
and Kill Yr Idols
Kill Yr Idols
Kill Yr Idols is a 1983 EP by the rock band Sonic Youth, originally released only in Germany.In 1995, the tracks on Kill Yr Idols not found on 1983's Confusion Is Sex were appended to the DGC reissue of that album.-Side one:...
in 1983, several drummers joined and left the band. Bob Bert
Bob Bert
Robert Bertelli, better known as Bob Bert, is an American rock drummer.Bert is the son of the quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Bert initially came to prominence as drummer for the experimental rock band Sonic Youth during the early to mid-1980s. Bert played on the Sonic...
rejoined Sonic Youth after the Confusion is Sex tour in mid-1983. The New York press largely ignored Sonic Youth (as well as the noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
scene in the city), until after a disastrous London debut in October 1983 that actually received rave reviews in Sounds and NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. When they returned to New York, the queue at CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
for the band's concerts went around the block.
By mid-1984, Sonic Youth were playing almost once a week in the city, but its members started to realise there was little future in their musical approach; Moore later said "it was getting to the point of overkill". They retreated to the rehearsal room, retuned their guitars and changed their equipment so they were unable to play their old songs, and began writing new material. After a period of intense songwriting, the band entered Before Christ Studios in Brooklyn, New York with producer Martin Bisi
Martin bisi
Martin Bisi is an American producer and songwriter.He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Angels of Light and Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning song Rockit,In 1979, Martin Bisi...
, who had recorded early rappers and local avantists such as Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock,...
, in September 1984 to record their next studio album.
Music
Bad Moon Rising begins with "Intro," a short instrumental featuring several guitars, described by Michael AzerradMichael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad is an American author, journalist and musician. He grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983...
as “a melancholic, meowing slide line playing off a delicate stack of crystalline arpeggios.” "Intro" segues into the next song, "Brave Men Run (In My Family)," named after a painting by American artist Edward Ruscha
Edward Ruscha
Edward Joseph Ruscha IV is an American artist associated with the Pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and film. Ruscha lives and works in Culver City, California...
. The song begins with a single riff repeating for a minute, before Gordon murmurs “Brave man run in my family/Brave men run away from me.” The riff fades into the album's third song, "Society Is a Hole," “a one-chord hymn to big-city anomie”. Sonic Youth's use of transitional pieces in the album was inspired by their live shows, which featured either Moore or Ranaldo tuning guitars for up to five minutes while the other played slow transitory guitar riffs or prerecorded sound collages.
"I Love Her All the Time" features extensive prepared guitar
Prepared guitar
A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
by Ranaldo and the use of one chord, with a noise section in the middle; like many of the album's songs, it focuses on texture and rhythm rather than melody. The second side of Bad Moon Rising, which comprises the experimental "Ghost Bitch" (which features Ranaldo on acoustic guitar and references Native Americans' first encounter with European settlers), "I'm Insane," and "Justice is Might," expands on the soundscape concept; the songs feature repeating guitar riffs that segue from one song to the next, while Moore and Gordon mumble cryptic lyrics.
Death Valley '69, the album's closer, was the result of a collaboration between Thurston Moore and New York singer and poet Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
.
Critical reception
The album was chosen one of the best albums of 1985–1995 at number 42 by Alternative Press. Bad Moon Rising surpassed Daydream Nation in this list.Original 1985 LP version
- "Intro" – 1:10
- "Brave Men Run (In My Family)" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:37
- "Society is a Hole" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 5:57
- "I Love Her All the Time" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 7:27
- "Ghost Bitch" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 5:20
- "I'm Insane" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 4:07
- "Justice is Might" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 4:21
- "Death Valley '69Death Valley '69"Death Valley '69" is a song by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth and is the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. The song was written and sung by Thurston Moore and fellow New York musician Lydia Lunch, and recorded and produced by Wharton Tiers in July 1984...
" (lyrics/vocals Lydia LunchLydia LunchLydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
and Moore) – 5:10
1986 UK CD version (Blast First)
- "Intro" – 1:10
- "Brave Men Run (In My Family)" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:37
- "Society is a Hole" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 5:57
- "I Love Her All the Time" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 7:28
- "Ghost Bitch" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 5:40
- "I'm Insane" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 4:07
- "Justice is Might" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 4:21
- "Death Valley '69Death Valley '69"Death Valley '69" is a song by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth and is the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. The song was written and sung by Thurston Moore and fellow New York musician Lydia Lunch, and recorded and produced by Wharton Tiers in July 1984...
" (lyrics/vocals Lydia LunchLydia LunchLydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
and Moore) – 5:10 - "Satan is Boring" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 5:06
- "Flower" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:33
- "Hallowe'en" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 5:00
- "Echo Canyon" – 1:08
1995 US CD version (DGC)
- "Intro" – 1:11
- "Brave Men Run (In My Family)" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:55
- "Society is a Hole" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 4:51
- "I Love Her All the Time" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 8:21
- "Ghost Bitch" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 4:25
- "I'm Insane" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 6:56
- "Justice is Might" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 2:57
- "Death Valley '69Death Valley '69"Death Valley '69" is a song by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth and is the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. The song was written and sung by Thurston Moore and fellow New York musician Lydia Lunch, and recorded and produced by Wharton Tiers in July 1984...
" (lyrics/vocals Lydia LunchLydia LunchLydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
and Moore) – 5:22 - "Satan is Boring" (lyrics/vocals Moore) – 5:12
- "Hallowe'en" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 5:12
- "Flower" (lyrics/vocals Gordon) – 3:36
- "Echo Canyon" – 1:08
- Tracks 9–12 are CD bonus tracks, track 12 is unlisted.
All tracks except 10–11 were recorded and mixed at Before Christ Studios, Brooklyn, N.Y.C. between September and December 1984. Tracks 10–11 were recorded and mixed at Radio Tokyo, Venice, California in January 1985.
Personnel
- Lee RanaldoLee RanaldoLee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
– guitarsElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, percussion ("Ghost Bitch") - Kim GordonKim GordonKim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Thurston MooreThurston MooreThurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
– guitarsElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, vocals - Bob BertBob BertRobert Bertelli, better known as Bob Bert, is an American rock drummer.Bert is the son of the quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Bert initially came to prominence as drummer for the experimental rock band Sonic Youth during the early to mid-1980s. Bert played on the Sonic...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Lydia LunchLydia LunchLydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
– vocals on "Death Valley '69" - Sonic YouthSonic YouthSonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
– producer - Martin BisiMartin bisiMartin Bisi is an American producer and songwriter.He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Angels of Light and Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning song Rockit,In 1979, Martin Bisi...
– engineer, producer (all tracks except 10–11) - Ethan JamesEthan James (producer)Ethan James was a musician, record producer, and recording engineer best known for his work on the Minutemen's seminal album Double Nickels on the Dime. He also produced and engineered albums for such acts as Black Flag, The Bangles, Rain Parade, Dos, and many others...
– engineer (tracks 10–11) - John Erskine – producer (all tracks except 10–11)
Release history
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
1985 | LP | Blast First/Homestead | BFFP L/HMS 016 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
1985 | LP, CS Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel... , CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
Blast First | BFFP 1 |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
1985 | LP | Torso | |
| United States | 1993 | CD | Geffen Records Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:... |
DBCD 24512 |
| Europe | 1993 | CD | Geffen Records | GED 24512 |
| United Kingdom | 1996 | LP | Rough Trade Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove... |
Tracks 9–12 appear only on the CD releases. Tracks 10–11 were also released as the "Flower/Halloween
Flower/Halloween
Flower/Halloween is a single by the alternative rock band Sonic Youth released in 1985.-Track listing:#"Flower"#"Halloween"The tracks were recorded and mixed at Radio Tokyo, Venice, California...
" single. The Torso release and original vinyl Homestead release come with a lyric insert.