Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising

Sonic Youth found themselves well-received in Europe, but the New York press largely ignored the local noise rock scene. Eventually, as the press began to take notice of the genre, Sonic Youth was grouped along with bands like Big Black, the Butthole Surfers.

During another tour of Europe in 1984, Sonic Youth's disastrous London debut actually resulted in rave reviews in Sounds and the NME. By the time they returned to New York, Sonic Youth were so popular they played shows practically every week. That same year Moore and Gordon were married and Sonic Youth released Bad Moon Rising, a self-described "Americana" album that served as a reaction to the state of the nation at the time. The album, recorded by Martin Bisi, was built around transitional pieces that Moore and Ranaldo had come up with in order to take up time onstage while the other guitarist was busy tuning his instrument; as a result there are almost no breaks between the songs on the record, which feature walls of feedback and pounding rhythms. Bad Moon Rising featured an appearance by Lydia Lunch on the album's single "Death Valley '69", inspired by the Charles Manson Family murders. In contrast to their abrasive, atonal material of the time, the band considered the song relatively conventional. Due to a falling-out with Branca over disputed royalty payments from their Neutral releases, they were signed to Homestead Records by Gerard Cosloy and by Blast First in the UK. While even the New York press ignored Bad Moon Rising upon its release, now viewing the band as too arty and pretentious, Sonic Youth was becoming quite critically acclaimed in the United Kingdom, where the new album had sold 5,000 copies in just six months.

Claiming he was bored with playing Bad Moon Rising live in its entirety for over a year, Bert quit Sonic Youth and was replaced by Steve Shelley, formerly of the hardcore group Crucifucks. The band was so impressed with Shelley's drumming after seeing him play live they hired him without an audition. Bert has remained on good terms with the group; he and Shelley both appeared in the music video for "Death Valley '69", as Bert performed the drums on the song, but Shelley was the group's drummer when the video was made.

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