Stephen Malkmus on Sonic Youth – EVOL (1986)

I’ve heard that Kim Gordon chose one of my records for this special. I’ll gladly return the favor, not just out of politeness, but with complete conviction. Sonic Youth‘s EVOL striked us Noise-Rock kids like no other record. I was 20 years old back then and studied at the University of Virginia. That was a few hundred miles away from the New York Underground that Sonic Youth was revolutionizing at that moment. But when we listened to EVOL, it felt very close.

There may be albums that have a bigger influence on my life today. For example, Ege Bamyasi by Can, an album which I played live in its entirety in 2013. But the force with which EVOL hit me is what makes this album unique to this day and so important from a biographical point of view. In most songs of the album there is a darkness that Sonic Youth gave up very soon after. You can almost call it Indie-Gothic-Rock. Also, on this record there’s “Expressway To Yr. Skull” – one of my absolutely favorite songs. The song plays just over seven minutes and offers everything that alternative guitar music can do during this time. After I had discovered EVOL, I started to re-tune my guitar like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. I didn’t want to continue playing with preset tunings. Suddenly that seemed very boring. And that’s how it stayed until today. I soon found my own way to re-tune my guitar. The idea and courage to do that came from Sonic Youth.

by Stephen Malkmus