Bad Moon Rising (album) - Background and Production

Background and Production

Sonic Youth was formed in New York City 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 producer Martin Bisi's BC Studio in Brooklyn, New York -implicitly Before Christ Studio, which is how the band credited it on the album- in September 1984. Bisi had recorded early rappers and local avantists such as John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, and Bill Laswell.