Sonic Youth launch live archival collection in celebration of ‘Daydream Nation

They're also selling tour and studio gear

Sonic Youth have launched an extensive live archival collection, to mark the 30th anniversary of their iconic album ‘Daydream Nation’.

The six releases feature both audio and video of Sonic Youth’s concerts. Recordings for the albums are taken from two Chicago shows – in 1988 and 2002 – a 2009 Berlin gig, a performance at Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Waterfront in 2011, and a CBGB’s gig in New York City from 1988.

A full-album performance of Daydream Nation at ABC1 in Glasgow, Scotland in 2007 is also being released in both audio and video formats. You can purchase the albums here.

The band are also selling a range of tour and studio gear in the all-new Reverb Shop. Fans will be able to get their hands on over 200 pieces of gear – including amps, pedals and guitars, all used by the band between 1988 and 2011. There’s also screen-printed posters, photographs and more. Items will go on sale on October 30.

In further celebration of the ‘Daydream Nation’ anniversary, there will a number of film screenings across America, featuring clips from a new Lester Bangs-direct concert film of the aforementioned Glasgow concert. You can see the remaining dates for that below.

October 24 2019: San Francisco, California – New Mission Theatre (panel with Lance Bangs, Steve Shelley, Sonic Youth archivist Aaron Mullan, and Brian Turner)
November 11 2019: Chicago, Illinois – Music Box Theater (panel with Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, and Sonic Youth archivist Aaron Mullan)
November 12 2019: Austin, Texas – Alamo Drafthouse-Ritz (panel with Lance Bangs and Matador Records’ Gerard Cosloy)
November 18 2019: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – PhilaMOCA (panel with Lance Bangs and Steve Shelley)
November 19 2019: Brooklyn, New York – Alamo Drafthouse (panel with Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Lance Bangs, and photographer Michael Lavine)

Speaking in a statement, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley said: “Through the years and as the times changed we recorded our live shows as often as we could, on cassettes, DATs, CD-Rs and later on multi-track recorders.

“We collected fan-generated audience tapes, shady bootlegs and anything we could get our hands on. We now maintain an archive of hundreds of hours of Sonic Youth concerts and we’d like to share some of our favorites, often from the best uncirculated source possible via nugs.net.”