Sonic Death
Live album by Sonic Youth
Released	1984
Recorded	1981–1983
Length	68:02
Label	Ecstatic Peace!
Producer	Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth chronology
Kill Yr Idols (1983) Sonic Death (1984) Bad Moon Rising (1985)

Sonic Death is alive album by American rock bandSonic Youth.^[1] It was released in 1984 oncassette tape by theEcstatic Peace! record label.

Sonic Death contains live recordings from 1981 to 1983. Many of the tracks on the album appear only as fragments, often with no breaks between them. Most of the songs are live versions of tunes from Sonic Youth's first three releases,Sonic Youth,Confusion Is Sex and theKill Yr Idols EP.

Because Sonic Youth used many different alternative tunings, but could not afford to travel with separate instruments for each tuning in the band's early years, members of the band can be heard changing tunings between songs.

The album was originally released as acassette tape onThurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label. It was later re-released on cassette and released on CD byBlast First andSST Records. It is currently out of print.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic wrote: "Sonic Death: Early Sonic 1981-1983 captures the early incarnation of Sonic Youth at their noisiest and artiest", but calling it "often [...] unfocused and tiresome."^[1]Trouser Press called it "a compilation of poorly-recorded live performances."^[2]

The album's cover has no track listing, and CD versions consist of only one track, or two tracks (depending on the release), matching the two sides of the original cassette. The following is a list of songs that can be recognized clearly.

Side A

1. "The Good and the Bad"(fragment)
2. "She Is Not Alone"(fragment)
3. "The Good and the Bad"(fragment)
4. "The World Looks Red"
5. "Confusion Is Next"
6. "Inhuman"(fragment)
7. "Shaking Hell"(fragment)
8. "Burning Spear"

Side B

1. "Brother James"(fragment)
2. "Early American"
3. "Burning Spear"(fragment)
4. "Kill Yr Idols"
5. "Confusion Is Next"(fragment)
6. "Kill Yr Idols"(fragment)
7. "The World Looks Red"(fragment)
8. "Shaking Hell"(fragment)
9. "(She's in A) Bad Mood"(fragment)

• Sonic Death atDiscogs (list of releases)

• 1984 live albums
• Sonic Youth live albums
• Ecstatic Peace! live albums
• SST Records live albums

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hAudio microformats
• Album articles lacking alt text for covers