Consumer Guide Album

Sonic Youth: Walls Have Ears [Goofin', 2024]
As a respectful-to-admiring skeptic as regards what steadily evolved into the quintessential NYC postpunk-as-"rock" band, I initially skipped this highly unofficial circa-1985 U.K.-performed and -released live bootleg. Little did I realize that it documented a crucial shift, from stalwart drummer Bob Bert to definitive drummer Steve Shelley, not as crucial a presence as Keith Richards, say, but as we look back at almost as essential as they evolved into the definitive band they remain even with Kim Gordon gone the separate way she had every right to. Now fully aware of what was to become of them, I find the very crudity that put me off slightly in the '80s a crucial part of their heritage. It's in my cart at Amazon as I write. A-