Sonic Youth have released an old live recording to raise money for humanitarian organisations supporting people affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The recording, which is available on Bandcamp, was captured in Kyiv on April 14, 1989, during Sonic Youth’s first tour of the former USSR, which took them to Vilnius, Leningrad, Moscow and, finally, Kyiv. The band were touring their classic 1988 album Daydream Nation at the time. Proceeds from sales of the recording on Bandcamp will go to World Central Kitchen and its current relief effort in Ukraine.
Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz, who was at the Kyiv gig, said of the experience in a statement: "That SY Kyiv show was life-changing for all musicians that were there. We were already attuned to Nick Cave, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sex Pistols and Discharge, but these were the new vitamins we needed. I made a decision to experience NY right there. Plus my friends VV were opening so I got in free. The fact that it wasn’t shut down halfway through like all other punk gigs was the doing of a Ukrainian man named Mikhail Gorbachev, who set up the atmosphere of political ‘springtime’ and a promise of change."
