Sonic Youth have announced a new reissue of Walls Have Ears, their 2xLP live album that was recorded in 1985 and bootlegged the next year. This is the first time it will be released with the band’s approval, and it’s scheduled to arrive on February 9 via Goofin’. Sonic Youth are previewing it with the first-known recording of “Expressway to Yr. Skull,” which you can hear below.
Walls Have Ears pulls live renditions of Sonic Youth songs from three different shows in the United Kingdom during 1985, their second time ever touring in Britain. Included in these recordings are tape segues, onstage banter, and experimental renditions of old Sonic Youth songs fans know and love. Several tracks were taken from a pre–Steve Shelley show at London’s Hammersmith Palais when Sonic Youth opened for Nick Cave, marking one of the final live appearances of Bob Bert.
Earlier this year, Sonic Youth released Live in Brooklyn 2011, a live album recorded at their final New York show before disbanding. Prior to that, they shared the rarities collection In/Out/In and a live recording of their 1989 show in Kyiv, Ukraine, as a benefit for Ukrainian relief efforts.
Walls Have Ears:
