Sonic Youth ages well as musician Steve Shelley brings music, film to Crosstown Concourse

A milestone in what used to be or maybe still is called indie rock, "Daydream Nation" — the fifth album by the band Sonic Youth — delivered 70 minutes and 47 seconds of New York cool, art-punk attitude, William Gibsonesque science-fiction prophecy, and unorthodox electric guitar buzz: the sonic equivalent of the signature graphic "crackle" developed by Marvel Comics artist Jack Kirby to signify bursts of unfathomable cosmic energy.

One song title summed up both the record's ambition and its hooky cacophony: "The Sprawl." This was music to drown in, like the ocean, or to drift in, like space.

Released 30 years ago this coming October on the now extinct Enigma label, "Daydream Nation" earned Sonic Youth critical accolades, an increased audience and a major-label contract with Geffen Records. More important, the album continues to not only crackle but to resonate — to find new, appreciative fans.

To that end, Steve Shelley, drummer for Sonic Youth, returns Friday to Memphis for an event he calls "30 Years of Daydream Nation" and describes as a sort of "mixtape of a movie night," featuring Sonic Youth music videos; excerpts from "Put Blood in the Music," a 1989 documentary about Sonic Youth, John Zorn and other practitioners of New York "noise"; highlights from a 2007 concert film, "Daydream Nation," which captures the band performing the album in its entirety in Glasgow, Scotland; and other surprises. 

Joining Shelley will be filmmaker Lance Bangs, director of the concert film (the husband of Sleater-Kinney lead singer Corin Tucker, Bangs has worked with David Cross, R.E.M., Bjork and Hannibal Buress, and he shot both "Bad Grandpa" and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's wedding video); and Memphis author/filmmaker Robert Gordon, who will more or less moderate a public discussion between the other two men. 

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Said Shelley: "We've programmed it to be a night that really moves and that we have a lot of fun with."

In other words, the event will not be a straightforward screening of the complete concert film (as some of the publicity has seemed to suggest). But however it shakes out, "30 Years of Daydream Nation" is significant because it represents the first heavily promoted public screening to be held to date at the new Crosstown Arts Theater, the 400-plus-seat multipurpose venue at Crosstown Concourse. (Note: The theater already has dropped its artsy but somewhat confusing original name, The Doll House.)

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Shelley (who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey) said similar screenings have taken place in other cities, sometimes with other band members present. "'Daydream Nation' is an important record for us, and we wanted to do something to acknowledge it," he said.

Essentially defunct since the 2011 breakup of the marriage of founding members Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon (Lee Ranaldo was the other original member), Sonic Youth played several times in Memphis during its heyday, with Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder (introduced only as "our friend Ed") joining the band for a show at The Last Place on Earth, in the Edge district, after Sonic Youth opened for Pearl Jam at the Pyramid.

"We've always had a good time and a wonderful relationship with Memphis," said Shelley, 56. In fact, Sonic Youth recorded most of its 1995 album "Washing Machine" at Easley Studios here. 

What's more, Shelley's independent record label, Smells Like Records, released albums by some of Memphis' more talented and distinctive artists, including "Cloud-Wow Music" by Shelby Bryant, and "With the Hole Dug" by Memphis transplant Timothy Prudhomme. Also, Shelley's new label, Vampire Blues (named for a Neil Young song), has released a new album, simply titled "The Band," by Prudhomme's pre-Memphis combo, a group with a four-letter name that starts with F that we can't print in this newspaper. Vampire Blues also has reissued, on vinyl, earlier records by that band.

"I'll come back to Memphis for any reason," Shelley said. "I'm a big soul music fan, so I love going to Stax. It was always funny, when I started visiting Memphis, the locals would take you on a tour, and they would always be so embarrassed by this parking lot, this rubble, where Stax used to be. So it's awesome what they built there (the Stax Museum of American Soul Music). It just helps your imagination run wild, thinking about everything that went on there."

Sonic Youth: 30 Years of Daydream Nation 

7 p.m. Friday, Crosstown Arts Theater at Crosstown Concourse.

Doors: 7 p.m. Show: 7:30 p.m.

Pay-what-you-can admission. 

For more information, visit crosstownarts.org.