I think it's a generation of bands coming up that are heavily influenced by Sonic Youth. SY have always been exceedingly vocal about their no-wave roots and influences. As a teen in the mid-90's, I read "confusion is next: the sonic youth story", and was insanely curious to check out all of these bands- Mars, James Chance/the Contortions, DNA, Teenage Jesus, Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, Theoretical Girls/The Static, Bush Tetras and everything that was name-checked and went with that. Next-to-none of it was available in any form at that time- even most of the Atavistic reissues were scarce or not-yet-reissued, so there was no way for the music to be had. Now, it's getting its due, which is nice, and it can be checked out by a new generation of kids. I think the explosion in bands are kids that got into sonic youth and followed them to their roots, and are now imitating those roots. andrew