Photo by Ari Marcopoulos
Like most people under the age of fifty, I first encountered Sonic Youth back when I was a young teenager. Their first album, Confusion is Sex, was laying face-up on a friend’s coffee table. It belonged to her older sister, whose age and coolness terrified me. I had no idea what the title meant or how prophetic it would prove to be, but that notion caught my attention; the music has held it ever since. In the worlds of punk rock and experimental music, nobody has composed a more vital sound effect for the unruliness of life than Sonic Youth. Three decades after its New York start behind the post-punk No Wave movement, the band is still treading the path of chance paved by American composer John Cage. Their motor runs behind a mindset that everything works out to something, and as a result, Sonic Youth has produced more albums than most bands will ever dream of. This year, following a return to their indie beginnings with a move to Matador Records, the noise artists cum cultural architects are back with their 16th studio album, The Eternal. Like everything Sonic Youth creates, the vibe is familiar and alien, a reformation of aggressions with a mischievous charm, a playful energy that is fun and infectious. The Eternal is ripe with new sounds and imagery, with a heartbeat that is unmistakably Sonic Youth.
Like parts of an ivy plant, the members of Sonic Youth allow one another to move and grow in all directions, each finding the unexplored space and filling it, Kim Gordon with her constant involvement with visual arts, Thurston Moore with his solo projects and endless collaborations with other musicians, Lee Ranaldo with his contribution to literature and spoken word, and Steve Shelley work running his own label Smells Like Records. Their breadth of involvement is a testament to the value of keeping an underground sensibility while working within a mainstream machine. For this sensibility, Sonic Youth’s album art reads like a mini MOMA, each page a mosaic of keepsakes, their own and others: A drawing from William S. Burroughs, a painting by Kim, Lee’s photo of a New York sidewalk, an illustration by Raymond Pettibon. Chronic collaborators in art and life, Sonic Youth is committed to a lifetime of uncertainty, to perpetual sweaty palms and heart palpitations, a state of eternal youth. The first interview with one of rock’s most iconic women is set for late afternoon on Easter Sunday.
Jules Moore.— Hi Kim, how are you?
Kim Gordon.— Oh, pretty good.
— I just recently saw the photos you took with Ari [Marcopoulos].
— How do they look?
— The images are beautiful. Ari had mentioned that you go back quite a ways. How did you guys meet?
— Through the Beastie Boys maybe? Ari was always around taking pictures and he has a little boy who’s our daughter Coco’s age, or maybe a year older.
— So, the new album. It’s been a big part of my life these past few days. I think it’s incredible. How do you feel about it?
— Oh, well, I’m glad you like it. We’re pretty happy with it. It was really fun to make and we wrote it quickly.
— I’m sure it varies from album to album but, generally speaking, is the recording process something you tend to make playful or take very seriously?
— Playful? (laughs) I don’t think I’d describe it that way, but I guess because we recorded in our own studio, which is always more relaxing, it is kind of comfortable. That and we pretty much play all at once. There aren’t that many overdubs. Yeah, it’s comfortable. And John Agnello, the engineer, is really fun to work with too.
— I think it comes across that way too. Out of the dozen new tracks, could you select one that’s closest to you?
— “Massage the History”, in a way. It’s kind of a sad vampire love song. It’s a lot of things. It’s also a kind of metaphor for the record industry and kind of makes reference to our history and, I don’t know, I can’t really explain how it’s closest to me.
— If you were to play only one song for a friend, would that be it?
— Well, if I was going to play my favorite song off the album, I guess I would play “Poison Arrow”. I just really love that song. It’s really fun and I love the way the background vocals came out. The melody reminds me of a Kevin Ayers song. I also like “Anti Orgasm” a lot.
— What about some of your projects – for instance, Free Kitten [musical collaboration with Pussy Galore’s Julie Catfritz]. That’s exciting.
— We’re not really working on anything right now but we’re talking about doing a single. I’m working on some art for a book coming out in the fall. It’s a collection of paintings and photographs. We have an exhibit that’s been traveling in Europe based on different artists whose work we’ve done collaborations with over the years. People like Dan Graham and Tony Oursler, Mike Kelly, Raymond Pettibon, Jody Conrad, and then Sonic Youth has assembled some of our own works. So that’s going to be opening in Malmo. Now it’s in Germany, and it’s opening in Sweden in May. So we’ll be going over there.
