Kim Gordon - GIRL IN A BAND

you should definitely read her 1987 tour diary reprinted in the Rock She Wrote anthology, there's a bit about that. I can't transcribe it all, but a relevant sentence is "I like being in a weak position and making it strong"

claiming one is not a musician after having played music professionally for a living for decades is not that great of a look

it's that old art-world ambivalence innit

yup and it hasn't aged well

I mean she doesn't pat bros on the back in rock solidarity but she plays a hell of a songtune.

claiming one is not a musician after having played music professionally for a living for decades is not that great of a look

humblebrag?

Tempted to read that "Bros" sentence oddly.

you only live once

wait, what is the standard dude thing? to complain about a memoir including personal stuff and to instead wish it had more stuff about guitar tuning?

mommie dearest is some fucking bullshit

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11001829_10203987117141366_9017450964001771372_n.jpg?oh=37bd6b046c18cb68765f6a6f6b803074&oe=55494943

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/kim-gordon-girl-band-memoir-interview-sally-timms-cuddy/Content?oid=16661865

Ah, she addresses that musician question with Sally Timms

thanks for that link, Josh, good interview

would love to read sally autobio...

Bros comment was basically hinting at the rock world being a man's world that she has had to put up w it for 30+ years. And now for the past 2 years the rock world has endlessly picked apart her divorce in public, since before it was even official. Consider this when you question why she would want to distance herself from that world.

Scott, what is Mark Ibold reading?

I don't know what the "rock world" was doing, but the media was likely picking apart the divorce because both parties were giving interviews about it.

From 2011 to 2013 there were no interviews from either about it, and then Kim did that one with Elle in 2013, and then Thurston spoke up in 2014

Do you mean this?
http://www.spin.com/articles/thurston-moore-solo-album-best-day-interview-sonic-youth/

Cos it doesn't talk about the divorce at all.

didn't Thurston give an interview to The Fly back in 2011?

Yeah I think I'm probably just blowing things out of proportion, he seems to be trying to keep quiet about it, she wrote this book.

But I still think she can say whatever she wants about being a musician and shouldn't have her legitimacy questioned because of that.

haha well you have to admit 'i've never considered myself a musician' is pretty good reason to question her legitimacy as a musician, if you're gonna do it at all

I think he's made a couple of comments in interviews mostly trying to stick up for his new girlfriend but I think in general he's just not talking about it - which is also fine. Kim really slams that Beck-produced solo record of his as being about the affair and a series of "sophomoric suicide notes" if I recall correctly.

i do remember listening to that record when it came out and thinking "man thurston has written some really intense love songs for kim" :/

That account of the final SY show mentions songs not played supposedly because they were about the new girl, too.

I liked that record - but then I like sophomoric suicide note rock

I love that record.

x-post--

didn't Thurston give an interview to The Fly back in 2011?

― ancient texts, things that can't be pre-dated (President Keyes), Friday, February 27, 2015 3:31 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not till 2014

its gonna get added to the divorce-rock canon with "here my dear" and "shoot out the lights" now

claiming one is not a musician after having played music professionally for a living for decades is not that great of a look

idk this totally makes sense to me. it's like falling into a good office job and showing up for a few decades, using your creative skills to do good work, but still not feeling like it's who you are at the core. you could have done something else.

or maybe it's just imposter syndrome. i still don't feel like a musician even though i make music, compared to my friends who understand theory at a really deep level and can quickly compose at the piano, instead of laboriously plunking something out.

xxxp

yeah i think the first scenario might be where she's coming from - i get the sense she thinks of herself more as a conceptual artist who approached music as an experiment and stumbled into a real band continuing to see herself as a non-musician allowed her to do interesting things inside music

it feels like a pretty common punk & postpunk perspective and not really as controversial as others seem to see it

otm. and obviously there's a lot more potential for making a living doing music vs visual art, or at least there used to be.

But I can see how it comes off as kind of humblebraggy too

not sure i agree w/ a lot of this, but it's an interesting take on the book: http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/wave-feminism

I’m reading this now.

She doesn’t say “I don’t consider myself a musician.” She says that she didn’t consider herself a musician when she was performing with her first band.

Page 11: After thirty years of playing in a band, it sounds sort of stupid to say, "I'm not a musician." But for most of my life I've never seen myself as one..

And she says it again in that Sally Timms interview

I did find it interesting a few years back when she switched from bass to guitar - I'm not making that up, am I? - as if she were actively owning her musicianship rather than being permanently relegated to "girl bassist" role. Anyway, it's weird anyone here is even having this conversation. I certainly never thought of Thurston and Lee as some sort of "musicians." I always heard SY as inventing its own language to circumvent any technical limitations, real or implied.

how does that not convey musicianship?

i mean, come on, they're not the Shaggs. You can tell from their albums that they know how to play instruments

their drummer was a real rock drummer. he's on tour with thurston right now! he always seemed like a nice fella.

can someone tell me when being a musician became something to distance oneself from when one has played music professionally for ___ years?
i get it, i just find the whole idea o_O tbh

xpost
and he played in the crucifucks!

I did find it interesting a few years back when she switched from bass to guitar - I'm not making that up, am I?

Nope, they replaced Kim on bass with Jim O'Rourke (who was replaced by Mark Ibold when JO'R quit the band after Thurston became involved with Jim's GF Eva who at the time herself was married).

I was in Sweden years ago when there was a SY show at a gallery in Malmo. Basically they had taken over the entire place, it was covered with poster art, guitars, tvs playing videos, etc. There was an interactive part to all of this, which was a tent you could go in and play on instruments alongside Kim Gordon's voice coming out of the speakers. The resulting CD had SONIC YOUTH : SENSATIONAL FIX on it, even though the only member of the band on it was KG.

can someone tell me when being a musician became something to distance oneself from when one has played music professionally for ___ years?

Ever hear of punk rock?

It's sort of about destroying barriers between musician and audience, producer and consumer. It doesn't mean suddenly the past 30 years of her playing music have been a sham.

And another part of that is not wanting to step into a role defined by an industry that is pretty exploitative of women.

Those are just my takes tho, I haven't read this book.

"I never thought of myself as a musician" is different than "I am not a musician" and it seems like a totally common sentiment to me.