Kim Gordon - GIRL IN A BAND

sp: come over

It lasted a hell of a long time though. Every time I get bummed that there aren't anymore SY releases forthcoming, I can go back and listen to one of the many many good records they made. They should do a live archives series though. They don't even have to be in the same room for that.

Oh don't worry, they will

Uh no way ws Kim ever the "cool one" over Lee

Judging frm fans yelling at/for him at the four shows I saw, anyway

What's the Danny elfman connection?

Yeah I was underwhelmed with the book too. And I'd really looked forward to it.

concur with the underwhelming. that almost sounds like a parody sonic youth song title "the underwhelming." thought the childhood/california chaps were by far the best and actually really interesting, not only her experience but her general take on '60s LA, suburban culture, etc. usually my least favorite part of a memoir/bio is the early years so go figure. the rest felt cursory, wanted much more from the early NY period for starters. and i would guess the career chronology was just too painful to explore deeply given the way it ended. which leads to, yeah, thurston was a heel and worse to her but hey there are two sides to every relationship story not that i'd want to read his necessarily. it was probably cathartic to put all her anger & hurt on the page but it didn't result in a good book and i'd even hazard the guess that with a few years distance she may feel differently if not regret writing this.

I might be naive about how much money you make from a book these days, but it seems like she put it out at the best possible time in terms of sales. It occurred to me the other day that Kim and Thurston were performing "Sleepin' Around" onstage together, and how weird that is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ZQ6wpxYVQ

weird, didn't know there was video of this. It was a secret show, as they'd played a much larger/established venue in the area the night before. It was a total gas to see them here.

It was a secret show, as they'd played a much larger/established venue in the area the night before

Not disputing your version of events but according to the (normally reliable) SY concert chronology they hadn't played anywhere else in a month or so prior to that show:

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/2005.html

Ah, you are correct! The Flywheel show I was thinking of was in November of 2002. They played the C4lv1n in Northampton and then Flywheel the next night; only, the C4lv1n supposedly makes artists sign something saying they won't play anywhere else nearby within x number of days, hence the secrecy of the Flywheel show.

What's the Danny elfman connection?

She and Elfman were a couple.

Gordon boingo'd oingo?????

(Sorry, I knew this trivia, but had that construction in my head and had to get it out. It was either this or saying it out loud in a coffee shop.)

They played the C4lv1n in Northampton and then Flywheel the next night

hate doing this to you but according to the same website they played in Providence, RI the night after they played in Northampton:

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/2002.html

Huh...well, it must've been the night before, then. I remember us Flywheelers being told to keep it a secret, but the day of the show, like 20 people around town asked me about this "secret" show. And I have no poker face. Fortunately, the tiny space wasn't overwhelmed.

See, I liked this book, and was okay with it being heavier on Kim pre SY than on SY - probably because I didn't know much about Kim before reading it. It may have worked better for may if it cut back on the SY.

D'oh, ok, found it...the show I'm confused about happened in 2001:

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/111701.html

"Oh, you didn't like our riff on Godard? Well, we were just joking. Oh, you liked that song? We wrote that in a minute, when we were just messing around. It's a win-win for KG, who comes off cooler than you either way, and not always in a good way."

sounds like you also have insecurity re coolness. Honestly, that is how songs sometimes come about, and just because it started out as a joke or a quick take doesn't mean someone is an idiot for liking it or investing it with meaning.

I understand that. I know how music/art is made, and Kim Gordon's bad attitude has no bearing on my emotions or appreciation of her music. But it is a book, and I am a reader, and multiple times in the book, iirc, she's describing a project someone didn't like or that got a poor reception or maybe undo criticism, whether short films or videos or fashion or Free Kitten, and rather than defend it she pulls the "oh, it was all a joke, we thought it was hilarious that anyone would take it seriously" move. Which obviously does not affect one's reaction to it, but it is kind of a dick authorial stance, especially when that sort of defensive in-joke brush off never comes tied to projects people love. "Oh, Daydream Nation, that was some piece of shit we crapped out overnight after a few beers."

i think you're reading defensiveness into it.

i read this and the marie kondo book at the same time and they sync up pretty well as bios of people who found outlets for their childhood anxieties

a little more than halfway through this (I'm up to their tour w Neil Young) and complaints about this seem a bit overstated imo. It's not hyper-detailed or deeply engrossing or anything but as a series of strung together reminiscences that constitute her life story it works fine, and there's flashes of her poetic/artistic aesthetic littered throughout that give a good sense of her art and her approach to it. I haven't come across any of the stuff JinC describes, or at least I didn't notice it (yet).

I probably overstated it myself. The book is fine, though I stand by my assessment that it feels rushed and a tad slapdash.

the funniest thing about this book to me is the constant undertone of "man, this city was so much better when it was totally dangerous and falling apart and filthy and filled with drug dealers and junkies and criminals", like, the active non-ironic pining for a city with garbage strikes, dilapidated infrastructure, and a soaring crime rate. those were the days!

i can almost respect that sentiment when the person acknowledges the privilege behind it and shows some self-awareness (which she may well do, i haven't read the book yet - my wife's on a long waiting list at the library) but it's a pretty ironic from someone who moved to a college town in mass for the kids 20+ years ago to wish that the city stayed awful for everyone who couldn't get out

though actually i might be wrong on the date - an interview implies they didn't move until coco was five, and i thought they'd left in like 1996. maybe they wouldn't have left if the place had stayed more cracky.

she definitely shows self-awareness and acknowledges the irony

I'm most of the way through the book (we're at 2005 now). I'm really enjoying it. For some reason I'm just not bothered by all the stuff people are talking about itt. Her writing is simple and effective and frequently strikes some very deep chords with me.

(Well ok if I must pick a nit, the Lana del Rey bit seems beneath her.)

which she may well do

she's self-aware and cops to the irony of it - privelege, not so much

she does say that she didn't want to raise Coco in the city because of its inconveniences and vices

xp

new york nostalgia stuff was odd, but not surprising. i also found her relationship to northampton and the pioneer valley to be odd. i couldn’t tell if she was miserable or not. the smith college radio station was pretty good tho. when i lived in amherst, i always listened to that station.

cool re: self-awareness - i didn't mean to assume. i am sympathetic to the sentiment just in terms of nostalgia. celebs just sound kind of batty when they ignore the non-bohemian elements of the time. the weirdest i ever heard was patti lupone saying she misses when broadway was scarier - like, when was the last decade she had to leave a theater without a driver?

stayed up way too late reading this book last night -- aside from the occasional zzz when she goes on about the art scene in NY and how commercial it is, it's really fun to read and the stuff about CA and her brother is interesting too. enjoying it!!

did i ever post itt? Read it last night over like 4 days (that's really fast for me) and concur totally. Her writing is very unostentatious but often (esp when she is writing about olden CA times) she just really nails a certain feeling/vibe in the least showy way.

i went to the danny elfman film music concert at lincoln center friday night and I was thinking about young him and young kim messing with each others' hearts, so weird.

four days in one night IS fast!

Lol

"last night" = "last month"

An excellent read, beautiful prose and an unusual nonlinear narrative structure, really captivating, and she bears all about Thurston and his hijinks to boot. Really enjoyed her descriptions of life in Southern California and of the complex relationship she has with her troubled brother. One of, if not the, best written rock bios I've read, and without the help of a co-author!

was hoping for more details about the mid-late 90s sonic youth albums, which she barely touched on. first half of the book is well-engrossing, though

I love Kim Gordon. I view her as a role model. she doesn't seem to get hung up on things, good or bad.
she always seems to be in the moment. she does things because they are fun to do.

I think those first seven SY albums will be my friends for life.

I feel bad that she has to answer so many stupid questions on the book tour.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/kim-gordon-leaves-town-a-road-diary/2015/09/04/1d505042-44f2-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html

told to Washington Post writer diary of her move now back to Cali with photos along the way

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/05/kim-gordon-on-bodyhead-and-the-election-i-cannot-wait-for-it-to-be-over-but-im-afraid-of-what-will-going-to-happen/

i think i'm at least a year behind in the "worst music writing ever thread" so I dunno if someone has helpfully posted it there as well.