hi all, i've just finished reading chick's "psychic confusion", and i'll be starting on browne's book asap.
i have to admit that i was pretty disappointed with the chick penned biography. i agree that chick does a pretty good job on the early years of sonic youth. i enjoyed reading his somewhat grim account of the new york no wave scene that "spawned" the band, and i think he did pretty much a great job on most things sonic youth pre-EVOL. interesting interviews with collaborators and bob bert! if anything, i'd like to have even more info on various artists around NY at the time; some tips and album recommendations perhaps (that would be more interesting than all these "[this guy] left [this band] to play [a certain instrument] in [another band]" tidbits). in that respect, i think everett true did an awesome job in his recent nirvana book; pouring from his encyclopeadic knowledge of the pacific north-west scene, he made me check out lots of bands i'd never even heard about. that's what a great bio on SY should aim for as well, in my opinion!
chick gets pretty sketchy from here on in: he's relying heavily on the testimony of e.g. paul smith, and large chunks of material from 85 - 89 are based on his accounts alone. i'm really missing more input from the band. to me, chick really fails to convey the personality of the band members, instead resorting to cliches, like "kim's the artist of the band, thurston's the forever-young teenager etc." i'm really hoping browne's got more stuff to tell us, especially since he's got some fresh interviews with them.
also, what's the deal with chick really fast forwarding everything after 1994/1995? to me, that's the period that really needs documenting in the first place, since we already got the foege bio of the early years... chick = lazy? i think chick does a pretty good job when it comes to putting some of the albums into a historical/political/musical context however.
it was a nice read, but i was ultimately quite disappointed how it turned out. here's to hoping browne's got it right (and, judging by several of the posts here, it seems he did get it right)
