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Starbucks is an awful corporation because they do things like buy out their best competition, such as Coffee People here in Portland who were way better in every respect, and then shut them down entirely. Portland lost a piece of it's own personal flavor by that happening, and so I don't give Starbucks any of my money (though I hardly did to begin with since I can't drink coffee and their scones and such are so sugary they're close to inedible.)
That said, if Starbucks wanted to put out my music, I'd probably jump at it. Of course there's absolutely no chance that would ever happen, but if it did, I wouldn't feel like I was supporting them or even endorsing them.
I don't know if Sonic Youth like Starbucks or not, but I'm pretty sure they mostly see it as amusing irony and a chance to reach an audience that might not encounter them anywhere else.
This is no worse than signing to Geffen (which I'm glad they did in the long run as it's kept them viable for an extra decade or two when most of the great bands of their generation broke up) or hosting MTV 120 Minutes (in fact, I think there is more good about Starbucks than MTV as a whole.)
They aren't actually compromising their artistic vision at all. They haven't let Starbucks tell them what sort of music to make or anything. Way back in 1985 they were loudly proclaiming that they were in the same pop culture arena as Madonna, Prince, and Ratt. So now that they're older, they're adding Paul McCartney to the list. As long as they keep bringing people like Wolf Eyes and Hair Police on tour and getting out with them all and jamming the noise at the occasional encore, I suppose I'm down with that.
Meanwhile, I'll keep buying my Green Tea at Stumptown and tipping the baristas, in hopes that the evil behometh doesn't swallow them up next.
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