[Moshe]

I don't think this was posted here:

http://www.popmatters.com/music/inte...h-060612.shtml

One of rock's most iconic women talks about music, art, the quick genesis of Sonic Youth's 20th album, and why she doesn't worry too much about how people perceive her.

by Jennifer Kelly

On stage, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth has an unforgettable presence, her small frame dwarfed by the bass she plays in the band's older songs, her hair electric blond, her legs, still fabulous, jutting at cubist angles in a classic rock swagger. When she puts her instrument down, as in "Kissability", she turns into a sort of shaman, whirling in slow circles as she intones the words, hands raised above her head clapping, face immobile, the epitome of cool. She is routinely the lone exception when young male fans scoff about aging female stars, and rightly so. She is as primally sexy in her 50s as she was 25 years ago when Sonic Youth made its start.
But as icons in every genre and every art must do, she has built some protective barriers around herself. If you haunt the fan boards, you will find SY aficianados constantly remarking about how friendly and approachable Lee Ranaldo or Steve Shelley or Thurston Moore can be, but not Gordon. A casual request for interview tips on an all-girl music writer's board started a torrent of best/worst interview stories, with Gordon at the center of at least one "worst".
Over the phone, though, she seems not unfriendly, but very, very private. Polite but reserved, she seems to weigh each question before responding, thinking not just about what the answer is, but how much of it to say. She becomes enthusiastic twice during the course of our short interview, both times talking about cross-disciplinary art projects she's been involved in, rather than Sonic Youth. And, when asked about how audience members were responding to new material from the band's album Rather Ripped, she gives a hint at the moat she's dug and the reasons she needs it, when she says, "I try not to think too much about what the audience is thinking and what they think I should do." Why not? "I'd be self-conscious if I did. Anyone becomes mannered if you think too much about what other people think."

25 years and counting
Sonic Youth emerged in the early 1980s, out of a fertile downtown NYC art scene that spanned no-wave music, performance art, painting, and theater. Founders Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo met while performing with Glenn Branca. Gordon, who was dating Moore at the time, began playing the bass in the fledgling band.
From the start, Sonic Youth made innovative use of alternate tunings, an approach which Ranaldo has said allowed them to rethink songs and structures from a fresh perspective. They used feedback, too, in a way that few other bands could manage, something that Gordon brushes off with a laugh. "That's just part of the magic of electricity. I don't think that there's too much thought that goes into it," she says. "It's just fun to do, and certainly if you've done it for 25 years, you know how to control it a little more. Everybody ... it's like boys are born knowing how to make feedback. It's kind of a no-brainer."
Their noisy, dissonant sound linked them with the 1980s' loudest, most creatively vibrant bands -- Swans, Big Black, Minor Threat, and others -- yet as they evolved, the sound became more melodic. The landmark Daydream Nation included lyrical intervals among its signature feedback-laden sprawls. Their later work -- Murray Street, Sonic Nurse, and this year's Rather Ripped -- subsumes, but doesn't quite extinguish, the old fury under languidly beautiful melodies.
Throughout their career, the band has embraced opposites -- beautiful melodies next to rupturing discord, major label support alongside underground sensibilities, marquee tours and tiny side-project shows -- in a way that few other bands have ever accomplished. For example, this month Gordon's husband Thurston Moore will play a low-key show with free-improv heavyweights Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano at the Bookmill in Montague, Massachusetts, before heading off on a world domination tour with Pearl Jam. Gordon herself creates avant garde art installations and films when she is not holding down the third guitar line in Sonic Youth.
How does the band balance its edgy, experimental interests with the requirements of being Sonic Youth? "It's pretty easy," says Gordon. "There's only so many small shows you can do. A lot of the smaller things are more side project things. Not everything is appropriate for Sonic Youth to do. There are certain ... like we like Pearl Jam. They're really nice people, and we toured with them before and it was really fun."