Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post

Moshe · 05.23.2008, 01:14 PM

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/...i?news07108m01

David Browne, Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth (Da Capo): The former Entertainment Weekly music editor’s Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley, published in 2002, was a superb rock bio that juxtaposed the ironic connections between father and son while managing to bring the music of both to life. He’s done a similarly excellent job in his latest effort, a wonderful evocation of the ’80s no wave, downtown standard-bearers and their uneasy alliance with the major label system. That post-punk period in New York has been chronicled in several recent tomes, most notably Mark Masters’ No Wave, Alec Foege’s Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth Story, Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start It Again, David Nobakht’s Suicide: No Compromise and the upcoming look back at the era by Byron Coley with SY’s own Thurston Moore. Browne’s book brings out how the avant-garde group’s hip credibility intersected for a brief moment with the commercial explosion of grunge, leading to some Spinal Tap moments at their label, Geffen, and the ongoing frustration of sympathetic execs like Mark Kates, Ray Farrell, Robin Sloane and John Rosenfelder against the backdrop of a rapidly changing music biz. One inside highlight: how attorney Richard Grabel managed to renegotiate the band’s deal significantly upwards for helping attract Nirvana to the label, despite never having released an album that sold more than 300k. In the end, Sonic Youth stubbornly managed to carve out a place for itself, even if never reaching the heights of success of the fellow artists who were drawn to them like moths to a flame over the years, including cult directors Spike Jonze, Todd Haynes, Phil Morrison, Sofia Coppola and Harmony Korine, performers Chloe Sevigny, Keanu Reeves and Richard Edson, not to mention their early support of both Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. It’s an effective remembrance of times past that seem to have taken place a lot longer than just 17 years ago, when The Year Punk Broke promised a wholesale revolution in the rock world that never quite came to pass. It does offer an interesting lesson to would-be bands on how to infiltrate the industry establishment without compromising your artistic ideals if you want any kind of credibility, though it’s admittedly no formula for superstardom. But in a world where celebrity is becoming almost as devalued as music, it remains an invaluable message.

05.23.2008, 01:14 PM	#31
Moshe Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,862	http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/...i?news07108m01 *David Browne, Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth* (Da Capo):** The former Entertainment Weekly music editor’s Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley, published in 2002, was a superb rock bio that juxtaposed the ironic connections between father and son while managing to bring the music of both to life. He’s done a similarly excellent job in his latest effort, a wonderful evocation of the ’80s no wave, downtown standard-bearers and their uneasy alliance with the major label system. That post-punk period in New York has been chronicled in several recent tomes, most notably Mark Masters’ No Wave, Alec Foege’s Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth Story, Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start It Again, David Nobakht’s Suicide: No Compromise and the upcoming look back at the era by Byron Coley with SY’s own Thurston Moore. Browne’s book brings out how the avant-garde group’s hip credibility intersected for a brief moment with the commercial explosion of grunge, leading to some Spinal Tap moments at their label, Geffen, and the ongoing frustration of sympathetic execs like Mark Kates, Ray Farrell, Robin Sloane and John Rosenfelder against the backdrop of a rapidly changing music biz. One inside highlight: how attorney Richard Grabel managed to renegotiate the band’s deal significantly upwards for helping attract Nirvana to the label, despite never having released an album that sold more than 300k. In the end, Sonic Youth stubbornly managed to carve out a place for itself, even if never reaching the heights of success of the fellow artists who were drawn to them like moths to a flame over the years, including cult directors Spike Jonze, Todd Haynes, Phil Morrison, Sofia Coppola and Harmony Korine, performers Chloe Sevigny, Keanu Reeves and Richard Edson, not to mention their early support of both Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. It’s an effective remembrance of times past that seem to have taken place a lot longer than just 17 years ago, when The Year Punk Broke promised a wholesale revolution in the rock world that never quite came to pass. It does offer an interesting lesson to would-be bands on how to infiltrate the industry establishment without compromising your artistic ideals if you want any kind of credibility, though it’s admittedly no formula for superstardom. But in a world where celebrity is becoming almost as devalued as music, it remains an invaluable message.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|