[racehorse]

definately echoing what sarramkrop and sonicl have said -

sonic youth deserve to be a massive mainstream band. they have been wanting to achieve it for twenty years and i think that now they should and will sign to another mainstream label, preferably one bigger and with more distribution than geffen. they should keep making pop records like rather ripped and they should do a shit load of commercial tv interviews. they should do this for the simple reason that the people who usually listen to chart and nme bands will discover them, and hopefully will trace their lineage back to the early 80s. they will realise that a rock band can be more than a couple of cool guys w/guitars but can function as a genuinely intelligent, evolving, artistic and commercial unit whilst still retaining smarts and integrity. we still have their past output to listen back on, and becoming huge and commercial will give them more money to persue their own projects - projects which we will all buy and enjoy.

trying to resist the mainstream when they have come all this way, and wanting them to be as obscure and "indie" as they were back then is hugely reductive and pretty conservative really.
sometimes you've gotta work with something if you want to say anything meaningful about it. just look at pop-art.

selling out??
why would anyone want to keep the band a secret? i think sonic youth are smart people, way too smart to "sell-out" in the way i think people on this thread are talking about.
i.e. they have a good dose of humour, vision, and artistic integrity.