In light of the fact that tonight's show in Brazil could be the band's last EVER, I went all mushy and wrote up my thoughts on the whole thing to my blog.
It quotes a couple of you guy's posts from the original thread when this whole thing blew up. I hope you don't mind if I've represented you wrongly. And if you do.. suck it. Enjoy!
http://dischordmusic.blogspot.com/20...cos-south.html
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Tonight (Nov. 14th 2011) sees a pivotal moment in the life of influential experimental rockers Sonic Youth’s long-term fan base for many reasons. For one, it marks the end of their first ever South American tour. A tour which has seen them take in countries such as Peru, impoverished from the lack of Sonic Youth since the band’s inception almost thirty years ago.
Another reason - perhaps the more worrying of the two listed so far - is that tonight’s gig at Brazil’s SWU Music & Arts Festival, could be the band’s last ever.
After the shattering announcement of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s separation from marriage came tumbling into the music press back in mid-October, the future of the band has looked uncertain beyond this handful of South American dates.
Internet gossip boards have been alight with spurious debate as to whether the band will, or even can, survive what must be a tumultuous time for two of the core members of the now five-piece band (
Pavement’s Mark Ibold joined the quartet on secondary bass duties back in 2008).
“I certainly hope the band finds it in them to stay together. Though if they quit, I wouldn’t be totally surprised” said online master messeger ‘Count Mecha’.
“I always thought their relationship situation was about as good as anyone could ever be fortunate enough to find themselves in. 27 years, insane. All those great tunes. This shit is a bummer” were the sentiments of one Sonic Gossiper, ‘ann ashtray’, while another – ‘foreverakiss’ – simply added “all bullshit aside… This is so fucking sad.”
All across the board grievances and best wishes were pouring in for the band and the now separate couple. The majority willed the group to continue, giving back story to their own infatuation with the band’s long and varied back catalogue as testimony to why they should continue, but many simply did not agree that the band could survive, even if they wanted to, as the same band we once knew and loved.
I for one had ‘split’ etched into my mind from the moment I read that initial news. Here was a band that had been pulling out all the stops for nigh on thirty years now. Despite their endless enthusiasm and amiable youthfulness in the face of fifty, most people would need a rest by now, and so it would seem sensible to use this stop gap as a perfect opportunity to do this. Add into the mix the slew of solo records from Thurston (including his latest offering; the soft folk driven excellence of
Demolished Thoughts – a million miles away from most Sonic Youth material), Ranaldo’s upcoming one-man attempt and the endless stream of bands Steve Shelley seems to be in at the moment, and the thought of a break becomes clearer by the minute.
After 27 years of seemingly solid relationship status, for something to have caused a split it must have been more than a little squabble. In keeping with Thurston and Kim’s perfect shunning of the public eye on their personal lives and with respect to privacy, I shall not be rumour-milling on what it could be. All I’m saying is that it seemed fairly likely to make matters between the two parties too stressful to continue.
But then,
video surfaced on the same Sonic Gossip message board as mentioned before, of the band’s Argentinean performance at the country’s Personal Fest. It was good to see the band so tight and on form, still putting everything into the performance. From an audience perspective, this was still the Sonic Youth of old, all crunching chords, guitar wailing and stage flailing. It would’ve been easy for the band to fall into a ‘eurgh, get these dates out of the way, and then we’re off!’ kind of mentality, but it didn’t seem like that at all.
Here was a band clearly enjoying themselves in front of a rabid new audience, perhaps – if there was any doubt in their minds as to whether they’d continue – reminding them why they loved playing in Sonic Youth so much, and eschewing any decisions that may or may not have been made up to that point.
Pictures from a subsequent gig from the same tour in Peru reinforced this further. Guitar abusing noise cacophonies not seen since before the
Daydream Nation tour were capture to camera, and while some may have seen this as a cynical attempt to break all their gear in a final salute to the music, I took it as a return to the care-free, boundary pushing band of old.
If Sonic Youth break up, it will mean the end to a band that has informed so much more than just my music life since the age of about 15. If it wasn’t for Sonic Youth, I wouldn’t be listening to the music I listen to, wearing the clothes I wear, speaking the way I speak, watching the films or TV I watch, or writing the way I write. Heck, I don’t think I’d be writing at all if it wasn’t for the band turning me on fully to my love of music back in the day.
So, here’s hoping of an announcement, sometime in the near future (possibly at tonight’s show), that Sonic Youth will be continuing, despite their differences, into the New Year at least.
Sonic Life.
Alex Nelson.