SY in June 2006 issue of The Wire
 

There is a great 8 page feature on Sonic Youth (5 pages pictures, 3 pages text) in the June 2006 issue of The Wire.

Also included in the issue is a beginners guide to John Fahey and an article on Jutta Koether, with whom Kim has collaborated in the past.

i just bought it, havent read it yet though, i don't like the pictures of them in it at all!!

Yeah, I agree, they're not very flattering are they? Kim looks like she's been made up for her own funeral, while Thurston definitely appears to have stopped drinking from the fountain of youth.

...Scans?

i cant find any info on the wire mag web site. is it in the may issue? i assume yes.

The "current issue" on the Wire website at the moment is the May one, the SY article is in June's issue.


I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything

I cant wait to get that!

Here ya go!

whooo, will need to pick this up!

Geez, thurston.

they look rather haggard... d'you think the new LP is a mid-life crisis?

cool beans

huh? They look the same to me, like they do when you see them in real life.

The Wire has had this weird infatuation w/ the Youth since like 1998, not complaining but i find it intriguing they definitly do fit the nature of the magazine's intent but i'm just abit puzzled that they don't give as much cred to alot of other fringe artists out there...

great.
thanks!
i'm going get that issue.

I don't know about you guys, but Kim looks really nice in those pictures. I think SY has aged really well. They have hardly changed at all. Except for Lees' hair, they've changed very little. If Lee dyed his hair black he'd be back to looking like this. But Lee looks cool with gray hair. He always looks cool.

get off the subject people and talk about the article;

in pictures they look like normal everyday life; they always have been true in that respect; jeez from the talk you guys ask like they are some visually focused band, which has been only acted as tongue in cheek with the fashion stuff..

no 'pretty done up no talents on the ship' I'm glad to see SY isn't fucking faking it up with face lifts and airbrushing like some stupid pop idols

So tell us about the article please.. I haven't picked it up yet

I think it was taken during the Daydream recording sessions.

The article is a good one. It puts Rather Ripped into context (I can't remember exactly what was written, but Thurston refers to the band wanting to make an album that has the same sort of impact as Parallel Lines had for Blondie), and refers a lot to their work outside the band and its relevance to the band.

I'll pop out and get the magazine out of my car in my lunch hour and then I can be a bit more precise.

The opening paragraph:

"I wanted it to be like our Parallel Lines, when Blondie broke out with Parallel Lines", Thurston Moore is saying. "I remember when Parallel Lines came out we were al so pissed off. 'Why would they make a record with all this lightweight pop stuff on it?' Even though some of the songs are super good. That became their classic and it dictated what they became as a band, which was from my perspective really annoying. I remember thinking when it came out: 'Ewwww, Mike Chapman production.' This is our Parallel Lines. We're trying to make Parallel Lines right."


Later, Jim-related:

Though he has significantly scaled down his musical activities and sold almost all of his instruments, computers and recording equipment, Jim O'Rourke has not retired from music altogether, and future collaborations are planned. "There are only certain places he'll go to," says Gordon. "He's through with Europe and certain cities in the US - I don't think i could get him to play in Chicago. The last Sonic Youth gigs in Europe that he was doing with us, as we would finish each gig in each country he would be checking it off his list. 'I will never come to france again'," Moore laughs. "And Lee would be going, 'That's bullshit, you'rew so full of shit.' And he would be like, 'Nope, I am never coming here again.' He was liberating himself from the planet. It was kind of amazing."

Three more things, but I can't be bothered to type everything out any more:

1. the planned SY/Brigette Fontaine CD/DVD on SYR got abandoned because it tied the label up in red tape for eighteen months or more and the whole SYR catalogue ended up stalled around the one project.

2. There are plans to release an SYR collection of all SY's film music, dating back to Made in USA, on two or three CDs, but they haven't decided whether it should be seperate volumes or one multi-pack.

3. Lee wants to see "A real serious concert series, of different live gigs from different points in our career" on SYR, but says that the process of archiving the recordings, listening to them all and selecting the best ones would be a daunting task.

There is a hell of a lot more to the article than that, so you really should go out and buy The Wire or order it or whatever.

thanks for that... funny about Jim checking countries off his list and liberating himself from the planet.... will have to pick this up next time i'm in town

check out the wire website, they've added an archived SY interview from '89!

Well spotted! 1989 interview HERE

Can't wait to check it out

are you kidding? i'm usually unfamiliar with like 75% of what WIRE covers on a regular basis. they regularly cover 'fringe' artists. sure, usually the artists covered (or on the cover) are somewhat 'stalwarts' in their field. sy share enthusiasms for a similar spectrum of music, so they will be covered accordingly. and it's cool that WIRE doesn't airbrush all that shit (photos) up, like 99% of other music mags. it's real

Thanks for posting sonicl. Ha ha, Jim rules.

Thanks

i can't wait until i can get a copy stateside. too bad it it'll be between the middle of june and the middle of july before i'm able to.

no, scott is right. i've been reading the wire for about 6 or 7 years and SY are the only group to have been on the cover more than once in all that time, murray st and SYR4 were both voted album of the year by Wire writers, i think sonic nurse was their number 2 album of 2004, the wife of the editor was involved in putting on kim gordon's 2 art show's in london last year... i expect rather ripped to be in their top 3 or 2006, even though rather ripped is a pile of utter, utter shit.

there are a handful of bands and musicians that the wire tend to get excited about even if they're doing nothing. SY, einsturzende neubauten, the fall, derek bailey, john fahey, john coltrane, john cage, keiji haino...

I read it, and the writer seems a bit disappointed with the new album, calling it the most "lukewarm" SY release since Experimental Jet Set. Also it seems to question the future of the band by speculating over the end of the Geffen contract. But still a decent piece and pretty informative.

yeah over in Europe the closest rock band to be on the same level as SY would arguably be The Ex, and how many times have they appeared on the cover of The Wire??? maybe once? that i can remember... and they've put out just as many albums of interesting avant rock for just as long or not longer than SY...

rather ripped being lukewarm, i can hear and understand that comment, musically its a pretty solid album but w/ little creativity as compared to what they've done already, the band seems content with where they're at musically speaking, they've dug there nitche straight to the core and there is no escaping it now (which is OK!) though at the same time they are now embracing "traditional song structures" more now than ever and think thats the type of "experimentation" they are going for, which makes it sound more "immediate" of an album that they've pretty much ever done. but at the same time i can see how this album can get stale quickly... the vocals are good, but lyrically its weird and comes off sounding abit tiresome and trashy in places. still it beats 99% of the uncreative nongenuine bullshit that floats on the airwaves.

surely the fall and neubauten are comparible to SY too, as they are pretty much the only other bands (that come to mind) to be left over from that era. and there early records all have a lot in common to my mind.

Where the hell do you get The Wire? I went to 4 stores and no one had it. Is it on stands exclusively in the UK?

I think it tends to be sold more at indie-type record stores in the US, but you may be acouple of months behind us. Aquarius in SF lists it, but at the moment the most recent issue they show on their website is April.

Maybe your easist way would be to order direct from The Wire's website, where a single issue is £6 (about US$11?) including postage to USA. See HERE (you'll find it under "Back Issues").

Wire is available at a ton of places Stateside. Most bookstores carry it, and good record shops have it as well.

The back-order prices aren't too bad. I'll just get that. Thanks.

I tried Barnes & Noble, and their selection is horrible. Borders had a good selection, but no Wire. I'll look around at the local record shops, though.

I've just bought it today.I like the free cd.In fact i like most of the free cds that The Wire give away.They should give one away every month

I just found it at Rhino Records. Should have checked there first. Still on May but it'll be there, at least.

good article. cool that the journalist doesn't try and kiss ass just cuz they're on the cover and examines the album objectively. also, he politely asks thurston and lee if they shouldn't think about changing their sound. quite illuminating when thurston says he is very involved in the noise scene to the point that SY is almost like a side project. He claims that he was very aware that the new SY LP didn't have to fit in with the noise scene...
i think he burnt himself out with all his solo guitar destruction and just wanted to explore more familiar territory with SY...