Kim Gordon, "Girl In a Band"

Kim Gordon is a private person by her own admission, often shy and introverted, a reluctant star for an industry that sought a marketable personality for her band Sonic Youth.  Reading about her LA upbringing, as the child of academics, brutally teased by her schizophrenic brother, was the most engrossing part of her memoir.

Those looking for blow by blow accounts of Sonic Youth's rise to the top of the 80's and 90's alternative pile, or even for wistful philosophizing about how and why they made such an impact, will be sorely disappointed.  It seems that a major motivation for writing the book is to show that her life has been far more than just being one half of the power couple behind Sonic Youth.  However, this leads to the book becoming a bit too insider-y into goings on in the arts world.  It may not be an exaggeration to state that fans of fine art will get more out of reading the book than music fans will.

I've thought a lot about Sonic Youth's near-breakthrough.  "Kool Thing" is one of the most perfect songs ever written. For a band debuting on a major label and looking to make a splash, courting new fans while maintaining all the elements that made them legends to existing hardcore fans, "Kool Thing" could not have achieved their goals any better.  It had all the elements for getting played on the radio and MTV -- a slick, yet lo-fi video that maintained all their underground cred, a brilliant guest spot from Chuck D, an air of dissonance and danger that absolutely screams "soundtrack to the counterculture", and a brilliant, endlessly repeatable chorus.

The third single from the album, "Dirty Boots", tries to be "Smells Like Teen Spirit" before "Smells Like Teen Spirit", or at least, its video does.  It features kids moshing to the band in a cramped club, audience crushes on the band, and twee crushes been slackers in the audience.  It might have been appropriate for second gen faux grunge nerds like Weezer, but it couldn't possibly have been less fitting for Sonic Youth.  Eventually SY would have modest commercial success working with Butch Vig, who famously produced "Nevermind".  But it was their least interesting period creatively, and Gordon has very little to say about their music during these years (but has many interesting personal memories of Nirvana).