The iconic postpunk band Sonic Youth is famed for blurring musical genres, veering from thundering rock to dismantled experimentalism, and expanding the possibilities of the electric guitar. "What we're doing is always inventing itself. I have no terminology for it," guitarist Thurston Moore observes. Moore and his bandmates Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley have also, over the course of 27 years since they first started playing together, more quietly engaged in multidisciplinary solo efforts and collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and other musicians. Numerous artists, from Richard Prince and Raymond Pettibon to Gerhard Richter have contributed artwork for Sonic Youth album covers, and Moore, Ranaldo and Gordon in particular have collaborated with visual artists; but the group has also produced a large amount of great ephemera over the decades.
This comprehensive 784-page volume --which includes two 7-inch records with unpublished songs by each member, album covers, band portraits and documentary photos, many of which have never been published before-- is a must for fans and anyone wanting to connect the dots between New York's various scenes. It features writings by band members and contributions by a host of other luminaries, including Richard Hell, Mike Kelley, Jutta Koether, Alan Licht, Lydia Lunch and John Miller.
