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Hey, Danica McKellar, did you ever get high with Fred Savage?
Published on 8/5/08
Video
It’s too bad that music journalist David Browne didn’t complete his new Sonic Youth biography just a few months later than he did: In Goodbye 20th Century the author structures his detailed profile of the hugely influential New York noise-rock band around the group’s decades-long flirtation with the musical mainstream—a relationship that this month reaches an unlikely milestone with the release of Hits Are for Squares, the first Sonic Youth CD to be sold exclusively at Starbucks. Talk about an object lesson.
As it happened, Browne still found a neat narrative to work with, charting the group’s determinedly paced journey from underpopulated gigs in the arty early-’80s downtown scene to its brush with alt-rock fame in the mid ’90s to its current status as an inspiration to a nation of young experimentalists.
Browne is at his best when recounting the band’s anxious navigation through major-label waters, especially as he charts its path to signing with Geffen Records. He digs up scores of sources—including managers, producers and celebrity pals such as Sofia Coppola—who inject life into what might’ve been a rote rehashing of age-old art-versus-commerce clichés. But throughout Goodbye 20th Century he also delves into the band’s deeply unconventional social system, which revolves around the marriage between singer-guitarists Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Near the end of the book he visits the couple (and their daughter, Coco) at their cozy home in western Massachusetts and brings back an illuminating portrait of avant-rock domesticity. Considering the quiet contours of their life together these days, you can see how Starbucks must’ve seemed like a pretty good fit.
