Sonic Youth: The Ugly Break Of The Band Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore

Sonic Youth, the ugly break of the band due to the split of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore.

0:08 - Sonic Youth's History
3:35 - Sonic Youth's Breakup

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Hailing from New York City in the early 80’s, Sonic Youth was part of the experimental no wave art and music scene before changing into a more conventional rock band and becoming prominent members of the American noise rock scene. Author David Browne best described the no-wave scene as a time when and i quote "art, music, illustration — all were in the process of being torn down, reassembled, and combined with other media."
Sonic Youths classic lineup was made up of vocalist and guitarists, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, bassist Lee Ranaldo, and drummer Steve Shelley, and they were credited with doing things with guitar that hadn’t really been done before. That included — creating sounds with strangely tuned guitars, using feedback and placing objects on or between between the strings such as drum sticks and power drills. Author Michael Azzerad who has written extensively about America’s indie underground rock scene said the following of sonic youth’s sound:
Sonic Youth could only afford cheap guitars, and cheap guitars sounded like cheap guitars. But with weird tunings or something jammed under a particular fret, those humble instruments could sound rather amazing – bang a drum stick on a cheap Japanese Stratocaster copy in the right tuning, crank the amplifier to within an inch of its life and it will sound like church bells

Sonic Youth would be a huge influence on the alternative rock acts who followed in their footsteps most notably Nirvana who claimed even after the release of their juggernaut album Nevermind that they wanted to be like Sonic Youth.
The band would be one of the most popular yet staunchly independent bands throughout the 80’s in the United States. They spent a good chunk of the decade releasing albums on independent labels with their streak ending after the release of 1988’s Daydream Nation. The album received universal acclaim from critics, but it was met with modest sales. And the band was disappointed with how the their record label Enigma was treating them. The label was suffering from distribution and financial issues, so Sonic Youth would leave them the following year and signed with DGC records, which was owned by Geffen Records. Their first release with Geffen 1990’s Goo, would be their biggest album of their career up until that point. The record would net the band their first appearance on the billboard 200 charts with it selling in excess of 100,000 units and yielded the hit song Kool Thing. The album proved that Sonic Youth they didn’t have to sacrifice their experimental sound, while at the same time being radio friendly
The band’s follow up album Dirty, released in 1992 was put out during the height of grunge’s popularity. The band would work with Nirvana producer butch vig and mixer andy wallace, both of whom wanted to condense down the band’s songs and focus heavily on the guitar sounds. And due to nirvana’s success with nevermind, Geffen records heavily promoted the album and it would chart within the top 100 albums in the US and go gold selling over half a million units. The band would once again work with Producer Butch Vig on their follow up album 1994’s Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. The album would prove to be one of the band’s highest charting records of their career peaking in the top 40 in America. but the record was more subdued and quieter featuring some throwbacks to their indie label days. The same year Gordon and Moore welcomed their first child and the tour to support the album wasn’t as strenuous as their previous records due to Gordon’s pregnancy.
By 1995 the band would headline lollapalooza and following that appearance the band took some time apart while it’s members pursued other musical projects. And between 1995 and 2007 the band would release a series of albums for Geffen records while also starting to release more experimental and instrumental records under their own label. The band would release their first and final album on Matador records in 2009 titled The Eternal. Two years later the band would announce their break up in October of 2011 shocking their fans.
Kim Gordon’s and Thurston Moore would announce in a band statement that the pair had separated after 27 years of marriage.

[robertkortus]

"bassist Lee Ranaldo..." Nope - Lee played guitar, Kim was on bass.

[amerocker]

I came here to see how many comments there are about "guitarist" Kim Gordon and "bassist" Lee Renaldo.

[ThomasVanHoesenDeadpooliscool]

So Sonic Youth broke up because Thurston Moore started thirstin’ more?

[liammchugh]

I still remember when the news of Kim and Thurston’s splitting broke and every indie rocker on the internet stopped believing in love.

[davidsommerville]

Bassist Lee Reynaldo? I’ve never seen one pic of him with a bass. What did Kim play? Oh, yea, bass.

[hpspacecraft]

I've admired Thurston Moore's songwriting and guitar playing for a long time, but hearing him downplay and dismiss his own culpability in the breakup is disappointing.

[safespacebear]

Funny that he was surprised he'd be blamed for breaking up the band. When you are the person who broke the heart of a woman whom a lot of people have deep affection for...of course you're gonna be the bad guy

[RastaSaiyaman]

Look up a copy of Kim Gordon's book "Girl in a band" to see how she experienced the break up.

She says that the first sign that something was up came from the fact that Thurston has started smoking again and choosing a very specific brand, the same brand the woman who he was seeing, was known to smoke. She got home and saw the cigarette butts in the ashtray and noticed that they were larger in number than Thurston could smoke on his own.

[TheDubit]

Yeah, Lee Ranaldo is most definitely not Sonic Youth’s bassist. That’s kind of an important detail.

[osirisrex]

Steve Shelley is the best drummer nobody has heard of

[kaivsmith]

don't wanna be that guy but Kim Gordon was the bassist and vocalist and Lee Ranaldo was a guitarist and vocalist, good video though

[craighiggins]

Kim Gordon always played bass in Sonic Youth. I think she played guitar on some side projects with other people, and she might've done some guitar work in the studio here or there. But the line-up through its glory days featured Thurston Moore and Lee Ronaldo on guitars, Gordon on bass, and Steve Shelley on drums. I saw these guys on the Goo tour, and they were great.

[HammertoothOfficial]

"Bassist Lee Ranaldo" - How do you have the hubris to make an eight minute video and get it so wrong?

[Kinnakeeter]

I miss Sonic Youth dude. So innovative. That's what I miss about alternative rock, people weren't afraid to create.

[jessica_jam]

I remember sonic youth breaking up like it was yesterday, and hearing about Thurston and Kim separating and being shocked. I can’t believe that was 9 years ago. I still love the music they put out, but I don’t have rose colored glasses anymore about certain things. I still love Kim and bought her book right when it came out.

[fscott]

I've busted this guy at least 3 times being completely wrong.
He should hire a fact checker.

[innocentbystander]

I think they have one of the best overall discography of any band, it's just amazing.

[onusgumboot]

The problem with getting the band members instruments wrong, as has been pointed out repeatedly in the comments, is that if that is wrong, why would I assume anything in the video is correct?
A simple google search before posting the video would solve the problem. As it is I would never bother with any video you put out after that.
I'm gone

[fahriakalin]

my friends started a noise-punk band because of them - but nothing good in life lasts forever - try to look back on your past relationships and learn from them - be kind to your exes - your love for them might change - and become the friendship you really need.

[thejericarturesshow]

Shocked fans? The moment I found out that Thurston and Kim were a married couple I already knew they're on borrowed time. That they lasted that long is a testament on how they kept it together. The band's life was hanging on how the two's married life was. I can't imagine how much Lee and the drummer had to be involved in their arguments just so they would not explode.