Sonic Youth Confusion Is Next
I just finished reading Sonic Youth Confusion is Next by Alec Foege. I have never dove deep into Sonic Youth’s catalog, but it is impossible to not to recognize their contribution to music and also to underground culture. My favorite thing about this book is understanding the NYC underground after punk and into the early 80′s. NYC seemed like a strange nebulis zone during those years. I never really understood the dynamics between the high art music of Laurie Anderston, Arthur Russel, and Phillip Glass and its relationship with the downtown scene of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, G.G. Allin, Sonic Youth, and other No Wave bands like DNA,..James Chance.
Reading Thurston Moore’s and Kim Gordon’s perspective of these scene’s makes it clear that there were conflicting philosophies happening at that time. Seems like a comment on elitism and egalitarianism. Kim Gordon comes out to say (I am paraphrasing) that she just couldn’t relate to Laurie Anderson and the high art music within that community. Since first wave hardcore never really happened in NYC (like it did in Washington DC, LA, or Minneapolis), reading the accounts from people who experienced those years and participated in the music communities/scenes makes NYC’s post-punk years endlessly interesting to me.
This book was written in 1994 so it does bring the reader through the comodification of underground music (Nirvana for example) and Sonic Youth’s role in that time period. Seems like Sonic Youth, just like today, curated the sounds from the underground and brought some into the limelight. Those parts are clearly outlined in the Sonic Youth documentary The Year Punk Broke. That part of the book was interesting, but more obvious.
The book also outlines detailed accounts from Thurston, Kim, and Steve about the recording process and song writing experimentation’s that went into each Sonic Youth record. The most interesting points of the book are the accounts of how Sonic Youth got to where they are at within the structures of indie and major labels.
You should read it even if you don’t like Sonic Youth. But you should like Sonic Youth.
