Hollow Earth

I feel bad for Sonic Youth in the midst of all these slightly menacing attacks upon them. Simon's piece in The Guardian was not exactly nasty but he scalped them all the same. Mark on the other hand went for the jugular. I can quite understand the desire to attack "Ver Yoof", I had a bash here, but I have come to regret my hubris.

In truth I have more than a little sympathy for Thurston and his gang. I grasp Mark's intensification of Simon's damning by faint praise, that SY have failed to be a true "portal", have got on the wrong side of the curatorial process, I do sincerely believe he is making a valid point. However at the end of the day whether one chooses to side for or against them depends not on whether one valorises or deplores the kind of Indexification of music that they stand for but whether one thinks they are cool or not. For instance Matmos's "The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of A Beast" worked in almost exactly the same way as the new Sonic Youth project does, each track celebrating an underground legend, and everyone thought it was groovy.

Umpteen groups/individuals/collectives could be accused of this vile sin of being in thrall to the body of rock, unable to create their own original musical language. As I type this bands of hungry, homeless musicians are cowering underneath abandoned motor-way fly-overs, shivering in front of bonfires of burning plastic cider bottles quaking at the thought of being labeled "Indexifiers"- but most of those musicians needn't worry! They actually have fallen on the right side of the critical dividing line. They're actually cool. It's OK. They can go home.

Sonic Middle-aged People (aka Sonic Youth) on the other hand have made the punishable offense of not dying young (like Mark's example of Darby Crash). They've gotten even older and uglier, and they've ploughed a incredibly consistent furrow. I think they've done good things actually, things which in their own way disrupt the mechanism of the music industry- the first of which being not overdosing on drugs. They never did *really* sell out - you could hate them for sticking to their guns but.....like, so did Sun Ra.

Anyway. I just wanted to say that I don't think they're the enemy. I have many very cool No Wave 7" records, and I know a few of the cool old hardcore No Wave musicians (hi guys!) and you know what, Sonic Youth are also very cool. I haven't heard their new record, but I reckon it doesn't sound remotely like an amalgam of other people's music. I bet a million dollars it sounds like a Sonic Youth record. Also, ok briefly forget EVOL and Daydream Nation, Sister- that is a mutherfucking amazing record. There is not a single false move on that disc. Aight.