By the end of 2011, things were looking bleak for Sonic Youth. Not that they haven’t released some awesome music in thirty years of being together, but the news that Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore are splitting up has thrown the band’s future into doubt.
However, depressing as the thought that they may no longer record together is, the band’s members have been responsible for some mighty fine other projects over the years. Gordon as part of Free Kitten, Moore solo and in collaboration with others (to say nothing of running his fine Ecstatic Peace label)…and now the news that guitarist Lee Ranaldo is due to release his first ‘proper, song-orientated album’ (quote from the PR I was sent, quotation marks my own) on March 26 through Matador.
It’s called Between The Times And The Tides and features cameos from the Youth’s Steve Shelley and one-time Youth member Jim O’Rourke, and the original drummer Bob Bert. Not only that but Wilco’s Nels Cline features on every track on lead guitar. For indie fans of a certain vintage, as well as people who really know their stuff, this is something to really get excited about.
The first track to do the rounds is called ‘Off The Wall’ (no, not the Michael Jackson song – but if you haven’t ever heard ver Youth’s take on songs like Crime’s ‘Hotwire My Heart,’ The Carpenters’ ‘Yesterday Once More’ and Madonna’s ‘Into The Groove’ you are really depriving yourself unnecessarily), and it’s rather fine…