Sonic Youth: Classic or Dud/S&D?

this article makes Thurston sound unbelievably lame

Tbf, his ex-wife's side of the story is almost guaranteed to.

Also, he can't have been particularly rich per se, could he?

are you kidding

rich in cultural capital

Well the article suggests the divorce hold up involves figuring out how much an eighties hardcore poster archive is worth

so many records...

Byron C. told me he was gonna be writing the authorized SY bio. that's the only new SY info I have to share. should be interesting!

i'd be bummed if georgia hubley and ira kaplan broke up i suppose

damn, dont even suggest it dude. i couldnt handle being deprived of their boring-ass crap

Ooh a third SY bio, this one authorized!

i'd probably read it. I like Byron. he's like the 6th beatle or whatever. I don't honestly know how interesting all their stories are. Thurston grew up near me so I know how bored he was. that's about it.

I have faith in Byron to make it all awesome

i read whatever one came out in 2008

Tbf, his ex-wife's side of the story is almost guaranteed to.

Also, he can't have been particularly rich per se, could he?

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, April 22, 2013 7:09 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she kind of subtly eviscerates him with that double life/lost soul line.

I liked Trees Outside the Academy a lot more than the last couple of SY albums...

― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, April 22, 2013 2:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

didn't mind Demolished Thoughts.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

i often have trouble with thurston's lyrics (never his guitars), esp this side of y2k, but these two are damn good

I totally care about them as a couple, it was part of the appeal. I totally care about the gossipy nature of their breakup, too. And he's a cad for fucking around on her, even if she was doing it to him too.

The scorned woman always earns the most empathy.

i don't really have an opinion on the breakup. i'm sure it's difficult for them, and i'm disappointed about what it portends for their creative collaboration, but i figure the rest is theirs and no business of mine.

They put their relationship--creatively and personally--into the public narrative, including this latest part. Price of fame.

I don't really think that's true. It's not in any songs, not really in any interviews I've read either.

it's not like i think it's gauche to take sides; i'm just a fence-sitter by nature. when it comes to the affairs of the heart, i draw a sharp, clean line between situations in which i (and those i know & trust & care about) are intimately involved and the whole damn rest of the world. everything on the other side of the line is television, an inseparable tangle of signal & noise. it's often very interesting, but i refuse to get too attached to any one storyline.

i think it's easy to forget how little we really know about anyone else's relationship. two of my good friends broke up with each other a while back and it suddenly struck me that i had no idea how the two of them acted when no one else was around, whether they were happy or what. sounds like thurston acted like a dick in this situation, but shit happens.

it's not easy to forget at all! i was about to say that whatever we -- complete strangers and readers of magazines -- can see about this relationship is analogous only to one thing: the tip of the iceberg. i cannot even imagine what happened behind the scenes, and that's why this makes me feel bad. i can't even imagine going through all that, much less doing it publicly.

Also, he can't have been particularly rich per se, could he?

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, April 22, 2013 4:09 PM (1 hour ago)

Wealth is completely relative but they OWN a rad apartment in lower manhattan, OWN a studio/practice space in lower manhattan, as well as a substantial house in burbs and sent their daughter to an elite artsy boarding school and private arts college...

How does that rate on your scale of "rich ~per se~", Sund4r?

from where i sit, that scans as fuckin-a rich

i definitely believe it's their business and they need to make decisions for their own happiness, not for the kid or even the fans etc etc. but dudes who are loyal husbands for decades and then flush it all away for the younger woman, and sneak around about it, it's lame as shit, they can get the gasface for living that cliche.

That would probably qualify, yeah, I mean, assuming e.g. they had to pay full tuition, etc. That's really possible for a band whose best-selling album sold less than 400 000 copies according to this?: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/06/11/fringe-benefits.html

xxpost

dudes who are loyal husbands for decades and then flush it all away for the younger woman, and sneak around about it, it's lame as shit, they can get the gasface for living that cliche.
this is why i am disappointed! it's undignified.

I guess if each album turns a reasonable profit, you tour a lot, crank out a piece of crap for every soundtrack or compilation album, and handle your money wisely, that could make sense?

xpost

merch, touring, licensing, theme park rides, etc. assume that record sales are just a dorp in the scrooge vault.

i imagine they made a comfortable living when Sonic Youth did a lengthy tour every summer, divorce plus the end of their most lucrative possible gig might be a little rough but i'm sure they have enough to keep just living bohemian artist lives.

They toured for 20+ years, were on countless soundtracks, played every major global festival (and plenty of minor ones), had their own vanity record label(s), had their own clothing lines, invested in outsider art before people invested in outsider art, countless side projects... you may be forgetting that Thurston was A&R for DGC, he was an integral piece of Nirvana's signing (I think Beck too?). Did Thurston get points for Nevermind?

ooh, good question

You're right that I was forgetting or else not fully aware that TM was on DGC's payroll for A&R.

Huh, never really fully gave these guys credit for their business sense before. It now makes sense why they put out so many half-assed compilation tracks, etc.

i don't think Thurston/SY made any money directly off of Nirvana's signing/sales, and it's not like the bands he signed directly like Cell or Sammy ever turned a profit.

profile of KG in Elle magazine....way too much info about the breakup. Sad to see this being played out in public

yeah, lol cell. ecstatic peace had dgc distro for a while there, right? even if his ponies died stinking, i imagine he made out okay. not that my imaginings mean much...

xp elle articule linked a ways upthread

oops sorry, i shouldn't read from the bottom!

dunno how I feel about Kim drinking Rosé.

d be bummed if georgia hubley and ira kaplan broke up i suppose

damn, dont even suggest it dude. i couldnt handle being deprived of their boring-ass crap

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Monday, April 22, 2013 11:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know, it is really horrible when they tie you down and force you to listen to their records.

^ gets it. wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so boring.

Sad to see this being played out in public

― Iago Galdston, Monday, April 22, 2013 9:18 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's really kind of shitty

i always assumed sy were p rich. like for real i have seen pictures of them or w/e and thought "i bet they live really, really well." not like celebrity-rich, but dual-income nyc yuppie rich. it doesn't seem hard to conjure up a handful of revenue streams for either of them that totals, oh, let's say, $400k/yr combined. a couple of mid-level lawyers in a midwestern city make that.

yeah yuppie rich sounds right. but i mean, when you talk about well known musicians being "rich," that usually means something completely different.

Oh for sure, but I'm a little surprised to hear that ppl might've thought they were living record to record

iirc h4a has multiple yo la tengo posts

him and morbs should do a lil yo la tengo conversation, a...canks morbs convo (pronounce like yo la tengo)

i always assumed thurston came from family money, the way i would anyone named "thurston"

http://images.forbes.com/media/2010/04/12/0412_thurston-howell_280x340.jpg

"and sent their daughter to an elite artsy boarding school"

she went to the same school my kids go to until high school. its hardly elite. it costs money, but not fancy boarding school money. and its not a boarding school. and she went to a public charter school outside Northampton. it's free. for the performing arts. great school! she's a great kid. very nice and normal. and cool.

Yeah, to be clear, I'd assumed they had a comfortable and stable middle-class lifestyle, not that they were living record to record.