Tag Archives: Body/Head

Memoir By Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon Due Feb. 2015 – ‘what partnership means—and what happens when it dissolves’

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Cover of Gordon’s memoir.

Kim Gordon, formerly a key member of Sonic Youth and now half of Body/Head, will have her memoir, “Girl in a Band,” published on February 24, 2015.

From the press release:

Often described as aloof, Kim Gordon truly opens up in Girl in a Band. Telling the story of her childhood, her life in art, her move to New York City, her love affairs, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, and her band, this is a rich and beautifully written memoir. At the heart of the book is the examination of what partnership means—and what happens when it dissolves. An atmospheric look at the New York of the 80s and 90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, as well as the Alternative revolution in popular music that Sonic Youth helped usher in, paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and many other acts. One of the most revered people in modern rock and roll, Kim Gordon is also a highly regarded fashion icon, visual artist, and the source of much fascination.

For more info, head to Pitchfork and/or Rolling Stone.

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in the new issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —

Kim Gordon’s ‘Is It My Body?,’ a Book of Essays, Due this Month

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Kim Gordon’s collection of essays, “Is It My Body?: Selected Texts,” will be published by Sternberg Press later this month.

The book collects essays Gordon wrote for various publications including Artforum in the 1980s and early 1990s.

From the Sternberg Press website:

Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, Kim Gordon—widely known as a founding member of the influential band Sonic Youth—produced a series of writings on art and music. Ranging from neo-Conceptual artworks to broader forms of cultural criticism, these rare texts are brought together in this volume for the first time, placing Gordon’s writing within the context of the artist-critics of her generation, including Mike Kelley, John Miller, and Dan Graham. In addressing key stakes within contemporary art, architecture, music, and the performance of male and female gender roles, Gordon provides a prescient analysis of such figures as Kelley, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Tony Oursler, and Raymond Pettibon, in addition to reflecting on her own position as a woman on stage. The result—Is It My Body?—is a collection that feels as timely now as when it was written. This volume additionally features a conversation between Gordon and Jutta Koether, in which they discuss their collaborations in art, music, and performance.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Best Of 2013 Dept.: Michael Goldberg’s Favorites — music, films, books

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My favorite albums of the year, in no particular order:

1. Body/Head – Coming Apart

2. Bob Dylan, 50th Anniversary Collection 1963

3. Throwing Muses – Purgatory/ Paradise

4. Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell – Old Yellow Moon

5. Bob Dylan – Another Self-Portrait

6. La Lux – It’s Alive

7. Savages – Silence Yourself

8. M.I.A. – Matangi

9. Arcade Fire – Reflektor

10. Joanna Gruesome – Weird Sister

11. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest

12. Deerhunter – Monomania

13. Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time

14. Bill Callahan – Dream River

15. Neil Young – Live at the Cellar Door

16. Haim – Days Are Gone

17. Son Volt – Honky Tonk

18. Personal Records – Eleanor Friedberger

19. William Onyeabor – Who Is William Onyeabor?

Best Comp/Reissue/Box Set:

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica (Zappa Records)

Also of note, though it was released in 2012: Captain Beefheart, Bat Chain Puller

Favorite Music Film/Other Film

These are films I watched this year and really dug: The Butler, Beautiful Losers, Not Fade Away, The Last Mistress, Band of Outsiders

Favorite Music Book / Other Book

The Story of a New Name – Elena Ferrante

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen – Sylvie Simmons

Just Kids – Patti Smith

I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp – Richard Hell

Musical Highlights of 2013

Dylan’s Another Self Portrait; the rollout of Arcade Fire’s Reflektor; the unfolding of Kim Gordon’s solo career; a highlight not in a good way was Lou Reed’s death; the return of My Bloody Valentine and Neutral Milk Hotel; Jeff Tweedy solo tour; Sleater-Kinney on stage with Pearl Jam singing ‘Rockin’ in the Free World.’

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Watch & Listen: Kim Gordon’s Body/Head, J. Mascis Live at ISSUE Project Room Benefit 2013

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On November 13 2013 a benefit for ISSUE Project Room (IPR) staring Kim Gordon’s duo with Bill Nace, Body/Head, was held at the ISSUE Project Room in New York.

At ISSUE’s website is this info about ISSUE: “ISSUE Project Room is a pioneering performance center, presenting time-based work by emerging and established experimental artists that expand the boundaries of creative practice and stimulate critical dialogue about art and culture in the broader community.”

There’s more info about the benefit, which in addition to Body/Head, featured Ikue Mori, I.U.D. and J. Mascis, here.

Body/Head @ Benefit for ISSUE

www.WindowsHaveEyes.com

Body/Head w/Ikue Mori @ Benefit for ISSUE I

Body/Head w/Ikue Mori @ Benefit for ISSUE Pt II

Kim Gordon & I.U.D. @ Benefit for ISSUE Pt I

J Mascis – Ammaring

J Mascis – Little Furry Things

Watch: Body/Head with Kim Gordon, “Frontal” & “Last Mistress”

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The softcore porn photographer Richard Kern shot these videos.

“Frontal”

“Last Mistress”

— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —

New Column: Kim Gordon Steps Into Spotlight

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Body/Head pushes into the noise-rock frontier.

By Michael Goldberg

The bright lights shine on Kim Gordon. The New Yorker, which never profiled Sonic Youth during the group’s 30 years as one of New York’s most celebrated and influential bands, kicked things off by devoting six upfront pages to Gordon this past June.

body heat
(photo by Djil)

Since then, as the early October release date of Coming Apart, the album she recorded with her current musical collaborator Bill Nace under the name Body/Head, came and went, other major publications devoted space to Gordon. From the New York Times and Rolling Stone to Pitchfork, writers have been more than excited to talk to Gordon about whatever she’s willing to talk about, including her new, challenging noise rock.

“I wasn’t trained as a musician,” Gordon told the New York Times’ Ben Ratliff. “But I did grow up listening to a lot of jazz records, and John Coltrane.”

Coming Apart’s opening song, “Abstract,” Gordon said, has a structure similar to Coltrane’s Meditations: “You have a theme,” she said, “and it falls apart, and then it comes back.”

To read the rest of this column, head over to Addicted To Noise.

Stream Kim Gordon’s Post-Sonic Youth Debut

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Body/Heat, Kim Gordon’s collaboration with guitarist Bill Nace, is currently streaming at Pitchfork. The album is called Coming Apart, an apt description of the music. Lots of noisy guitar experiments plus Gordon’s inimitable voice. Listen here.