The “Beats” page on Warp & Woof does not get as much content as any of my blog’s other pages. That’s because it’s dedicated to a subject that consumes a diminishing percentage of my (increasingly) precious time: listening to music! That said, occasionally I discover music that really has an impact on me. Such an event occurred this Spring – Kim Gordon, co-founder of one of my all-time favorite bands, Sonic Youth, released a new album which fits squarely into the tradition of SY’s “noise rock” and experimental, avant-garde rock, in general. Gordon is now 70 years old. Her new album, The Collective, is her second studio album since Sonic Youth disbanded in 2011 after her unpleasant divorce from co-founder Thurston Moore. And a truly impressive work it is for someone like me, who waxed effusive about avant-garde in multiple Warp & Woof posts –especially the three-part “Who Killed the Anger?” series from 2018 (#1, #2, #3).
The Collective goes even further into the atonal, electronic feedback style, than anything I remember from Sonic Youth – perhaps in those days (1990s) the demands from the “mainstream” major labels was still too strong for a complete experimental departure (Velvet Underground never went platinum with their White Light/ White Heat album of 1968, either). Instead, what became known in the ‘90s as alternative rock did become popular – thanks to Sub Pop records in Seattle – and Sonic Youth tried very hard to fit that mold. Daydream Nation (1988) is a masterpiece of the genre, as good as anything Nirvana ever did! Indeed, the travelling Lollapalooza festivals of the 1990s, became so popular that the Simpsons felt they could satirize the whole alt-rock scene in a 1996 episode, “Homerpalooza,” featuring voice-overs and music from Sonic Youth.
Avant-garde, whether in music, poetry, or theater, always fills the vanguard role in art – as I wrote in “Who Says Avant-Garde is Dead?” back in 2019. It’s supposed to be an intimation of things to come. It seems to me that Kim Gordon’s latest is just such a vanguard.
Although her voice is not what it used to be in the Sonic Youth days, her often spoken-word, free-association, lyrics of The Collective still captivate – enhanced by her contralto pitch. The electronic feedback is emblematic of SY’s earlier style. It reminds me of Deaf Wish, Australia’s own noise rock version of Sonic Youth. It also has elements reminiscent of “krautrock,” like Chicks on Speed Will Save Us Allalbum from 2000 (mostly comprising electronic covers). Many different names have been applied to this genre: noise rock, electro-punk, avant-rock, even post-rock. It’s not for me to choose the best label for the style, and the confusion of names may be a contributing factor to that frequent critic’s refrain that “rock is dead.” But whatever it’s called, it does seem to reflect an alternative style, independent of major commercial demands, and largely governed by a DIY ethic much like early punk, especially the “hardcore” variety – Sonic Youth, back in the day, gave up on major labels as well, launching their own SYR label as their career developed.
It’s true that the audience for DIY alternative bands will always be smaller than those for “mainstream” acts, but their influence on future generations of artists may be equally significant, or even greater. This is why I feel comfortable classifying them as “avant-garde.” They are often aimed at filling just such a vanguard role. (Counterpoint: Lou Reed, while pulled in the avant-garde direction by powerful forces, always wanted to be a mainstream rock star!)
In The Collective, Gordon explores some serious social and psychological issues, which she appears to sincerely feel herself. They come through in her disjointed lyrics which match the often-disjointed electronic sounds on the tracks. This is in keeping with the honored tradition of punk, and many singer/songwriters of the 20th century – think Bob Dylan.
The very first track on the album, “Bye Bye,” is a melancholy reflection on packing for a trip, perhaps on mortality itself? (The video features her daughter Coco). “I’m a Man” is, as one might expect, a rather bitter feminist screed. “Shelf Warmer” delves into gifts and debts. And the final track, “Dream Dollar” is a semi-coherent critique of promotion and capitalism – with chorus heard only in the middle, neither beginning nor end: “Cement the brand.” All the lyrics on The Collective are muffled except for intermittent clarity of that chorus breaking through. The electronic feedback is varied but dominates all tracks, as it did in her first solo album, No Home Record (2019), where her vocalizing is much clearer (listen to “Air BnB” from that album).
Of course, it’s not easy to listen to the whole album at once — cacophony is not meant to be a “pleasant” listening experience. It’s rather an expression of anger and alienation, much as I asserted in my “Who Killed the Anger?” series six years ago. The early British experimental group, The Pop Group, followed a similar trajectory to Kim Gordon – they started before Sonic Youth, in the ‘70s, but broke up, then reunited (2010) with their final album, Honeymoon on Mars coming in 2016. That work is much like Gordon’s solo albums. Unfortunately, both founders of The Pop Group have now passed away, so the band is clearly history. Compare their “Instant Halo” to Gordon’s “I Don’t Miss My Mind” from The Collective. Both songs reference psychic pain in preparation for the unknown. Both use similar atonal dissonance in their music. Unlike The Pop Group, Kim Gordon is still very much alive. For more details on the sources for her music, and the entire genre (whatever it’s called), see my “Who Killed the Anger?” series. One addendum to that series has come from recent research – Awolnation, the L.A. band I had just discovered when I wrote those three pieces, has decided to move into a clearly “post-rock” realm, call it “electro-pop” – still very much EDM, but hardly avant-garde (their latest single: “Candy Pop”).
Maybe I’ll start making more of an effort to listen to the music I love. If I look hard enough, I may still be able to find examples! But I suspect the music is primarily historical artifact at this point.
— William Sundwick
Warp and Woof 