jang's review against another edition
4.0
"The biggest challenge as I saw it was to pretend I had some superhuman ability to withstand pain." This quote from Kim Gordon as written in the early chapters of her memoir, in more ways than one, set up the tone or the mood throughout my entire reading experience.
It's hard to comment on a memoir as it's obviously too subjective and authentic. Everything that the writer felt like sharing to the readers was all laid out for them to read, to understand, to criticize and to live. As we all know, Kim Gordon is an amazingly empowered artist and musician who cofounded the post-punk band Sonic Youth. She has always been the big woman in the band, she helped establish and harbored her band, she made decisions, she had a voice--she let it be heard. That was my impression of Kim Gordon. So it was unsettling to me how some issues were tackled in the book because they were raw and farrr too personal. I know it's almost a given because the life of a famous person can easily be Googled these days but there were still bits in the book that made me uncomfortable.
The beginning instantly got me hooked because she quickly established that she's wounded. She's still in pain because of how tumultuous her marriage with Thurston had become and she's still searching for her place. And then she started discussing her almost equally-tumultuous relationship with her eldest brother Keller, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia later on.
Kim's story about Keller was my favorite because like her, I think, I have the same relationship with my brother (only I didn't know there's an actual label for my brother's unusualness, a mental disease even). Like her, I was also hurt tons of times when I was a kid and I would happily go home with new words and pop culture terms I learned from school only to be mocked and criticized by my eldest brother because I was too mainstream and cliche. In a way I was like Kim because I grew up craving for my older brother's approval. I grew so little then because I felt that I was too much of a bandwagoner and ordinary and so unlike my eldest brother who grew up listening to cooler music, watching deeper critically-acclaimed films and had better ideas about life. I settled for all his mocks and judgments because I thought he knew better, which tremendously affected how I conduct myself now. Today I constantly look for something different and continuously driving myself to like different, unusual things and repeatedly question authority because I felt that mentality would reward me a better shingle at life. It didn't. It's okay to be different, but you shouldn't try to be different only for the approval of someone who's on the same level as you.
Back to Kim's story, I was so insanely drawn to her relationship with her brother Keller because it helped mold her into this blaring, rock icon who juggled family life, music and arts successfully while being in a man's world. Her brother was the figure who drove her to overcome her shyness and express the pain she felt when she's onstage. Their dynamic helped her survive a testosterone-filled environment.
The memoir provided a great narrative that treated us to the colorful, ambitious, and drug-fueled life in LA and New York. It was similar to Patti Smith's Just Kids because this was also a story of a struggling woman who wanted to break into a male-dominated field and HAVE A SAY. It's important because during that time, women were always seen as domesticated figures who should be cowering at the male gaze and making sandwiches at the kitchen. To have someone as driven and smart and powerful as Kim Gordon pioneer the change in the male-dominated industry was EVERYTHING.
I loved those tiny glimpses that I had of Kim's life with her daughter because it's natural and not entirely revealing, she was still protecting someone so important to her. When she started talking about Thurston's dirty laundry, particularly his rendezvous with his other woman, that's when I started cringing because it's just too personal. I felt that some details should have stayed within the confines of their marriage no matter how big that marriage failed. It felt like a disservice to Thurston (who I'm never fond of anyway but still) because he did his part in shaping her maternal and professional life. I just felt that some things were better off blank in cases like this especially because she said she didn't want her daughter knowledgeable regarding these things. Idk, she probably resigned herself in thinking that her daughter would have found out about this via Google anyway. Idk.
I also loved the emphasis on the songs in each chapter because it proved how intellectual and relatable they were when they're writing the songs. They weren't just writing about songs people want to hear, they were writing actual stories. Whether the inspiration came from the notorious Charles Manson or a diseased friend, it was legit sonic and gut-wrenching.
All in all this memoir was a good recollection of the life of a staggering female artist, musician, wife and mother. Like what Kim said about herself, she served as "the lighthouse keeper" not only to her band and family, but also to the millions of girls who want to make it huge in a man's world.
It's hard to comment on a memoir as it's obviously too subjective and authentic. Everything that the writer felt like sharing to the readers was all laid out for them to read, to understand, to criticize and to live. As we all know, Kim Gordon is an amazingly empowered artist and musician who cofounded the post-punk band Sonic Youth. She has always been the big woman in the band, she helped establish and harbored her band, she made decisions, she had a voice--she let it be heard. That was my impression of Kim Gordon. So it was unsettling to me how some issues were tackled in the book because they were raw and farrr too personal. I know it's almost a given because the life of a famous person can easily be Googled these days but there were still bits in the book that made me uncomfortable.
The beginning instantly got me hooked because she quickly established that she's wounded. She's still in pain because of how tumultuous her marriage with Thurston had become and she's still searching for her place. And then she started discussing her almost equally-tumultuous relationship with her eldest brother Keller, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia later on.
Kim's story about Keller was my favorite because like her, I think, I have the same relationship with my brother (only I didn't know there's an actual label for my brother's unusualness, a mental disease even). Like her, I was also hurt tons of times when I was a kid and I would happily go home with new words and pop culture terms I learned from school only to be mocked and criticized by my eldest brother because I was too mainstream and cliche. In a way I was like Kim because I grew up craving for my older brother's approval. I grew so little then because I felt that I was too much of a bandwagoner and ordinary and so unlike my eldest brother who grew up listening to cooler music, watching deeper critically-acclaimed films and had better ideas about life. I settled for all his mocks and judgments because I thought he knew better, which tremendously affected how I conduct myself now. Today I constantly look for something different and continuously driving myself to like different, unusual things and repeatedly question authority because I felt that mentality would reward me a better shingle at life. It didn't. It's okay to be different, but you shouldn't try to be different only for the approval of someone who's on the same level as you.
Back to Kim's story, I was so insanely drawn to her relationship with her brother Keller because it helped mold her into this blaring, rock icon who juggled family life, music and arts successfully while being in a man's world. Her brother was the figure who drove her to overcome her shyness and express the pain she felt when she's onstage. Their dynamic helped her survive a testosterone-filled environment.
The memoir provided a great narrative that treated us to the colorful, ambitious, and drug-fueled life in LA and New York. It was similar to Patti Smith's Just Kids because this was also a story of a struggling woman who wanted to break into a male-dominated field and HAVE A SAY. It's important because during that time, women were always seen as domesticated figures who should be cowering at the male gaze and making sandwiches at the kitchen. To have someone as driven and smart and powerful as Kim Gordon pioneer the change in the male-dominated industry was EVERYTHING.
I loved those tiny glimpses that I had of Kim's life with her daughter because it's natural and not entirely revealing, she was still protecting someone so important to her. When she started talking about Thurston's dirty laundry, particularly his rendezvous with his other woman, that's when I started cringing because it's just too personal. I felt that some details should have stayed within the confines of their marriage no matter how big that marriage failed. It felt like a disservice to Thurston (who I'm never fond of anyway but still) because he did his part in shaping her maternal and professional life. I just felt that some things were better off blank in cases like this especially because she said she didn't want her daughter knowledgeable regarding these things. Idk, she probably resigned herself in thinking that her daughter would have found out about this via Google anyway. Idk.
I also loved the emphasis on the songs in each chapter because it proved how intellectual and relatable they were when they're writing the songs. They weren't just writing about songs people want to hear, they were writing actual stories. Whether the inspiration came from the notorious Charles Manson or a diseased friend, it was legit sonic and gut-wrenching.
All in all this memoir was a good recollection of the life of a staggering female artist, musician, wife and mother. Like what Kim said about herself, she served as "the lighthouse keeper" not only to her band and family, but also to the millions of girls who want to make it huge in a man's world.
yasdnilr's review against another edition
5.0
This is brilliant. Sonic Youth has been my favourite band since I was an 80s teenager. I saw every single Melbourne gig from 1987, right through the 90s and into the 2000s. I never bonded much with Kim Gordon. After reading this, I don’t know why. Perhaps public persona and media interpretations are incredibly difficult to get past. My older sister always disliked her, so maybe that’s why I did too.
Brilliant book about American art from the 60s to now. And, Kim, I’ll definitely see you at Primavera 2020 ✊
Brilliant book about American art from the 60s to now. And, Kim, I’ll definitely see you at Primavera 2020 ✊
mol_reads's review against another edition
5.0
I highly recommend the audiobook, which Kim narrates herself.
02parmai's review against another edition
3.0
enjoyed reading it overall but felt slightly emotionally detached? felt at times like I was reading descriptions of things that happened rather than reading about personal experiences
definitely interesting to hear about the formation of sonic youth and how their music came about, but wished I could’ve understood the author a bit more
definitely interesting to hear about the formation of sonic youth and how their music came about, but wished I could’ve understood the author a bit more
samreads97's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t know much about Sonic Youth going into this, but more about the sphere they exist within the music world i.e. The Raincoats/Bikini Kill/Exemplars of post-punk feminist noise. Kim Gordon has always been an enigma to me, hailed for being the queen of cool and always coming off as aloof and vaguely disinterested. I think because I’m not a Sonic Youth super fan, I’m okay with the fact that this book glosses over a lot of Sonic Youth’s formation/career, at least in contrast to a lot of musician’s memoirs. I like that Gordon keeps a lot close to her chest involving the band; artists don’t owe us everything and Sonic Youth was always about sound/movement rather than contextual lyrical content.
A disclaimer I would have liked for this book is that it does center heavily on Kim’s relationship and divorce to Thurston Moore, which some might take issue with, especially combined with the scaled down behind-the-music content. However, Gordon offers much insight and vulnerability within her family dynamic, upbringing, and relation to the art world that draws comparison to Patti Smith’s Just Kids (probably my favorite book). Her accounts did teach me a lot about the CBGB/New York transition from Old-School Punk to New Wave to No Wave and beyond, as well as the “art as commodity” mindset of the 80’s that I did wish she explored more, especially when considering she ever-so-briefly mentions Basquiat’s mistreatment/Warhol/disliking Jeff Koons, but I digress. This book is probably not the medium for those conversation’s and that bias is just from my personal interests.
Gordon’s more elaborate social critiques are peppered sporadically throughout this text, ranging on thoughts from the Spice Girls, Madonna, Lana Del Rey (namely other women, which as a whole is questionable though largely I do agree with her perspectives). Her choice of critique as well as her questionable relationship to men, which she elaborates on candidly, illustrate a contradictory social lens, veering into today’s dangerous territory of being dubbed problematic. Personally, I think she’s just honest and imperfect, like most great women I admire (don’t get me wrong- I had to brush off a fair bit of white feminism plunderings- see the “Kool Thing” music video mention). I prefer honest accounts of dated ideals than a censored-to-be-inoffensive (and therefore saving one’s face) version of events.
The best bits of Gordon’s perspective are offered through her relationship to music anyways, in the freedom of performing, in the visceral release of creating music that negates the need for technicality. Her feelings towards performing are best summed up by a quote from her tour diary: “The most heightened state of being female is watching people watch you”. She uncovers a lack of confidence regarding how to act/dress/fit into a scene, which explains the mystique of “cool” hoisted upon her by many, myself included. It’s refreshing to see Gordon forge a relatability that both fractures and reinforces that illusion, upheld beyond Sonic Youth’s three-decade career.
(some fav details include Kim crashing w artist Cindy Sherman, mentioning how Chapel Hill is one of the coolest places to perform, shout-out Cat’s Cradle. Also talking about how Michael Gira from Swans is an insufferable prick/Billy Corgan being a cringey crybaby, Iggy Pop being unimpressed by an early Nirvana gig, thoughts on Riot Grrrl, all sorts of gems)
I ended up writing a lot for a book that I regard as a neat n’ easy bit of pop culture. 3.5 stars.
A disclaimer I would have liked for this book is that it does center heavily on Kim’s relationship and divorce to Thurston Moore, which some might take issue with, especially combined with the scaled down behind-the-music content. However, Gordon offers much insight and vulnerability within her family dynamic, upbringing, and relation to the art world that draws comparison to Patti Smith’s Just Kids (probably my favorite book). Her accounts did teach me a lot about the CBGB/New York transition from Old-School Punk to New Wave to No Wave and beyond, as well as the “art as commodity” mindset of the 80’s that I did wish she explored more, especially when considering she ever-so-briefly mentions Basquiat’s mistreatment/Warhol/disliking Jeff Koons, but I digress. This book is probably not the medium for those conversation’s and that bias is just from my personal interests.
Gordon’s more elaborate social critiques are peppered sporadically throughout this text, ranging on thoughts from the Spice Girls, Madonna, Lana Del Rey (namely other women, which as a whole is questionable though largely I do agree with her perspectives). Her choice of critique as well as her questionable relationship to men, which she elaborates on candidly, illustrate a contradictory social lens, veering into today’s dangerous territory of being dubbed problematic. Personally, I think she’s just honest and imperfect, like most great women I admire (don’t get me wrong- I had to brush off a fair bit of white feminism plunderings- see the “Kool Thing” music video mention). I prefer honest accounts of dated ideals than a censored-to-be-inoffensive (and therefore saving one’s face) version of events.
The best bits of Gordon’s perspective are offered through her relationship to music anyways, in the freedom of performing, in the visceral release of creating music that negates the need for technicality. Her feelings towards performing are best summed up by a quote from her tour diary: “The most heightened state of being female is watching people watch you”. She uncovers a lack of confidence regarding how to act/dress/fit into a scene, which explains the mystique of “cool” hoisted upon her by many, myself included. It’s refreshing to see Gordon forge a relatability that both fractures and reinforces that illusion, upheld beyond Sonic Youth’s three-decade career.
(some fav details include Kim crashing w artist Cindy Sherman, mentioning how Chapel Hill is one of the coolest places to perform, shout-out Cat’s Cradle. Also talking about how Michael Gira from Swans is an insufferable prick/Billy Corgan being a cringey crybaby, Iggy Pop being unimpressed by an early Nirvana gig, thoughts on Riot Grrrl, all sorts of gems)
I ended up writing a lot for a book that I regard as a neat n’ easy bit of pop culture. 3.5 stars.
skiracechick's review against another edition
3.0
3 1/2 stars. Interesting story, but I seriously could not keep all the names apart. The whole book was a giant name drop, which probably doesn't seem odd for Kim or out of the ordinary for her, but I had no idea who 90% of the people were. I also had no idea what most of the music and art scenes were that she mentioned, or why this or that one were good or bad. And I hadn't heard of a lot of the bands she wrote about were either (not to mention, I'm not actually sure I've ever listened to Sonic Youth before). Maybe I'm just too west coast for this book.
starness's review against another edition
4.0
True to her stage persona Kim Gordon has the effortless cool detached rock thing happening, what you see is what you get. Kim is a hard nut to crack, you can see that she truly struggles to open up but when she does it’s worth the wait.
She can be scathing, hard edged and cynical. Sometimes a little too harsh. Something that bugged me...I didn’t always like the dissing of some of the better known alternative bands that made it into the mainstream. Like they were lesser bands because of it. Good music is good music regardless of the number of records sold. You could argue signing up to a successful record company IS selling out but I think I’ve made my point. The whole argument of what is considered “punk rock” or “alternative” is also a touchy subject for Kim and she has her strong opinions of what constitutes that. I’m not sure it’s that clearly defined, genres blend, merge and evolve over time.
Coming from an academic middle class background made Kim feel like she didn’t quite fit in especially when first moving from L.A to N.Y.C she felt displaced like an outsider amongst the outsiders, gravitating more towards the New York art crowd. From the beginning she never really felt like a part of the rock star “scene”.
The book follows the early beginnings of her relationship with life partner and musical collaborator Thurston Moore, soon after meeting the creation of Sonic Youth was born. The deep connection they found defining the music and turning it into something special, they really took the dissonant no wave sound to a whole new level.
In this book Kim explains the difficulties of combining motherhood and touring, the hardship of moving away from the city she no longer recognises and the unglamorous side of the rock business. It’s not all sex, drugs and rock n roll after all!
Sadly you can still feel the raw pain when she is describing the crumbling of a 27 year marriage due to her husbands infidelity also coinciding with the eventual demise of the band. Both Kim and Thurston go off in separate directions pursuing other projects. Kim eventually going back to her art roots and going on to finding other musical collaborations.
She can be scathing, hard edged and cynical. Sometimes a little too harsh. Something that bugged me...I didn’t always like the dissing of some of the better known alternative bands that made it into the mainstream. Like they were lesser bands because of it. Good music is good music regardless of the number of records sold. You could argue signing up to a successful record company IS selling out but I think I’ve made my point. The whole argument of what is considered “punk rock” or “alternative” is also a touchy subject for Kim and she has her strong opinions of what constitutes that. I’m not sure it’s that clearly defined, genres blend, merge and evolve over time.
Coming from an academic middle class background made Kim feel like she didn’t quite fit in especially when first moving from L.A to N.Y.C she felt displaced like an outsider amongst the outsiders, gravitating more towards the New York art crowd. From the beginning she never really felt like a part of the rock star “scene”.
The book follows the early beginnings of her relationship with life partner and musical collaborator Thurston Moore, soon after meeting the creation of Sonic Youth was born. The deep connection they found defining the music and turning it into something special, they really took the dissonant no wave sound to a whole new level.
In this book Kim explains the difficulties of combining motherhood and touring, the hardship of moving away from the city she no longer recognises and the unglamorous side of the rock business. It’s not all sex, drugs and rock n roll after all!
Sadly you can still feel the raw pain when she is describing the crumbling of a 27 year marriage due to her husbands infidelity also coinciding with the eventual demise of the band. Both Kim and Thurston go off in separate directions pursuing other projects. Kim eventually going back to her art roots and going on to finding other musical collaborations.
gph's review against another edition
Hmmmmm
I read this eagerly, I think she has a knack for details, and the whirlwind of acquaintances and the account of a life in a changing art and music scene is exciting.
BUT, I don't know how this was written, but I felt like it coulda used some better editing.. there are anecdotes repeated, sometimes a couple of times, and that could have been streamlined. Also I felt really like she has no idea who might be reading her book. I'm not sure if she really cares!
Still, I was fascinated. Watch for bonus cameo appearance by Keanu Reeves
I read this eagerly, I think she has a knack for details, and the whirlwind of acquaintances and the account of a life in a changing art and music scene is exciting.
BUT, I don't know how this was written, but I felt like it coulda used some better editing.. there are anecdotes repeated, sometimes a couple of times, and that could have been streamlined. Also I felt really like she has no idea who might be reading her book. I'm not sure if she really cares!
Still, I was fascinated. Watch for bonus cameo appearance by Keanu Reeves
ronanmcd's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating. In since ways you come away with a wonderful sense that you got a full and unadorned picture of the artist herself. But often you also you feel the opposite and it feels from her writing that maybe this is no accident. She send to veer between forthright directness and not knowing exactly who she is and what she wants.
In other words, she writes about herself like a real person.
In other words, she writes about herself like a real person.