Is This The End?

With all the bullshit that’s swirling around the impending divorce of indie rock royal couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, it’s been a tough past few weeks for Sonic Youth fans. You just have to figure at this point that there’s really no chance the band will survive much longer, but as fans we’ve held out hope as there has yet to be an official announcement of the esteemed art-rockers’ breakup. At least there wasn’t until guitarist Lee Ranoldo’s non-confirmation confirmation to Rolling Stone that, face it, the band is just about belly up:

I’m feeling optimistic about the future no matter what happens at this point. I mean, every band runs its course. We’ve been together way longer than any of us ever imagined would happen and it’s been for the most part an incredibly pleasurable ride. There’s still a lot of stuff we’re going to continue to do. There’s tons and tons of archival projects and things like that that are still going on, so there are so many ways in which we are tied to each other for the future both musically and in other ways. I’m just happy right now to let the future take its course and I guess I’m kind of thankful that I’ve got this other project that kind of came about on its own. It wasn’t kind of like, well, “Oh the band is ending for a while and I’ve got to figure out what to do.” It kind of naturally happened in the course of things so that was a nice way for that to come about. 

Thanks Lee. Just sinking everyone’s hopes like a lead fucking balloon. But really, it is what it is. I’ll tread on similar water I did with my post on REM’s demise awhile back. Yes, I’m a Sonic Youth fan, have been for many years now. Would I like them to keep making records? Abso-fucking-lutely. Considering 2009′s “The Eternal” was one of their most shitkicking and impassioned releases in years, I was hoping they’d keep making records into their 60s (which is only a few years off). But it’s pretty clear that isn’t going to happen. But as with REM, you can’t say you feel robbed of anything when a band calls it quits after 30 years. They’ve left us with a lot of cool shit, and nothing good lasts forever. So I guess I’ll just have to fulfill my need for noisy squalor somewhere else.

And yes, that’s Jason Lee shredding in the below video. Sweet.

RB