Sonic Youth Find New Pathways to 'The Eternal'

Posted on Jun 25th 2009 2:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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There are a few things about 'The Eternal,' Sonic Youth's latest, that distinguishes it from every previous Sonic Youth album ever released. For one thing, it is on a new record label -- the venerable Matador. For another thing, it's the first studio CD featuring bassist Mark Ibold (formerly of Pavement -- which, by the way, was once Matador's flagship band). But it's the third thing, the more obscured thing, that has made all the difference to the band members themselves: the process behind which this album was written and recorded.

"We had a really good time making this record," singer/bassist Kim Gordon tells Spinner.

Instead of approaching it like boot camp, going into the studio with a batch of songs and then posting up in the race for a finished product, Sonic Youth chopped everything into micro-sessions. The band would meet up in Northampton, MA (where Gordon lives with husband/guitarist Thurston Moore) for songwriting sessions that would, typically, last anywhere from one to three days. Then they'd reconvene at their studio in Hoboken, NJ, on weekends to do the actual recording.

"I think that gave a certain immediacy to the songs," says Gordon.

Guitarist Lee Ranaldo agrees, saying that the band was able to "retain all the excitement of being in the studio and tracking out new music without the boredom of spending every waking moment in the studio for three weeks, until you don't know if it's day or night out, or what day of the week it is, or any of that stuff."

Sometimes 10 or more days would pass between sessions, which kept things fresh. Also keeping things fresh: fresh blood. This is the first time the band went into the studio with Ibold, and also the first time they've had producer/mixer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., the Hold Steady) at the helm from start to finish.

The result, 'The Eternal,' is, unquestionably, one of the finest Sonic Youth albums in years. The band seems to agree. Ranaldo says that they still sound as much like Sonic Youth as they did the day they formed but they've also evolved naturally over time (or, as Gordon puts it, "you're never really the same person from year to year anyway.")

"We're not really super strong players except in the realm of the kind of music we make," Ranaldo says. If that sounds like a backhanded compliment, just wait. "We could never hold a candle to other guitar players who play any sort of standard music," he says. "But maybe we're the only ones who can play the kind of music we make."

And, he adds, "it gives us an advantage there, because it means we're really good at what we do." Truth.