Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon to write memoir

The book will document the years before Sonic Youth, as Gordon is set to release a new album and appear on TV’s Girls

Kim Gordon is reportedly writing a memoir that documents the years leading up to the formation of Sonic Youth. As the 60-year-old musician prepares to release the debut album by her new band, Body/Head, she is also preparing two books: the memoir, plus a collection of essays, according to the New York Times.

Gordon has been busy in the two years since she split with Thurston Moore, her husband of 27 years and bandmate in Sonic Youth. She fought off a non-invasive type of breast cancer; she formed her new group with guitarist Bill Nace, performing at Yoko Ono’s Meltdown festival; and Pitchfork reported that a 33-year retrospective of her visual art just opened at New York’s White Columns gallery, with an accompanying solo record. Gordon is also due to appear on an upcoming episode of the TV show Girls, and she worked on two fashion lines, including one for the chic French label Surface to Air.

Sternberg Press will reportedly publish the 1980s essays art and culture articles “soon”. Gordon’s autobiography, out with HarperCollins, does not yet have a publication date. Tentatively titled Girl in a Band, it was described to Publishers Weekly as “chronicl[ing] [Gordon’s] choice to leave Los Angeles in the early eighties for the post-punk scene in New York City, where she formed Sonic Youth”.

Since the breakup, Gordon’s estranged husband has also remained busy. Moore formed the group Chelsea Light Moving, which released an album in March, and he is the newest member of the black-metal supergroup Twilight. He also performed on records for Yoko Ono, John Zorn and Loren Connors.

Sonic Youth have not officially dissolved and remain on hiatus. Their most recent studio album, The Eternal, came out in 2009.

Source: The Guardian