Sonic Youth come out of the political closet

The experimental guitar sound of Sonic Youth has been influential for nearly a quarter of a century. JOHN RUSSELL reports


Sonic Youth formed in New York City in 1981, the same year that Ronald Wilson Reagan became the 40th President of the United States. Days after the Gipper's death, the band unveiled their latest album, Sonic Nurse, the 19th of their career, and yet another released against a backdrop of extreme political conservatism.

For a group who have existed mostly under right-wing regimes and whose caustic, experimental guitar sound has seen them labelled as one of the most influential bands of their time, Sonic Youth have largely avoided making political statements with their music.

But this year, the band are experiencing a weary sense of deja vu regarding the White House incumbents. Guitarist Lee Ranaldo, a founding member of the group alongside Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, say it's time to help rid America of George W. Bush.

"A lot of indicators seem to point to him being a one-term President and I know that we're all going to work as hard as we can on whatever level we can to see that he's not re-elected," says Ranaldo.

"It's a pretty depressing state of affairs that people like Dick Cheney have come around again to hold key positions of power within these Administrations. We started with the whole Reagan period and it's been a most depressing state of American politics for most of the life of the band. The right wing is just a travesty and we're all really saddened by it."

Sonic Nurse closes with the band's only significant protest song since Youth Against Fascism from 1995's Dirty album. Over six minutes long, Peace Attack was written by vocalist/guitarist, Moore, and its theme ensures Sonic Youth's stance is clear, says Ranaldo.

"The song was written in the weeks and months before the invasion of Iraq, just seeing the build-up of American intentions towards Iraq and the rest of the world; the fact that President Bush was going at it his own way and not paying attention to the public or civil liberties," says Ranaldo.


While Sonic Youth are perhaps coming out of the closet politically to a wider audience, their observations on the often ludicrous nature of the music industry are comparatively well known. Another track on Sonic Nurse, initially titled Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream, is sure to reinforce their viewpoint.

"We had to change the name of the track for the album, we've changed Mariah Carey to Kim Gordon for legal reasons. The song came about at the time when Mariah was being dropped by her record company, Virgin, after they'd spent $80 million to sign her to the label. It's a comment on her as a pop star, but also it has a lot to do with that situation where a label signs an artist that sells 15 million copies of an album, then if the next record only sells five million copies they think the artist is a failure all of a sudden and they give them the boot. It's so ridiculous the way the labels think about this medium that is supposed to be art. It's just so crassly commercial and commodified."

Over the past 15 years, Sonic Youth have released a portion of their artistic endeavours through a string of independent record labels, while still maintaining their deal with music giant Geffen, whose logo appears on the back of Sonic Nurse.

While the band don't lose money, they certainly don't reap the kind of income that companies such as Geffen demand of their artists. Ranaldo says he often scratches his head as to why they are still signed to a big record label and have not been dumped.

"It's very curious, but I guess it's got to come down to our career record, the fact that we've been a respected band as long as we have. Geffen respects that and to some degree feels there's a certain amount of cachet with keeping us on the label," says Ranaldo.

"But we still feel like a fish out of water being on a major label because the world in which we mostly exist has so much more to do with underground music. Mostly our peers and the people that we work with, and listen to, are all part of the underground scene and that's really where we belong as well."

* Sonic Youth play at the St James on June 26. See review, E5.