EX.788 Kim Gordon

About this episode

Kim Gordon discusses her solo music career, the intersection of art and music, and her new album PLAY ME.

The Sonic Youth cofounder opens up about her solo output, the intersection of art and music, and her new album, PLAY ME. For over four decades, Kim Gordon has navigated the edges where fine art meets noise. Her claim to fame was as a founding member of Sonic Youth, the band that took the nihilistic, abrasive energy of New York's no wave scene and forged it into a new language for rock.   After Sonic Youth's public breakup in 2011, Gordon returned to her original creative practice: visual art. But in recent years, she has undergone a staggering creative transformation that's led her back to music. At 72—an age when most legends are content with the heritage circuit—she has instead dived headlong into the sounds of the present: industrial electronics, Chicago footwork and the blown-out low-end of SoundCloud rap. Aiming to break with her Sonic Youth legacy, Gordon released her first two solo albums, No Home Record and The Collective, in 2019 and 2024, respectively. And now, she's back with her third LP: PLAY ME. Working alongside producer Justin Raisen, she uses beat-oriented frameworks to interrogate what she calls the "tyranny of frictionless culture." From naming Spotify…

People in this episode

Host: Resident Advisor

Guest: Kim Gordon

Topics covered

• music
• art
• solo work
• creative transformation
• late capitalism
• technocratic fascism

Keywords

• Kim Gordon
• Sonic Youth
• PLAY ME
• solo albums
• industrial electronics
• Chicago footwork
• reproductive rights
• late capitalism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sonic Youth, Spotify

Products: PLAY ME

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