Confusion Is Next: The Sonic Youth Story

by Alec Foege

"Alternative" rock has now gone mainstream, yeah, yeah, Lollapalooza is captivating a generation, and Nirvana sells millions of albums, but before all of this in-yr-face stuff there was Sonic Youth.

Sonic Youth are the floorboards of the current fertile musical era in which underground culture has, like it or not, become the mainstream. Confusion Is Next boasts exclusive interviews with the band members and dozens of other scene-sters, including members of the Beastie Boys, Pavement, and fIREHOSE, and art iconoclasts like Mike Kelley, Lydia Lunch, and Glenn Branca.

Sonic Youth. They hold equal weight in the champagne SoHo galleries, the sleazy fashion world, and the legendary punk club hovels across the planet. Here is Sonic Youth's convoluted, twisted, and bashed journey, from the band's early days in the post-punk East Village to their current reign as templates of the indie scene, to their studio time recording their latest album, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star . Confusion Is Next sets both the record and the CD straight.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Punk, Rock N Roll, Art

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago when I was in high school and really really into Sonic Youth.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I learned about this book is that Sonic Youth's music is a lot more interesting than the wizards behind the curtain. And that's okay! They can't all be Motley Crue or Fleetwood Mac. But hey - the SY crew is just four folks who just so happen to enjoy making brilliant noise. When the most scandalous aspect of a band's history is that the guitarist and bass player got married, had a daughter and moved into a pretty house, you know it's time to put down the book and pick up the stereo remote. Move along, folks...there's nothing to see here. But some interesting stories from the recording studio pepper the book just enough to keep pages turning, and for devoted SY geeks like me, that's enough. The rest of ya? I'd recommend something by Pamela Des Barres, seriously.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands, and I think Foege did a great job especially of showing how the band rose out of the No Wave scene, but he goes off on long tangents at times and loses focus. The book also has pacing problems--I felt like he spent too much time on the early portion of the band's career, then rushed through the making of Daydream Nation and Goo. Still, a good read.

[Less_cunning · Rating 4 out of 5]

sonic youth needs more books written about them.

[Devon Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough accounting of Sonic Youth's rise through the grimy NY art/music underground as well as the recording and release of their early albums (all the way through Dirty). This is very much the work of a music journalist- the cameos from underground figures like Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern are innumerable, and there's some great recounting of various shows and tour lore that added definite scene cred and were v tasty to read. For example I had no idea that Kim Gordon drove across country with Mike Kelley, or that Sonic Youth were friends were Public Enemy (I always assumed the Chuck D vocals in Kool Thing were samples).

The flip side of this coin though is that with all these (admittedly exciting) morsels of trivia something of the characterizations of the band members themselves is lost. Maybe I was just craving something more hagiographic, and that's on me, but I mean this is a book where Kim and Thurston falling in love and getting married hardly occupies a full paragraph. Kind of weird. I was left wanting much more insight in terms of the creative/songwriting process- it's ok to mythologize these people, they're rock stars!

As a B side to this book/review I'd like to recommend "Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music" by Mark Baumgarten. Similar in its tracking of seminal artists rising from a DIY scene (and taking place at rough the exact same early 90s time frame), this piece of music biography I thought did an exceptional job fleshing out its central hero (K Records founder Calvin Johnson) as both a perennial teenage music fan and an enigmatic figure at the crossroads of several important moments in the history of independent music. It's probably as niche and "for fans only) as Confusion Is Next, but it scratched the youthful music fan nostalgia a little more for me.

[Galactic Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written in the lead up to Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star. I started getting into Sonic Youth not long after. I wonder what I would have thought if I could read it then? I remember it taking years to track down some of those earlier releases pre-internet. Just having the discography in the back would have been a gold mine. Still, at the time, it was more rewarding going backwards than forwards in their catalog, say discovering a Sister cd at the back of the bin than getting Thousand Leaves on release day.

Anyway, the book's heavy on SY origins in the context of the No Wave and punk scenes in New York, but gives lots of details behind the making of each of their albums up to and including EJSTNS. It's all somewhat hagiographic, but the point (now at least) is to remember fond memories fondly, so that's okay. And while there's some nonsense extrapolation to broader context that's obligatory to rock journalism, not enough to prevent it from seeming crisp and enjoyable over all.

Of the three Sonic Youth books I've now read (others are Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth and Girl in a Band), I think this one is my favourite.

[Jarod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for what it is. 30 years after the publishing date, there really is nothing left for this band to prove, continuing even to make vital music independently of each other. For those of us who for whatever reason actually listen to the Sonic Youth all the time, we know their corpus is ours to do with whatever we please; in music's infinite future more bands that are this great will record: after all, how many high points are there just from them that come from after 1994?????

[Char Lee Sea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playing in punk bands at 13, all I listened to was punk, The Dead Milkmen, and....that's all. Then my brother dragged to a Sonic Youth show. I was flabbergasted that this music existed. "Tuning a guitar however you want? I'm gonna try that!" Sonic Youth has been a huge influence on me as a musician ever since. About the book? I just remember I liked anything SY related.

[Hex75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

le parti eccessivamente descrittive del contesto musicale dei sonic youth sono decisamente troppe per chi non è del tutto un neofita della band -e la traduzione è a volte zoppicante- ma in generale è una buona, se non ottima, introduzione alla storia della band.

[Gran. T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original.

[Will Hassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a good book. You can obviously tell the author is a fan (a big one at that). Once you get past the 'I know more about rock then you do and Sonic Youth is MY favorite band' parts then its a great introduction into Sonic Youth and how they made it to near infamousness without major record deal backing.

The book basically introduces you to Sonic Youth and in my opinion, it could've gotten into WAYYY more detail but this is just an introduction. So all in all, it's a good book to read for any Sonic Youth fan, preferably new ones.

[Tim]

Continuing 2008's nonfiction list, if you're into Sonic Youth, this is a good history of the band and its place in the No Wave and alternative rock scenes and the nineties' cultural revolution that centered on Nirvana. Foege sometimes fumbles a bit with the big-picture commentary, but he also nails it when he says, writing soon after Kurt Cobain's suicide, that his death "will end up serving, in some way, as (at least) a symbolic end" of the nineties alt-rock revolution. Yep.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learnt many interesting facts about things i've never thought about wanting to know. Have been a Sonic Youth fan for years, but after reading this, now have a new appreciation for each of their albums (and of course, Kim Gordon). Unfortunately the book ended with Experimental Jet set, Trash and No Star....would love to hear what the author has got to say from there on....

[Timothy Minneci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about the early history of SY and their impact on the evolution of the alternative/independent music scene of the 80s and 90s. A few too many instances of the author injecting his personal opinions or observations than necessary that come across as smarmy and self-serving.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

i learned all about the the noise rock scene in the NYC 80s. also, it's better than any velvet underground bio i've read.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

very informative and interesting book if you are in to music. you begin to realize just how influential they really are .doesn't really matter if you like them or not.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction into the history of Sonic Youth, but could've gone into more detail. More SY books coming out this year.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

An adequate telling of the bands history.

[Russel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wait, we're not Nirvana? Wtf.

[Anna Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written and confusing, but I sure love Sonic Youth.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick-read about one of the most interesting indie bands.

[Joe Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to be a pretty big fan to like this one, I think.

[Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the band, book wasn't very interesting. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a huge SY fan or music history completist.

[Jmfalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently read this again. Love Sonic Youth so it was fun to read again after 14 years.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a die-hard Sonic Youth fan this is a must read.

[Jesse Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as a history of underground 80s rock. Still, reading about music is like dancing to architecture.

[SE Rigby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not usually a reader of biographies but really loved this one. Such a great look into the art of music.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

imagine a secret history of music in the eighties, serialised in Spin magazine

[Russell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not great, gave up after 17 or so pages, very boring ...

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It read like a really long Spin article.