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Noise: A Literary Anthology of Caustic Short Fiction Inspired by Chaos and Rock Music
For more than twenty-five years, the antimelodic “noise” of Sonic Youth has assaulted us, exhilarated us, inspired us. Why? Katherine Dunn says it's because they operate in the foggy world between the real and the surreal. Mary Gaitskill says that Sonic Youth caught her, years ago, when she was falling. J. Robert Lennon says it's because Sonic Youth rip it apart. Emily Maguire was hooked because once she was in love with chaos. Their sound is caustic, elemental, nihilistic—and quite unlike any other cult band ever to achieve rock godhood. In Noise , twenty-one great literary voices offer short fiction based on or inspired by songs from Sonic Youth—a raucous coupling of music and literature featuring marrow-colored goo, severed hands and abandoned babies, Patty Hearst watching the apocalypse on TV, and other unruly images of the Zeitgeist. Contributors
Hiag Akmakjian • Christopher Coake • Katherine Dunn • Mary Gaitskill • Rebecca Godfrey • Laird Hunt • Shelley Jackson • J. Robert Lennon • Samuel Ligon • Emily Maguire • Tom McCarthy • Scott Mebus • Eileen Myles • Catherine O'Flynn • Emily Carter Roiphe • Kevin Sampsell • Steven Sherrill • Matt Thorne • Rachel Trezise • Jess Walter • Peter Wild
Hiag Akmakjian • Christopher Coake • Katherine Dunn • Mary Gaitskill • Rebecca Godfrey • Laird Hunt • Shelley Jackson • J. Robert Lennon • Samuel Ligon • Emily Maguire • Tom McCarthy • Scott Mebus • Eileen Myles • Catherine O'Flynn • Emily Carter Roiphe • Kevin Sampsell • Steven Sherrill • Matt Thorne • Rachel Trezise • Jess Walter • Peter Wild
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
5 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Lee Ranaldo
31 books17 followersLee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody Linn Ranaldo, Sage Ranaldo and Frey Ranaldo and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music under the name Drifting.
Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity. His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music. Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. His most recent book of poetry, Hello From the American Desert, was published by The Silver Wonder Press in November 2007 with artwork by Curt Kirkwood. Recent visual work has been included in exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and Mercer Union in Toronto.
Ranaldo has produced albums for artists including Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Magik Markers, Deity Guns, and Dutch art rock-ensemble Kleg. He has edited a volume of tour journals from the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour written by Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others. Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.
In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with The Cribs music.
Lee makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ranaldo
Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody Linn Ranaldo, Sage Ranaldo and Frey Ranaldo and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer, with whom he has performed many live installation pieces with improvised music under the name Drifting.
Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity. His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music. Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. His most recent book of poetry, Hello From the American Desert, was published by The Silver Wonder Press in November 2007 with artwork by Curt Kirkwood. Recent visual work has been included in exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and Mercer Union in Toronto.
Ranaldo has produced albums for artists including Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Magik Markers, Deity Guns, and Dutch art rock-ensemble Kleg. He has edited a volume of tour journals from the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour written by Thurston Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Love, and others. Ranaldo has also worked with jazz drummer William Hooker on improvised music, and reading and improvising poetry.
In 2007 Ranaldo collaborated with British rock band The Cribs on their third album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with The Cribs music.
Lee makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ranaldo
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
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February 14, 2009what did i learn from this book? that english authors are bad at writing short stories based on the music of sonic youth.
March 18, 2011
I was horribly disappointed by this collection. There's so much possibility here but so many of these writers chose very trite topics, ranging from the boring to the melodramatic. It felt more like a collection of writings by high school students given the same assignment, and most of these supposedly professional writers simply borrowed a song title for a story title with no relevance or reverence for the source whatsoever. In most cases I enjoyed reading the blurbs at the beginning of the stories (that describe in the authors' words their relationship with sonic youth) more than the actual stories that followed. The two exceptions that come to mind were Katherine Dunn's piece and Shelley Jackson's. Jackson's "My Friend Goo" was one of the best pieces of short fiction I've read this year, evoking the kind of feeling that this music makes a person feel but doing something totally original and fantastic. Everything else could have (and should have) never seen the light of day. Maybe it's a common problem with writing about music, although the matter warrants further investigation. If only the editor of this collection had been more discerning.
January 10, 2009
Cool collection of stories inspired by Sonic Youth songs. Great work especially by Jess Walter, Katherine Dunn, Samuel Ligon. I have a story in here too, called "Swimsuit Issue," based on the song from Dirty.
One of my favorite parts is how each writer wrote a little intro to their story explaining why they picked the song they chose to base their stories on. This was originally published in the UK. Now it's out in the states.
One of my favorite parts is how each writer wrote a little intro to their story explaining why they picked the song they chose to base their stories on. This was originally published in the UK. Now it's out in the states.
June 5, 2009
The "My Friend Goo" story was pretty good. The rest... well, I'm staying away from the same publisher's "fiction inspired by The Fall" book now. Most of the author introductions were embarrassing, too. Improve book: delete introductions.
June 22, 2013
I didn't see Sonic Youth in many of these stories at all. they were overly simple in many cases and just kind of blah.
April 20, 2023
This was rough...
January 8, 2010
I got this an advanced copy from Vogue. Its actually EDITED by Peter Wild and a collection of short stories many different writers.
For the most part this collection was actually really good. Most of the stories seem to emulate Sonic Youth in some way--dark, surreal, psychedelic,etc. In addition, the fiction is usually somewhat experimental and non-linear. However, even if you are not a fan of Sonic Youth , one could still enjoy these stories.
The only aspect that seemed somewhat pointless was that each story was titled after a Sonic Youth song and included an anecdote by the author regarding their thoughts on the band. I could have done without this but I guess I could have also chosen to not read those parts too.
Personal favorites include Swimsuit Issue by Kevin Sampsell and
Snare, Girl by Katherine Dunn (author of Geek Love) and the one by Tom McCarthy.
For the most part this collection was actually really good. Most of the stories seem to emulate Sonic Youth in some way--dark, surreal, psychedelic,etc. In addition, the fiction is usually somewhat experimental and non-linear. However, even if you are not a fan of Sonic Youth , one could still enjoy these stories.
The only aspect that seemed somewhat pointless was that each story was titled after a Sonic Youth song and included an anecdote by the author regarding their thoughts on the band. I could have done without this but I guess I could have also chosen to not read those parts too.
Personal favorites include Swimsuit Issue by Kevin Sampsell and
Snare, Girl by Katherine Dunn (author of Geek Love) and the one by Tom McCarthy.
January 14, 2009
1/4 of the way into this book, I am not sure the other people listening to this band are hearing anything I hear.
It is clear the authors are using only the titles and the open-endedness of the band's music as their guides.
It is clear the authors are using only the titles and the open-endedness of the band's music as their guides.
February 18, 2009
I picked this up because as far as I’m concerned Sonic Youth is pretty much the best thing ever.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the writers except Eileen Myles, but there’s definitely a few gems in here and I’ll be looking for more stuff by a few of the authors.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the writers except Eileen Myles, but there’s definitely a few gems in here and I’ll be looking for more stuff by a few of the authors.
April 18, 2009
this is a pretty good anthology of various writers, works inspired by sonic youth. of course, i got this book not as an avid long-term sonic youth fan, but because of eileen myles piece "protect me you"....spetacular as usual!
November 30, 2009
I tried pretty hard to read this. The theme is great; I downloaded a whole bunch of songs I haven't listened to in years, and am loving them. But the stories I read (I couldn't finish!) didn't blow me away, or really make me feel connected to the music.
January 7, 2009
(Quasi-)Experimental jet set. Trash. One star.
(Oh, and regarding the intro: Et tu, Lee?)
(Oh, and regarding the intro: Et tu, Lee?)
February 3, 2009
somewhere lost in space is my review.
April 17, 2009
C- I wish this book was as good as I had hoped. Even authors I normally liked wrote mediocre stories. Laird Hunt and Mary Gaitskill are included, yippie. :)
May 27, 2009
An uninspired collection of watered-down workshop fiction.
December 29, 2009
Liked a lot of it and hated some of it. I just didn’t get some of the stories. Not sure if I would call this YA.
January 5, 2010
I like Sonic Youth...I hated this book
December 20, 2010
One brilliant story among a plethora of others ranging from awful to mediocre. I picked it up because it was on sale for $5.00, and I'd say that's about what it's worth.
February 7, 2014
Better in concept than execution.
March 24, 2015
These were ok, but I think I'm done with this series
January 15, 2017
A mix of stories I really enjoyed and others that made me go meh. SOnic Youth is my favourite band, and they do chaotic quite well, so it was interesting to read these interpretations.
January 25, 2012
Ever read something where maybe the concept is bigger than the outcome? This is it.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews