Premier Rock Forum

Dindon Shazwan wrote:Fuck Sonic Youth anyways!

Best, most logical and accurate response so far. At this point i'd encourage everyone to say 'Fuck Sonic Youth', a little thing which anyone can do at any given moment to brighten their day. Who gives a fuck if the Starbucks/Pitchfork story is true or not? SY still suck shit.

Just a rock band who needs to pay the rent? Don't think so bub. You realise that Kim and Thurston actually think that they are subversive, as if it is culturally deconstructive in some sense to hang out with Sophia Coppola at Marc Jacobs and then Wolf Eyes at the No Noise Fest? Wow, how radical!


Thurston Moore: [laughs] Yeah, something like that. I wish Starbucks would ask me to compile a mixtape record.

Pitchfork: That would be ... interesting.

Yeah, imagine all those unwitting squares getting their fragile minds torn wide open by Leslie Keffer and Matt Valentine and Erika Elder! Ha ha, Byron Coley could come down and read some poetry to them too-fuck their heads-up good, Fag Tapes and Vodka Soap CDR's in an edition of 30 on the Starbucks counter-they can't deal with the real underground man. There's always of course, the possibility that this unwitting 'audience' could actually be far smarter than the one which laps shit like this up everyday, and would deservedly call bullshit on it. This is what you're dreaming of isn't it Thurston? Or would you use the more 'accessible' Ecstatic Peace artists on your mixtape....you know, the acts which are released through Universal? I'm just confused cuz when I remember shit like that Gap Ad which Kim did years ago, with her in the leather jacket, the rock n' roll ideal sold to me through that seemed a lot cooler than this.

ecunt wrote:<scratching my head>

As in, they are both tied to big corporations that try to maintain an ethical stance.

I don't approve or disapprove but I understand it. They sound like perfect bedfellows to me.

Isabelle Gall wrote:You realise that Kim and Thurston actually think that they are subversive

This statement brings ruination to your post.

1. How do you know this?

2. Even if you're correct, who cares?

3. What does it matter if they think they're subversive (whatever that means) when they aren't?

Let's just agree that SY ponk (as my daughter would say), and leave it at that.

Isn't this a joke?

SY has long been irrevelant to me. I stopped really liking them when Goo came out and they haven't regained any instant miraculous credibility since then with the shit they've pooped out since then..

How is having them on a Starbucks comp any less offensive than being on DGC? Being the mothership A&R alterna-recruiting band for DGC for 15 years is somehow acceptable but being on Starbucks record label isn't?

Mandroid2.0 wrote:

John C3 wrote:If Ian Mackaye did a Starbucks advert would you still think he was cool? He's paid his dues, right?

Actually, my art school friend saw Ian in a D.C. Starbucks, and it broke his sweet, idealistic little straightedge heart. Poor guy.

Bob Mould drinks coffee at his local Caribou Coffee.
Caribou's coffee is much worse than Sbux'.

The story here is that people grow up and realise that not everything is a battle. Pick the good ones, and live with the rest.

-A

Sonic Youth conjures nostalgia in me. They were one of my original gateway bands into independent music.

Have they pleased me much in the last 20 years? Not outside of their live performances.

Am I going to see them perform one of my favorite albums in July even if it means I am supporting Bitchfork? Yes.

Do they tell you how to live your life and how to earn a living? No.

Do they owe you or me or anyone besides themselves anything? No.

alex maiolo wrote:Bob Mould drinks coffee at his local Caribou Coffee.
Caribou's coffee is much worse than Sbux'.

Caribou canNOT be as bad as Mould's music has been since the breakup of Hüsker Dü.

Anyways, Sonic Youth working with Starbucks is a dick move through and through but they never had any qualms about being mainstream before so I doubt it will stop them now.

steve wrote:Douchebags...
...douchebags

But aren't there much worse douchebags in the world? Record labels themselves, even many of the so-called independents?

A part time job at Sbux ensured that quite a few of my friends had health insurance while they were in school. One of them needed it pretty badly when her pancreas decided to blow up.

Again, I say, this isn't Wal Mart.

-A

unarmedman wrote:
So what can bands do? What are non-douche money makers, so startup bands and bands like Sonic Youth?

Go on tour like these guys:



What was that? 32 cities in 33 days? I don't know, the shirt fell off my back and I could never read that side anyways.

I'm not saying they made a ton of money doing this, but they made some money. Enough to continue making music. Though I think they still had day jobs most of the time.

I think the question is how much money do you need to make? You want to make enough money from your music that you don't need a day job or some other job? Enough money so that you just sit around your house getting fat and lazy between tours?

I personally think the day job thing helps you stay in touch with reality. I haven't given this a whole lot of thought, so be forgiving on this one: but if are enjoying some lifestyle where all you do is record for a week or two a year, and tour for a month or so, and then make enough money doing that to just sit around the rest of the year, you are living the "star" lifestyle, out of touch, and probably crap anyway.