Unlike most rock bios out there — and just like the band it covers — David Browne’s GOODBYE 20TH CENTURY: A BIOGRAPHY OF SONIC YOUTH does things on its own terms. It doesn’t go for the cheap rumor-mill output or even dish dirt, for the simple reason that even though the music they make might seem out there and disjointed, the members of the band itself could not be more down to earth and normal.
This is a “little engine that could” story. Here Sonic Youth is, just chugging right along, sticking with its ethics and never trying to fit in the current trends. How else could you describe a band that, when they were the headliners at Lollapalooza, played mostly new material that the audience had never heard, ending each night with a song that easily stretched to 20 minutes?
Formerly the music critic at ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Browne has done an extraordinary job capturing the whole history of a band — especially one that has never had a Top 10 single or even wide radio airplay. But again, Sonic Youth just keeps putting out albums, year after year, in its wholly uncompromising fashion. How many other bands that fit this bill would have lasted that long on a major label?
Browne tells the whole story of the group — even portions I’m guessing its members would like to forget. There’s nothing too disturbing, but it paints a clearer picture of the band’s dynamic. For instance, it’s made quite apparent that in the early days of Sonic Youth, bassist Kim Gordon would be made the heavy when it came time to fire someone. Or even that during the recording of the album DIRTY, guitarist Lee Ranaldo almost left the band. Or even the disastrous opening slot for one of their heroes, Neil Young, where on most nights, they were met with not only indifference, but constant booing.
But before all that, Browne goes into great detail of each band member, including all the previous drummers before Steve Shelley, and even their earlier bands that would lead to the formation of Sonic Youth, including stints with such influences as Glen Branca, who would go on to put out the first Sonic Youth recording.
It follows the formation of the act, through to the release of and tour for 2006′s RATHER RIPPED. The author’s style is extremely readable for a book of this size, never forcing in his own opinions or relying on gossip that seems to permeate other rock bios — cough HAMMER OF THE GODS cough. He has interviewed a laundry list of people involved with the band, and no one has a bad word to say. It seems some feathers might have been ruffled, but these people still care for these folks.
But as much as this book is about Sonic Youth, it also delves into other bands that have inhabited the musical universe, including one they championed early on called Nirvana. We see through Sonic Youth’s eyes the rise and then sudden demise of that group.
GOODBYE 20TH CENTURY is truly like one of those great freeform jams they would later release, ebbing and flowing as it weaves a tale. This will not only please longtime fans like myself, but even people who might have only seen them on THE SIMPSONS. This is probably the best rock bio that does not rely on sex, drug abuse, someone dieing, cronyism or marrying a 13-year-old cousin. —Bruce Grossman, Sonic Youth fan since he first bought SISTER on cassette, way back in 1987
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