Customer Reviews

Confusion Is Next: The Sonic Youth Story

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a Sonic Youth fan, I thought this was a great book, full of interesting anecdotes, cool background information about the NY No Wave scene and rad photos. It has all the data you'll ever need to you about Sonic Youth up to their release of Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star (1994).

The background on the different circumstances of each successive album is worth the price alone.

A fun read.

This book was okay, and I'd recommend it for the enthusiastic Sonic Youth fan who can't find anything else or can afford to be a completist. It was just a little dry, with discussions of the first show at which the group used particular tunings and such, but I'm sure some people would really want to know that. It was just a little cold, more about the making of the music than the inspiration or the makers, for the most part.

Seeing as this is the only readily available book on Sonic Youth, which is a great shame as so much could & should be written about them, it's hard to say now necessary it is. It was written about the same time as Experimental, Jet Set, Trash & No Star was recorded [although it might have been updated since]. It gives you a lot of good information & insights but like others have pointed out, there is something missing. I'd still say it's well worth any SY fan or music fan in general giving it a read, it's not too heavy going, but has substance. Yes, Thurston said he wasn't sure about whether he liked Foege's writing style & also the discography was apparently stolen from someone else, but it is quite indepth. Also there are some really good photos & flyers etc @ the front of the book, from pre-SY bands like the Coachmen & into Confusion is Sex era & then semi-stardom. Actually a year or so ago Lee put out a book of diaries from the 80s that would complement or surpass CIN, that was on Soft Skull press I think, like his Road Movies poetry book. Maybe it is because Sonic Youth is 4 distinct personalities that it was hard to make it sufficiently personal whereas a solo artist might be easier to write about. I was generally pleased enough when I read it about a year or so into enetering their world.

With a comprehensive discography of this key band's output up to 1994, and an interview-heavy chronology of the group's life, Confusion is Next is an okay aid to placing Sonic Youth in rock history (and explaining their obsession with Philip K. Dick). But even band member Thurston Moore, in his preface, laments the lack of real human insight here, and too often Foege's repetitive, awkward prose makes this read like someone's overlong journalism-school thesis.

When I bought this, in 1995, I was fairly unfamiliar with the history of the group or their earlier works. I think this is the reason I enjoyed it so much. Yes, the writing can be dry and unrevealing at times, but it did serve as a good introduction to Glenn Branca and Philip K. Dick for me.

I like sonic youth, and i know they are experimental, but there was no music at all here. This wont even fit into my cd player. Its just a rectangular mass of paper!

Wonderful book that really gives you a clear idea of Sonic Youth's goals, passions and beginning. Nothing is left out, and you feel as tho you were there with them. It's definitely a must read for the Sonic Youth fan. It'll get you hooked on this band if you're not a fan already.

I'm inlove with Sonic Youth. The book was awsome ! I loved it. Raw & artistic

While it serves as an interesting introduction to anybody remotely interested n the group, the book is really somewhat to "stuffy" in the way it is written. it will help place Sonic Youth in its context but will not really manage to convey the complete picture of this ground-breaking band. As such this is much to literate in its approach and not "rock'n roll" enough. There was another earlier larger book from Spain I think (in LP format) that came out earlier with a CD that was more entertaining but I cannot remember what is was called.

This is a very decent biography on Sonic Youth. One of the cool things about the book is the little bits of facts / gossip behind the concepts of each album. It is very thorough and Foege makes great efforts to appeal to all bands and people related. This is particularly evident when he draws connections between Sonic Youth and other bands such as the Beastie Boys, Swans, Lydia Lunch, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., etc.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the band and the process of creation of all their albums up to "Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star". This book is also worth reading if you just want to find out a little bit more about, mainstream alternative versus underground punk and / or no wave.

My only gripe is that I wish the author would release another edition that goes past Sonic Youth in 1994. This will probably happen in the future though...