Customer Reviews

Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does an excellent job of describing in detail the relationships between the people in this great band, and the many people they've worked with in their 25+ years together.

My only complaint is that the author occasionally gets some glaring facts wrong. He claims that the SST in SST Records stands for "Solid State Tuners" (it stands for Solid State Transmitters); and makes passing mention of an early associate of the band moving to San Francisco to attend Berklee College of Music (which is located in Boston). These are basic, easily verifiable facts, and I'm kind of amazed that they weren't caught by someone who read it between the rough draft and the actual printing.

Does this ruin the book? No, because the mistakes don't actually alter the course of events as the book describes them. They do, however, cause me to doubt the book's accuracy in general, and I can't help but wonder if there were other more consequential mistakes that flew right over my head.

I've been waiting a long time for a big, in-depth bio of one of music's most interesting,enduring and influential bands, and Browne's book certainly delivered the goods. He covers all aspects of the band--childhoods, early days and apartments in New York, recording sessions, the dynamics within the band, their ups and downs and conflicts with their record companies and managers, the whole Lollapalooza experience, and personal lives. I had no idea Kim's high school boyfriend was Danny Elfman or that there was a showdown within the band during the "Dirty" sessions. It's extremely well researched and the writing is accessible and lively. If you're a fan, you have to read this.

A great biography about one of the greatest American bands.

I consider myself quit an expert when it come to Sonic Youth, nevertheless this book surprised me with all the rich information the author has gathered (Very impressive research including interviews and pictures from all the people who were involved in the Sonic Youth story).

The book is well written and leaves you with wet eyes in the end. It tells the story of ordinary people who had dream, some of those dreams were achieved some of the were not.

It is a must read to any sonic youth fan and to anyone who consider himself an alternative/rock/punk/indie music fan.

If you like what Sonic Youth is all about, you'll like it more after reading this book. This book is unique in bringing the lives of Sonic Youth members' lives to the reader. It's a must-have, must-read.

I am really enjoying this book. It's very interesting, and being thorough does NOT make it a boring read. It's nice to read a biography about such a talented band. It's nice that their story is about musical creativity, and not about drug and alcohol abuse. That's the stuff that gets boring after a while.

There is one specific review so far that is very, very wrong. It could be that this person did not read the whole book; I'm not a mind reader. This review claims something along the lines of "there is no new material in this book than there was in Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth Story by Alec Foege." Confusion was released in 1994. There were six Sonic Youth studio albums released after 1994, not including side projects and production credit. There was another member of Sonic Youth who was added and left after 1994. I could go further, but the main point is, this review is utterly ridiculous.

This book was fantastic. It really gives you a clear window to the indie scene over a 25 year period. The best thing about this book, however, is all of the fine examples of the bands and artists and people who started their career and friendships with Sonic Youth, and with their help, broke into mainstream.

This book is a fine breakdown of the history of Sonic Youth. The pictures are worth it too.

I really enjoyed this book it was far from an ass kissing biography - very often the members of SY are portrayed very realistically and not as gods. The insight into the Lydia Lunch days was very interesting and its a nice steady build up to "the year punk broke". I can imagine it was very much like your baby brother getting elected president having Nirvana blow up so big however their music was much more populist than SYs (at least Nevermind and In Utero) I would suggest anyone who is a Sonic Youth fan check this out for sure as there is lots of minutia that a true SY nerd would drool over. I met Thurston this year at SXSW and he was really cool. The Mark Arm (Mudhoney) quotes are hilarious about Marc Jacobs designing expensive "grunge" clothes..that is a total embarrassment I must say he was spot on that was stupid as hell. Cheers

Sonic Youth teve o mérito de popularizar o barulho no rock n' roll. O autor, declaradamente fã da banda, demonstra seu completo desconhecimento em relação ao underground, a música de vanguarda e chega a quase irritar com suas comparações idiotas, chegando a mencionar semelhanças com U2 (????) mais de uma vez no livro. Tudo isso não o impediu de escrever um livro honesto, que mostra um pouco da personalidade dos membros do grupo, a ética hardcore de estar sempre tocando ao vivo, os perrengues passados a até pouco tempo e como são todos "nerds" estudantes da música de vanguarda. Se vc fã da banda como eu, vale muito a pena ler.

Thoroughly researched and full of details that any Sonic Youth fan will find interesting. Well written. A must for anyone who reads rock biographies and has even the faintest interest in Sonic Youth.