Future of Sonic Youth in question

[Skummy]

I'm surprised I'm only just finding out about this after a fortnight, but sad news is afoot;

Sonic Youth co-founders Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon have separated after 27 years of marriage leaving the future of the noise-rock band uncertain, according to their record label's parent company.

But the group, including indie-rock pioneers Moore and Gordon, will go ahead with their South American tour in November as planned, Catherine Herrick, a spokeswoman for Beggars Group, the owner of the band's Matador label, said in a statement.

The statement said the couple, who "married in 1984, are announcing they have separated".

It added: "Plans beyond that [November] tour are uncertain. The couple has requested respect for their personal privacy and does not wish to issue further comment."

Sonic Youth's tour has five dates, starting with a 5 November show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and concluding on 14 November in São Paulo, Brazil.

Moore, 53, and Gordon, 58, co-founded the quartet in 1980 in New York amid the so-called "no wave" movement.

Moore and Lee Ranaldo were on guitars and Gordon played bass. Drummer Steve Shelley joined later.

The pair first met when Gordon played in a band named CKM. "I guess it was love at first sight," she said in the 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Moore and Gordon live in Northampton, Massachusetts, with their daughter, Coco, 17, who is a singer with the local band Big Nils.

Sonic Youth's 16th and most recent album was The Eternal in 2009.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/16/sonic-youth-thurston-moore-kim-gordon-split?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

I don't know how much this will mean to many other EWBers, but I know some of you will be gutted at the prospect of a world without SY. They were one of my earliest musical memories - my older brother was big on the grunge scene in the '90s, and Sonic Youth as an extension of that. There are photos of me aged around eight or nine in Sonic Youth T-shirts and plaid shirts. To me, they always seemed like one of the most important bands in the world, and it was kind of an education when I started getting a bit more into music at school when nobody else I spoke to had even heard of them. It's kind of difficult to imagine a world without them.

Last year was the first since 2005 where I haven't seen at least one member of Sonic Youth live - in 2005 and 2006 I saw Sonic Youth, in 2007 I saw Sonic Youth and Thurston Moore solo, in 2008 I saw Thurston Moore play with Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, in 2009 I saw Sonic Youth. I had intended to see them again this year, but didn't manage it. I've met Thurston Moore three times, and he's never been anything less than lovely. A really genuinely nice, friendly guy. I met Kim Gordon and their daughter Coco once, and they were almost exactly the opposite.

Basically...I bloody love Sonic Youth, so this is kind of gutting.

[Hobo]

They should've stayed out of Peter Frampton's cooler.

[apsham]

I was entirely unaware of the fact that they still made sweet, sweet music together.

[Colly]

Saw it last week, the Sonic Youth fact that I wasn't aware of is simply that I didn't know they were that bloody old. Kerazy.

[Skummy]

Yeah, it's been a running joke for at least twenty years that they can't get away with being called Sonic Youth any more. Though even I didn't realise Kim Gordon was quite that old. Doesn't look it. Even Thurston's only started aging in the last year or so - before that, he just looked like a giant floppy-haired child.

[gunnar hendershow]

Heard this news on the local alternative station a couple days ago. Didn't put the pieces together that the band might be disbanding as a result, they've made it 30 years though so it might sadly be time. I will miss SY if this is the end, they influenced so many great artists and made some great music on their own.