(Credits: Far Out / Danielle Neu)
From the infectious Nuyorican rhythms of Harlem to the abrasive punk underbelly across town, in the East Village, New York City was a haven for musical revolutionaries back in the 1970s. Towards the end of the decade, Kim Gordon joined that roster, immersing herself in the city’s abrasive underground and laying the foundations for Sonic Youth’s endlessly innovative output.
Although Gordon was originally born in Rochester, New York, she spent the majority of her adolescence on the West Coast, only returning to the concrete comfort of the Big Apple after graduating from art school in Los Angeles. However, it was this cross-country move that ended up inspiring the songwriter to follow the path of musical expression, quickly finding solace in the experimental underground world of the city’s blossoming no-wave movement.
Rubbing shoulders with a selection of the strangest, most innovative songwriters the city had to offer inevitably had an impact on the budding young artist, and it didn’t take very long for Sonic Youth to come together in 1981.
A band that would eventually come to revolutionise the sounds of American alternative rock, with masterpiece records like Goo bringing them some widespread attention during the 1990s, the early sounds of the band were firmly rooted in the inspiration of New York City and its growing realm of musical misfits.
It is perhaps no surprise that Kim Gordon found her musical calling in New York. After all, this was the city that had been at the epicentre of the punk revolution, with CBGBs producing a wealth of the century’s most revelatory acts. So, when the songwriter compiled a playlist of her favourite songs for BBC 6 Music back in 2020, it was only fitting that New York was represented in force.
Alongside the likes of Television, who were among the groups spearheading the CBGB scene back in the 1970s, and Gordon’s no-wave contemporaries in the form of DNA, the Sonic Youth songwriter also plucked out a few more recent additions to the city’s music scene. Namedropping the likes of Gold Dime and Talk Normal, Gordon exemplified the fact that she has always kept her ears close to the ground when it comes to exciting new bands emerging from the East Coast.
Nas was another figure that Gordon chose to platform, citing his legendary ‘NY State of Mind’ as a particular favourite, and reflecting her unending appreciation for the realm of hip-hop – an appreciation which is often not shared among her various alt-rock comrades.
Although not from New York herself, Gordon also spotlighted Nico and her 1967 track ‘It Was A Pleasure Then’, which was firmly rooted in her collaborations with The Velvet Underground and far too many nights whiled away at Andy Warhol’s Factory in Manhattan. As such, the song is about as interwoven into the musical fabric of the city as it is possible to be.
New York City has provided a constant stream of incredible music over the decades, and it has also been a consistent source of inspiration for Kim Gordon, whose songwriting power has lost none of its lustre in her 40-plus years as an alternative icon. This collection of favourite tracks barely scratches the surface of the city’s cultural output, but it does sum up the expansive, enduring tastes of one of New York’s favourite songwriters.
Kim Gordon’s favourite New York songs:
- DNA – ‘Blonde Redhead’
- Gold Dime – ‘Hindsight’
- Television – ‘Venus’
- Talk Normal – ‘In a Strangeland’
- Nas – ‘NY State of Mind’
- Nico – ‘It Was A Pleasure Then’
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source faroutmagazine.co.uk ’
