Former Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon is back with her first new release since 2019's No Home Record.
Kim Gordon rocking at Riot Fest, Chicago, September 2023.
The album is a follow-up to Gordon's previous collaboration with producer Justin Raisen, who's worked with pop singers Charlie XCX and Sky Ferreira. That's not to say Gordon has been inactive since we last heard new music from her. In 2021, a live performance At Issue was released from a 2014 performance with experimental blues musician Loren Connors, while she contributed vocals for the song "Debt Collector" for the 2022 benefit release LAND ACT: Benefit For North East Farmers of Color.
The Collective's tracklist leaves quite a bit to the imagination. However, the film-noir style video for "Bye Bye" plays off the song's trap beats and Gordon's cool, spoken-word vocals (lip-synced with conviction by her daughter Coco). The video was directed by photographer/filmmaker Clara Balzary, herself no stranger to rock and roll parentage. Her father is Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.
Kim Gordon - "BYE BYE" (Official Music Video)
The guitar squawks that interrupt the list of items emphasized in "Bye Bye" sound right at home here, as Gordon's iconic footprint is firmly embedded in the rock consciousness since co-founding Sonic Youth with former husband Thurston Moore.
Her background as a fine art graduate from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles can sound at odds compared to the image she has projected through the decades. She moved to New York City in 1981, met and married Moore, and as Sonic Youth evolved from indie rock destroyers to full-fledged icons of alternative rock, she gained confidence in her playing abilities, taking on increasing lead vocal duties (including 1990 single "Kool Thing") and producing Hole's 1991 debut Pretty On The Inside.
Rock steady Gordon at the Town and Country Club, Leeds, UK, 1992.
After the disbanding of Sonic Youth in 2011 and her divorce from Moore in 2013, Gordon began a noise/experimental band with guitarist Bill Nace called Body/Head. She rediscovered her love for art and design, immersed herself in several acting roles (Girls, Portlandia) and wrote Girl In A Band: A Memoir in 2015, detailing her life in piercing honesty, including personal stories of a brother she worshipped who deteriorated mentally, and the East Coast relocation that changed her life forever.
Kim Gordon - The Collective
The Collective will be released on Mar. 8 with a short tour to follow later in the month.
The Collective tracklist:
01 Bye Bye
02 The Candy House
03 I Don’t Miss My Mind
04 I’m a Man
05 Trophies
06 It’s Dark Inside
07 Psychedelic Orgasm
08 Tree House
09 Shelf Warmer
10 The Believers
11 Dream Dollar
03-21 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
03-22 Washington, DC - Black Cat
03-23 Queens, NY - Knockdown Center0
3-27 Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theater
03-29 Ventura, CA - Music Hall
03-30 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore
