Those doyens of art noise, Sonic Youth, appear to be teasing... something, for next year.
The band broke up in 2011 after Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s marriage ended in acrimony. Given the bitterness between the couple, a reunion has always seemed unlikely – and still does.
Earlier this year, Moore told Billboard that “We (Sonic Youth) covered so much territory that I don’t feel like it was a story left untold. I think it really had a nice trajectory, and it certainly doesn’t feel unfinished to me.”
So what are we to make of an Instagram message from the band’s official account last week, which featured one of the contraptions on the cover of their 1995 album Washing Machine (which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary on Friday) emblazoned with ‘2026’?
It could, of course, mean the band are prepping a reissue of the album for next year. Washing Machine is regarded by many Sonic Youth fans as their strongest album, finding a balance between immediacy and the experimental. It featured their longest track – The Diamond Sea – which clocked in at nineteen and a half minutes, and for the band seems to elicit fond memories.
On her personal Instagram, Kim Gordon shared the band post and wrote alongside it: “This was my favourite recording experience with Sonic Youth, we went to Memphis, ate a lot of barbecue, went to Al Green’s church on Easter Sunday, made some hot jams!”
Earlier this yea,r the bassist and Kim Deal appeared together on the Netflix talk show Everybody’s Live and played, Little Trouble Girl, the single from Washing Machine they duetted on.
Fans will be hoping that the cryptic post is presaging a full reunion. Like the rest of us, they’ll no doubt find out in the fullness of time.
