Girl in a Band

A Memoir

By: Kim Gordon

Narrated by: Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her story - a memoir of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll, written with the lyricism and haunting beauty of Patti Smith's Just Kids.

Often described as aloof, Kim Gordon opens up as never before in Girl in a Band. Telling the story of her family, growing up in California in the '60s and '70s, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, her music, and her band, Girl in a Band is a rich and beautifully written memoir.

Gordon takes us back to the lost New York of the 1980s and '90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, and the alternative revolution in popular music. The band helped build a vocabulary of music - paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, and many other acts. But at its core, Girl in a Band examines the route from girl to woman in uncharted territory, music, art career, what partnership means - and what happens when that identity dissolves.

Evocative and edgy, filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a transformative life, Girl in a Band is the fascinating chronicle of a remarkable journey and an extraordinary artist.

©2015 Kim Gordon (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

I really wanted to love this book..

What did you like best about Girl in a Band? What did you like least?

...but I just could not seem to get through it. I still think Kim Gordon is great but why did she fall prey to depending on name dropping and boring cliche rock star detail? Maybe it was the publishers..I'll give her that. I am glad she read it herself, it did seem more real and I am thankful for when she did talk about her true feelings. I grew up listening to her genre and I thought there just might be more of interest, but maybe we were all just young and looking for something that was never really there in the first place.

Would you recommend Girl in a Band to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes, but not worth my only audible credit this month..

What three words best describe Kim Gordon’s voice?

A little monotone, but I was glad she read it not someone else.

Was Girl in a Band worth the listening time?

I guess..

better then I expected with a lot of vulnerability

better then I expected with a lot if vulnerability.
I would love to hear her reflection on the affair a few years from now when it is less fresh.
it is a complete taboo what he did, but a relationship is always 2 people.

Enlightening

I enjoyed her life story and the way she told it. The story bounced in time, but still seemed to flow forward. The part I liked best was her reflections on being a 'girl'. I could relate to some of her stories, and enjoyed her reflections.

Fantastic

This is one of the best celebrity memoirs, in terms of story and writing quality, I've ever read/listened to. Smart, well-paced, and well-read by Gordon. Love it.

She is a good story

Great band, great story. Liked the honesty and delivery. Would have liked more insight into the process of choosing to be an artist.

Maskenfreiheit: The Freedom Conferred by Masks

"In general, though women aren't really allowed to be kick-ass. It's like the famous distinction between art and craft: Art and wilderness, and pushing against the edges, is a male thing. Craft and control, and polish, is for women. Culturally we don't allow women to be as free as they would like, because that is frightening. We either shun those women or deem them crazy. Female singers who push too much, and too hard, don't tend to last very long. They're jags, bolts, comets: Janis Joplin, Billie Holliday. But being that woman who pushes the boundaries means you also bring in less desirable aspects of yourself. At the end of the day, women are expected to hold up the world, not annihilate it."
-- Kim Gordon, 'Girl in a Band'

I normally don't read artist, musician, or author memoirs. Just not something I have done much. No real biblioideology behind it, just not my thing. Recently, however, I picked up Patti Smith's Just Kids and loved it, so I thought I should read another rock memoir written by a woman I loved growing up. Different kick ass singer, different kick ass period. In some ways Patti Smith and Kim Deal are very different, but in other ways both women's memoirs are similar and work for similar reasons. They are both raw, emotional, authentic (as much as a memoir is ever really authentic), and interesting. Boring these women were not. So, here is my take, the good, bad, and ugly --

First the Good: Kim Gordon has a narrative talent. Her prose reaches moments of beauty and poignance that are both delicate and strong. While I have always loved Sonic Youth, and known about them in a peripheral way, I never focused too long or too hard on the rock opera that is modern rock. I knew where their music fit in, but didn't care too much about where they fit in. it was nice to be able to place people and places around some of these rock heroes. Danny Elfman, Kurt Cobain, J. Mascis, Henry Rollins, Kim Deal, Beck, etc. I knew each of these musicians and their music, but didn't know how they all intersected with Kim and Thurston. Kim (like Patti Smith) also beautifully describes not just the NY music scene (CBGB, Noise Fest, Hurrah, the Mudd Club), but also the art scene too. I love how absolutely integrated rock was with the art scene (again think Patti Smith, David Byrne, etc) in NY in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

Next, the Bad: not much. Sometimes when Kim switches from a traditional beginning, middle, end narrative and inserts about 1/2 into the book a set of chapters that are just additional pieces on albums and songs and her thoughts from the time with Sonic Youth, it all seems a bit neat and experimental; all messing with the format. However, by the end I just thought it was a way to help get past the middle hump. It seemed a bit out of place and get like the publisher asked for the book to be 270+ pages and not 200 pages, so Kim found an expedient way to fill up 70+ additional pages.

And yes too, the Ugly: The divorce of course. Ugh. There is nothing sadder than seeing your idols fall, your heroes transgress, and marriages fail apart. It is personal and vicious and you can tell by Kim's details that it all still stings. Perhaps, getting it all out there for her was a form of therapy. But ouch! I don't feel bad for Thurston, but ugh.

Great Band, Great Girl, Great Book

What did you love best about Girl in a Band?

Love that Kim Gordon was the narrator. Not known for an effusive personallity Kim's reading was authentically her own. She tells it like is was and is and I was very engaged with her story.

What does Kim Gordon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her narration combined with her words gave a true memoir.

Any additional comments?

Made me dive into the spotify cataloge of Sonic Youth and really enjoyed the experience.

It was lovely once I set the speed to 1.15x

I was surprised at how much of the book revolved around art! I really enjoyed that but wasn't expecting it.

I'd been interested in reading this book for a while - I mean girls in bands? Yes, please! When I saw that this was narrated by the author I thought it'd be the ideal reading experience, as autobiographies read by the author have generally been amazing. I thought Kim Gordon did a lovely job, I just wish she hadn't read so slowly. As a narrator, she came across as distant - probably because the content of her book was quite personal and it seemed to hurt her to read certain parts of the book. I wish I had read it on my own because of this facet. I also wish we would have gotten more stories about being in a band. Otherwise, it was a lovely heartbreaking story revolving around art and a girl in a band.

making art interesting

hard to do. so when she is name dropping artists or describing the mediums she used in pieces - but rarely the intended effect or response, this book really drags.

but in the telling of her personal story and the journey of becoming a new person at a late point in her life, the book is fascinating, heartfelt and deeply honest.

Connecting with Kim Gordon

This book blew me away, as an artist and musician who is also in a longterm relationship with my creative partner- I connected deeply with Kim and learned so many more reasons to love her and want to be an artist. Thank you KG for sharing your massively impactful story!