Kim Gordon slams Thurston Moore’s ‘rock star showboating’ during Sonic Youth’s final show

The guitarist labels former bandmate and ex-husband as 'so phoney' and 'so childish'

Former Sonic Youth guitarist Kim Gordon has described the group’s final show in an extract from her upcoming memoirs.

Gordon releases Girl In A Band next week (February 24), with Billboard sharing the first few pages of the book in audio form.

In it, Gordon describes ex-husband Thurston Moore’s “rock star showboating”, stating “We had exchanged maybe fifteen words all week. After 27 years of marriage, things had fallen apart between us”.

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Gordon added: “Thurston double-slapped our bass guitarist Mark Ibold on the shoulder and looked across the stage, followed by Lee Ranaldo our guitarist and Steve Shelley our drummer. I found that gesture so phoney, so childish, and such a fantasy. Thurston has many acquaintances but with the few male friends he had, he never spoke of anything personal. He’s never been the shoulder slapping type. It was a gesture that called out, ‘I’m back. I’m free. I’m solo.'”

In excerpts previously published by Vogue, Kim Gordon calls Billy Corgan a “crybaby” and questions Courtney Love’s mental health.

Gordon recalls meeting Courtney Love for the first time in 1990. Gordon would go on to produce Hole album ‘Pretty On The Inside’.

“No one ever questions the disorder behind her tarantula LA glamour – sociopathy, narcissism – because it’s good rock and roll, good entertainment!” Gordon says. “I have a low tolerance for manipulative, egomaniacal behaviour, and usually have to remind myself that the person might be mentally ill.”

She goes on to discuss Love’s boyfriend of the time, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. “Courtney asked us for advice about her ‘secret affair’ with Billy Corgan. I thought, Ewwww, at even the mention of Billy Corgan, whom nobody liked because he was such a crybaby, and Smashing Pumpkins took themselves way too seriously and were in no way punk rock.”

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Girl In A Band‘s title refers to the lyric “What’s it like to be a girl in a band?/I don’t quite understand” from 2009 Sonic Youth track ‘Sacred Trickster’.

Gordon was a member of the iconic group from their foundation in 1981 until 2011, when the band went on hiatus after her separation from husband and bandmate, Thurston Moore. She has since formed a new band, Body/Head, with Vampire Belt member Bill Nace. In April 2014 she joined vocalists including St Vincent, Lorde and Joan Jett in fronting Nirvana for the band’s reformation at their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony.

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