there aren't many of which I can count every member as one of my absolute favorite artists. each of them is greatly inspiring and insightful, and I'll pretty much hang on every word when they're dropping some science or fart jokes. I just wish Steve would be interviewed more, but at any rate their work speaks volumes and there's so much to learn about music and art from the whole group.
Four years after this interview & Jian has recently been fired from CBC for abuses against women, & is facing 4 criminal sex assault charges. Reportedly, choking & punching women for "fun" was a regular entertainment for Jian. -Which makes Thurston's comment here about "getting punched in the head a few times" stand out as odd sounding today, & a strange coincidence. Similarly, a Q interview with M.I.A. findable at yt from 2008 has this weirdly coincidental exchange: QUOTE: M.I.A.: "I'm just takin' the punches..." JIAN: "What do you mean by "takin' the punches'?"
They got lucky a few times with the tunings like GABDEG and DEbBbEbGG but mostly they are noise imho. It is amazing to look at the list of tunings but they are not joni Mitchell
You can watch their performances here: 'Sacred Trickster' by Sonic Youth on Q TV and here: 'Antenna' by Sonic Youth on Q TV We have to treat the interview and performances differently for legal purposes, so we tend split everything up.