Last Thursday evening at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, Kim Gordon and artist Jutta Koether stood on a stage reciting text from a 1991 interview between Gordon, then of Sonic Youth, and artist Mike Kelley. “Kim's the hot and steamy female member of Sonic Youth,” said Jutta, role-playing Mike's part with her voice sarcastically lowered to a male pitch.
It wasn’t clear whether Jutta and Kim, long-time collaborators, were mocking Kelley’s interview questions or if the original questions themselves were parodies of how Kim is so often singled out by the media for being a female musician. Either way, the recitation, interspersed with Jutta on a keyboard and Kim on guitar, recalled a question that had interested us since we first saw the show’s all-female lineup, which also included I.U.D., the lawless rhythmic ensemble made up of Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance and Sadie Laska of Growing. That question is: why are there still so few women in the world of experimental music? Do artists like Kim––or even more critically her younger counterparts such as Karin Dreijer Andersson of Fever Ray or Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards––face similar pressures to fit into sex symbol stereotypes as they did two decades ago?
Of course, to even ask the question of why more women aren’t experimental musicians grazes dangerously close to singling out those who are for their sex rather than their work––a journalistic tendency Kim was clearly protesting in her performance, and, for that matter, the 2009 Sonic Youth song Sacred Trickster. “What's it like to be a girl in a band?” Kim asks. “I don't quite understand/That's so quaint to hear/I feel so faint my dear.”
And aside from the Mike Kelley reenactment, most of the performances on Thursday had to do with music much more than gender, despite the fact that women were playing the instruments. First up, Kim joined forces with I.U.D. A patient build of electronic drums and samples were layered with acoustic percussion and Kim's guitar, which wove in and out of her signature sound and stretched its tonal perimeters. Kim and Lizzi took turns with the vocals, Lizzi playfully singing through a number of textural effects and Kim sometimes singing sometimes speaking. The final moments of the set culminated in a duet with both singers skillfully on point and a trio sonically triumphant.
After the performance, we spoke to Kim, Lizzi, Sadie, and Jutta one-on-one about the question that was still on our minds, for better or worse: what is it like to be a woman in indie music? And how has it changed since 1991? Their answers, and portraits, are below.
Kim Gordon, artist and musician
"Of course [indie music] was different [when I started] because, you know, I had no idea what I was doing and sometimes that's the best state to be in, when you don't quite know. Even as a band, the first record can be so great because you don't quite know what you're doing but you have all this energy. But for me as a performer, maybe how I performed was really intense and awkward. I feel like I've gotte
It wasn’t clear whether Jutta and Kim, long-time collaborators, were mocking Kelley’s interview questions or if the original questions themselves were parodies of how Kim is so often singled out by the media for being a female musician. Either way, the recitation, interspersed with Jutta on a keyboard and Kim on guitar, recalled a question that had interested us since we first saw the show’s all-female lineup, which also included I.U.D., the lawless rhythmic ensemble made up of Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance and Sadie Laska of Growing. That question is: why are there still so few women in the world of experimental music? Do artists like Kim––or even more critically her younger counterparts such as Karin Dreijer Andersson of Fever Ray or Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards––face similar pressures to fit into sex symbol stereotypes as they did two decades ago?
Of course, to even ask the question of why more women aren’t experimental musicians grazes dangerously close to singling out those who are for their sex rather than their work––a journalistic tendency Kim was clearly protesting in her performance, and, for that matter, the 2009 Sonic Youth song Sacred Trickster. “What's it like to be a girl in a band?” Kim asks. “I don't quite understand/That's so quaint to hear/I feel so faint my dear.”
And aside from the Mike Kelley reenactment, most of the performances on Thursday had to do with music much more than gender, despite the fact that women were playing the instruments. First up, Kim joined forces with I.U.D. A patient build of electronic drums and samples were layered with acoustic percussion and Kim's guitar, which wove in and out of her signature sound and stretched its tonal perimeters. Kim and Lizzi took turns with the vocals, Lizzi playfully singing through a number of textural effects and Kim sometimes singing sometimes speaking. The final moments of the set culminated in a duet with both singers skillfully on point and a trio sonically triumphant.
After the performance, we spoke to Kim, Lizzi, Sadie, and Jutta one-on-one about the question that was still on our minds, for better or worse: what is it like to be a woman in indie music? And how has it changed since 1991? Their answers, and portraits, are below.
Kim Gordon, artist and musician
"Of course [indie music] was different [when I started] because, you know, I had no idea what I was doing and sometimes that's the best state to be in, when you don't quite know. Even as a band, the first record can be so great because you don't quite know what you're doing but you have all this energy. But for me as a performer, maybe how I performed was really intense and awkward. I feel like I've gotte