Kim Gordon, the bassist and one of the lead singers for the alternative rock band, Sonic Youth, released a book entitled Girl in a Band. The book describes her own viewpoint on the rise and fall of the band that occupied her life for over thirty years.

With the release of Sonic Youth’s self-entitled EP, Sonic Youth, in 1982, Kim Gordon experienced great success in the music business along with her band mates, up until the end of their career, an ending that came with extremely drastic terms.

After achieving modest success in the 1980s with a few studio albums, Sonic Youth achieved wide spread fame with the 1990 album Goo, which put them at the top of the alternative rock charts. After the release of Goo, the band became popular amongst the numerous fans of grunge. After the grunge era was long gone, the band still continued to shine, taking on the twenty-first century by storm, producing more original and fantastic sounding albums that contained the Sonic Youth aesthetic that made the group famous. The band’s final album, The Eternal, released in 2009, was another hit album for the group. Although the band had been able to navigate three decades without turmoil, after the release of The Eternal, the band began experiencing their own problems.

In 1984, Gordon and her boyfriend and band mate, Thurston Moore married and became the prime example of famous couples in the alternative rock world. They worked extremely well together. They were supportive of each other, and they were extremely faithful – until the release of their last album.

At this time, Moore started seeing another woman. According to Gordon, the couple tried attending couples therapy, but the couple eventually separated in 2011, and divorced in 2013, ending the band with their divorce.

In her book, Gordon details the rise and fall of Sonic Youth, along with the failure of her own marriage. The book also details her own struggles in the music world, specifically relating to her dealing with feminism in the music scene, from the early no-wave New York City scene in the 1980s to modern day music. Gordon even discusses her disdain for Lana Del Rey in her book, as she is critical of Del Rey’s shallow attempt to be seen as a feminist.

The book is a great example of a traditional rock and roll memoir, and it serves as a great critique for the music world that we don’t always see.