Sonic Youth have gone and made it official. The New York group has signed a one-album deal with indie label Matador Records, marking their return to the indie fold after two decades under major label Universal.
"Matador is a super strong, high-profile label with an indie distribution system that is exactly what a band like us in this current climate needs more than anything," guitarist Thurston Moore explained to Billboard. Though there had been rumours of a move to an independent label, recent days had seen speculation that Sonic Youth might release albums under their own imprint. Moore pooh-poohed that idea, particularly "the amount of work it would entail. I don't think we could really handle it."
Matador - which is co-owned by the UK's Beggars group - is one of the most powerful indie labels in the United States, releasing records by everyone from Belle and Sebastian, to Cat Power and Pavement. The Matador-Sonic Youth deal is worldwide except for Japan, and co-founder Gerard Cosloy raved to Billboard about the role Sonic Youth has had on his label. "The number of bands on Matador who they've made an indelible impact on, both musically and personally, is a pretty long list," he said.
Cosloy worked with Sonic Youth at Homestead Records in the 1980s, releasing some of the band's earliest output.
Sonic Youth will return to the studio this fall to work on their follow-up to 2006's Rather Ripped. But rather than a turn toward experimental scree and noise, the group's deal with Matador may mean a renewed emphasis on accessibility.
"The last two or three albums, I focused on making concise, avant-garde pop/rock songs that had some accessibility factor," Moore said. "But Universal wasn't really able to work them beyond critics. So I told our manager, 'Maybe we should make a longer-form record of more experimental music,' and he's like, 'No, no! Now you can put that record out of songs, songs, songs, because Matador can really deal with them.'"
"It's almost like we were flexing our song muscles to appeal and impress the invisible men at Universal, so maybe now it's kind of matured enough with us where this record will be killer."
