Photos by Rez Avissar
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For the ultimate indie band, Sonic Youth sure do have some capitalist sensibilities.  From the Letterman performance to the Pitchfork TV broadcasts to the cover of the new Signal To Noise, Sonic Youth’s PR staff has been flexing some serious muscle surrounding the recent release of The Eternal.  We’re waiting for limited edition Sonic Youth tea cosies at Ikea.

Now Sonic Youth is announcing a radio show that’ll be aired on XM and Sirius.  From July 6th through the 10th, the band will be hosting a two hour nightly broadcast featuring hand picked tracks of artists that influenced Sonic Youth’s sound as well as backstories behind classic Sonic Youth tracks.  In addition a “best of Sonic Youth” show will air on the 11th and 12th.  Full details and links available here.

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore described All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals recently as “the ultimate mixtape.” He’s better with words than we are. No, not really. Warp Films has announced today that on September 23rd, they’ll be releasing All Tomorrow’s Parties, a “DIY concert film” that features live ATP footage culled from the festival’s young history, one that includes performances by Daniel Johnston, Battles, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Portishead, Belle And Sebastian, Animal Collective, Iggy and the Stooges, Mogwai, Grinderman, Slint, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip and The Boredoms. Directed by includes contributions from Jonathan Caouette, the film also features contributions from cinematographer Vincent Moon of Take Away Shows webfame.

Huge week for Sonic Youth: the release of their sixteenth full-length studio effort The Eternal, hanging with David Letterman, and now guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo have announced their new line of signature Fender Jazzmasters through the band’s Twitter page. Moore and Ranaldo influenced leagues of subsequent noise-mongers by deconstructing traditional guitar tunings and all the modifications and tech-head creativity can be attained now without all of the head-scratching and cursing. They just come that way!

Check the Fender site for all the specs, if you’re so inclined. And now a statement from the artists:

“When Fender came to us with an offer to make signature models of our Jazzmaster guitars we jumped at the chance. These are the guitars that have defined the sound of Sonic Youth for more than 20 years. Although we love all guitars, Jazzmasters are the ones we’ve modified and perfected for our uses over the years. With massive input from our great road crew, we’ve come up with a Thurston Jazzmaster & Lee ‘Jazzblaster’ that fully reflect the current state of the guitars we play in 2009. In fact, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on these axes – the prototypes of our Fender models have already been thrust into action during the recording of our latest album, The Eternal, and have already begun to acquire the scrapes and scarz of live performance. These guitars rock Sonic style!”

(via P4k)

In an interview with The Guardian, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon took a closer look at Radiohead’s recent “pay-what-you-want” business model: “I don’t really think they did it by themselves. They did a marketing ploy by themselves and then got someone else to put it out. It seemed really community-oriented, but it wasn’t catered towards their musician brothers and sisters, who don’t sell as many records as them. It makes everyone else look bad for not offering their music for whatever.” (via P4k)

Sonic Youth’s latest, The Eternal, is out next Tuesday on Matador.