The forgotten album that got Kim Gordon into punk: “I loved his words”
Punk was never just about mindless aggression against the elite; its real power came from having a purpose and using a range of expressions and confrontations to make its message heard. That’s why, by the end of the 1990s, Kim Gordon had become one of the most influential figures in rock.
Within Sonic Youth, Gordon often sang about female oppression, using her unique voice to create an experience that was usually unsettling, playful, enlightening, and endearing wrapped in one. This often pitted her in the same categories as ones like punk, mainly due to her unconventional defiance, but, for the most part, Gordon was much more sophisticated than simplistic definitions.
For starters, Gordon initially felt turned off by the genre and even more so the movement, partially because she thought it was too “tongue-in-cheek” but mostly because she felt no one truly mastered the art of what it actually meant. Even Henry Rollins, someone so heavily ascribed to the genre, was a little on the nose for her, but that was because of how unsettling he became during live performances.
However, Gordon didn’t reject the concept altogether and eventually became endeared to it after discovering the right artists. This was likely written in the stars, especially given the fact that Gordon always felt aligned with its ethos, just not so much those who preached it. In her book, Girl In A Band, she explains her mutual connections to rebellion by being too “young to be a hippie but brushed by whatever rebellion and amped-up freedom there was in the air.”
Gordon’s defining moment with punk music came in 1979 when the Germs released their debut album, GI. Aside from accruing a reputation as one of the most influential, albeit understated, punk albums of all time, GI is an undeniably intense and aggressive album that takes the American hardcore punk movement and mixes it with proto-punk and a touch of nihilistic rock. In other words, it’s widely considered the punk blueprint but known only to those who go looking.
For Gordon, GI was confusing to reckon with because she enjoyed it so much. As she explained to NME: “I loved the singer and his words. We went to the same High School. He was a really fucked-up kid. This was in the late Seventies. I didn’t get into punk straight away.”
Elaborating on why she didn’t immediately develop a taste for punk, she added: “It sounded too much like English punk. There were a lot of punks in LA cos it’s such a fascist place, but there was never a punk scene in New York, where I moved to after school, cos there was nothing to tear down – it was already fucked-up.”
As someone who has always valued authenticity in music, it’s likely that she disregarded punk’s earlier pretence but appreciated the way that the Germs could deliver music that didn’t feel like it was hiding beneath something inexplicably artificial. As far as raw and unfiltered punk music goes, GI was pretty much it and likely held everything Gordon needed to feel like she not only finally connected with the genre but that it connected with her.
Despite finding her true solace in no-wave bands because of its “sheer freedom and blazingness”, GI likely gave Gordon a glimpse into the type of punk that truly lived up to its own mantra and desire to rip out the rule book, destroy rock, and come out the other side ready to enjoy a brand new ecosystem. GI also utilised dissonance, something it had in common with many no-wave bands, which likely encouraged Gordon to appreciate Germs’ commitment to doing things their own way.
