Sonic Youth’s strange tribute to Lou Reed
After Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon met in New York, they formed Sonic Youth, eventually becoming one of the most influential alternative rock bands of all time. Experimenting with abrasive guitar riffs, often playing their instruments with non-instruments, such as drills and screwdrivers, Sonic Youth pushed musical boundaries, establishing themselves as cult favourites.
Despite struggling to find success in their native country, it wasn’t until a disastrous London gig strangely yielded positive reviews that the band blew up back home. Soon enough, the band were a staple of the noise rock scene, standing out due to boldly feminist lyrical contributions helmed by bassist and occasional vocalist Kim Gordon and the unique alternative tunings favoured by guitarists Moore and Lee Ranaldo.
One of Sonic Youth’s biggest inspirations was The Velvet Underground, who emerged from 1960s New York playing sounds that had never been heard before. As progenitors of punk and noise rock, the Lou Reed outfit remain one of the most influential bands in the history of rock music. According to Moore, they were one of the reasons he moved to New York in the first place. “I really just immersed myself in the first Velvet Underground record. And I think that was one of the reasons I moved to New York […] and what they represented New York to be, which was like a really mysterious environment.”
Moore and his band became part of a lineage of iconic and pioneering musicians in New York. Thus, in 1987, they paid tribute to The Velvet Underground’s iconic frontman Lou Reed by making a short film in collaboration with Dave Markey. It’s a silly, unserious declaration of love for their idol, starring Moore, Gordon and their friends Joe Cole and Davo Claussen. Via Markey’s YouTube video description, he calls the short “an instant film”. He writes it is “inspired by the James Woods film True Believers (or at least, Thurston’s wanting to see it).”
In the movie, entitled Lou Believers, Cole walks around as Reed, wearing a BAM magazine cover on his face, held in place by a pair of sunglasses. The shaky footage is nothing more than a bit of fun, depicting a band enjoying time away from the pressures of touring and making music. However, the footage is also perhaps a nice memory for the group, as Cole would be tragically murdered just four years later.
He and Black Flag’s Henry Rollins became the unlucky victims of an armed robbery in 1991, with Cole receiving a fatal blow to the head while Rollins was taken inside at gunpoint, although he managed to escape. Following his murder, Sonic Youth dedicated ‘100%’ and ‘JC’ to their friend.
Check out Lou Believers below.
