Saturday, June 15, 2013

Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill fame and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame played the Northside Festival in Brooklyn.

Hanna's new band is The Julie Ruin. Gordon's new band is Body/Head. She and Thurston Moore are divorcing.

From Wikipedia:
Gordon revealed details about the decision in April 2013: She first confronted Moore about a text message that she discovered from an unnamed woman; this was followed by counselling sessions; the separation then occurred as a result of Moore's inability to cease his extra-marital relationship—Gordon explained that her ex-husband was "like a lost soul."
Although she did so unintentionally, Hanna came up with the name for Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", when she wrote "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall. At the time, Kurt was unaware that Kathleen was referring to a deodorant marketed specifically to young women, and thought that besides having a nice ring to it, the phrase also helped to succinctly summarize, organize and unify the then-nascent song's seemingly-disparate lyrical content into a theme  
On the Fourth of July, 1995— while watching Sonic Youth play at the Lollapalooza Music Festival, Courtney Love punched Hanna in the face, after pelting her with candy and holding a lit cigarette next to her face. This is also referenced in the below-mentioned NOFX song "Kill Rock Stars" with the lines "I wish I could have seen Courtney/demonstrate some real misogyny."
Film director Sofia Coppola and musician Kathleen Hanna have openly praised Gordon for the influence that she has exerted on their own art. Hanna explained in 2013:
     She was a forerunner, musically. Just knowing a woman was in a band trading lead vocals, playing bass, and being a visual artist at the same time made me feel less alone. As a radical feminist singer, I wasn’t particularly 
well liked. I was in a punk underground scene dominated by hardcore dudes who yelled mean shit at me every night, and journalists routinely called my voice shrill, unlistenable. Kim made me feel accepted in a way I hadn’t before. Fucking Kim Gordon thought I was on the right track, haters be damned. It made the bullshit easier to take, knowing she was in my corner.
Hanna started dating Ad-Rock from Beastie Boys in 1997. They got married in 2006. 
In the early 1990s, Gordon co-directed The Breeders' "Cannonball" music video with Spike Jonze. Over a decade later, Gordon appeared in Gus Van Sant's 2005 fictionalized biopic of Kurt Cobain Last Days (Cobain was a close friend).  



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