One of the more pointless music-dork exercises of the ’90s (and beyond) was to speculate where Sonic Youth would land after the band’s Geffen contract expired—or, what seemed likely at certain points, when SY would be dropped. It was all for nothing, of course: Sonic Youth went on making some of its most esoteric proper full-lengths for a major label in the Jim O’Rourke post-Y2K era, and the band even left Geffen with a parting gift in 2006’s compactly rocking Rather Ripped. Furthermore, what once would’ve been an indie-label bidding war for Thurston Moore and Co.’s services seemed to fold instead into a neat and perfectly logical matchup with Matador, which will release The Eternal on June 9. (Though we could’ve also seen SY signing with Nonesuch or Anti-.) So what’s to get excited about with The Eternal? Well, Pavement‘s Mark Ibold is on bass, Rather Ripped producer John Agnello is back as the band’s most attentive sonic nurse, and lead track “Sacred Trickster” has a “Silver Rocket”-like riff momentum.
“Sacred Trickster” (download):
