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Sonic Youth Signs One-Album Deal With Matador

Sonic Youth has agreed to a worldwide (except for Japan) one-off deal with Matador, their first indie contract since signing to Universal Music Group two decades ago. The band's Matador debut is due out sometime next year.

"They have a tremendous amount to do with why I'm actually involved in this stuff," Matador co-founder Gerard Cosloy—who first worked with Sonic Youth at Homestead Records in the '80s—told Billboard.com. "The number of bands on Matador who they've made an indelible impact on, both musically and personally, is a pretty long list."

While some thought Sonic Youth might release their regular studio records through their experimental SYR label, frontman Thurston Moore said that was never really an option because "the amount of work it would entail, I don't think we could really handle it. Matador is a super strong, high-profile label with an indie distribution system that is exactly what a band like us in this current climate needs more than anything."

As for what Sonic Youth's next album might sound like, the group introduced two new tracks at a recent Brooklyn show. According to Moore, "One was a real sort of weird boogie rocker and the other was this no-wave noise pop tune … The last two or three albums, I focused on making concise, avant-garde pop/rock songs that had some accessibility factor. But Universal wasn't really able to work them beyond critics. So I told our manager, 'Maybe we should make a longer-form record of more experimental music,' and he's like, 'No, no! Now you can put that record out of songs, songs, songs, because Matador can really deal with them.'"

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
09.10.08