Sonic Youth Honor Punk's Leading Ladies in "Sacred Trickster" Video

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Sonic Youth have unveiled the video for "Sacred Trickster," the opening track off their 16th album and latest masterpiece The Eternal. With only two minutes of Kim Gordon angst to work with, director Tom Surgal quickly tells the story of three lady anarchists who pack paint bombs in their pocketbooks and detonate them at some party where mimes serve as cocktail waiters. The band only appears in passing, as Thurston Moore digs through milk crates of records on the street, Lee Ranaldo busks and new bassist Mark Ibold reads what looks like a Korean newspaper as our three protagonists walk by.

The video makes many references to Patti Smith and other prominent women of punk's past, but anyone who's seen Jean-Luc Godard's curio-'60s films like Made In U.S.A. and Alphaville will recognize the filmmaker as the chief influence, as the video's style mirrors the director's jump-cut style and political pranks, while the three actresses don wigs similar to that of Godard muse and ex-wife Anna Karina. (In fact, the girl in the sleeveless dress is nearly a doppelganger of the actress Karina.) Even the first shot of Kim Gordon hanging up a punk concert flier pays homage to Godard's penchant for creative opening credits, and here Gordon gives credit to some of the artists that have inspired her.

Also in the world of SY, according to Pitchfork, guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo will get their own line of Fender Jazzmasters, which in the past has served as the guitarists' ax of choice. Both signature guitars go on sale July 1st. For more info, check out the Fender site.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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