Photo: Berger-Pool/Getty

The biggest free agents in indie rock have found a new home, as Sonic Youth will release their next album on Matador Records. Sonic Youth were previously on DGC/Geffen from 1990’s Goo until 2006’s Rather Ripped, but as Thurston Moore told Rolling Stone recently, the band looked forward to “returning to the indie world again.” They’ll do so on Matador, home of Stephen Malkmus, Yo La Tengo and Cat Power and onetime label of artists like Pavement, Liz Phair and Teenage Fanclub. Moore also told RS that so far he’s written “a half-dozen song ideas” for the band’s sixteenth studio album, due out “sometime in 2009.” The band also recently premiered two new songs at a concert in Brooklyn. “For Matador, the opportunity to work in partnership with a group who’ve made such an profound impact on our roster/hometown/collective consciousness was one to jump at,” the label said in a statement.

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