Sophia Michaels
Kim Gordon stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to perform her recent single, “Bye Bye.” Appearing with a live band, Gordon tore through the fuzzed out, synth-laden track with moody fervor.
“Bye Bye” comes off the former Sonic Youth musician’s second solo LP, The Collective, which dropped in March. The album was produced by Justin Raisen with help from Anthony Paul Lopez, and follows Gordon’s 2019 debut solo LP, No Home Record, which featured the songs “Murdered Out,” “AirBnB,” and “Don’t Play It.”
“It’s essentially a continuation of the last record, but I wanted this one to be more beat-oriented,” Gordon told Rolling Stone of the LP. “Justin is really good at taking sounds and fucking them up. He’s sort of punk in that way, not respecting the technology in a way.”
She added, “I never really thought of myself as a musician. I still think of myself more as a visual artist who plays music. I still don’t know chords and things like that. But I have realized that I do know some things about music and performing. It’s kind of embedded in me and seems to activate at the right time. Even before [Sonic Youth ended], I thought, ‘Oh, by the time I’m 40 — that’s too old to be doing this.’ But it’s a lifestyle, like blues or jazz players who play all their life.”
Gordon will tour in support of the album this spring and summer, with dates announced in Europe, the U.K., Japan, and North America through the end of July. In March, she played the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York, and brought along an expertly curated bill of supporting acts including L’Rain, Kelsey Lu, Bill Nace, and Circuit des Yeux, which Rolling Stone was there to photograph.
