Kim Gordon is a musician, vocalist, visual artist, record producer, video director, fashion designer, and actress. Gordon, who started out as a visual artist, rose to prominence as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth, which she formed with Thurston Moore in 1981. In 1990, Gordon and Spike Jonze co-directed The Breeders video “Cannonball.” In 1993 she launched her own fashion line, X-Girl, and continues to work in fashion from time to time. She has appeared in several films, including Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, as well as episodes of Gossip Girl and Girls. In 2012, after the breakup of Sonic Youth, Gordon formed Body/Head with friend Bill Nace. In June 2015, the 303 Gallery in New York will feature a show of her work. 

In her memoir, Girl in a Band, Kim Gordon tells her story — of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll.  She opens up as never before, telling the story of her family, growing up in California in the ’60s and ’70s, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, her music, and her band.

Gordon takes us back to the lost New York of the 1980s and ’90s that gave rise to Sonic Youth, and the Alternative revolution in popular music. The band helped build a vocabulary of music—paving the way for Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and many other acts. But at its core, Girl in a Band examines the route from girl to woman in uncharted territory, music, art career, what partnership means—and what happens when that identity dissolves.

Evocative and edgy, filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a transformative life, Girl in a Band is the fascinating chronicle of a remarkable journey and an extraordinary artist.