Split ends are new beginnings

You had to feel sorry for Matador. They'd finally pulled off the coup all indie labels would have loved, snapping up Sonic Youth after the expiry of their deal with Geffen - and then, one brilliant album later, a band renowned for their longevity promptly went on "indefinite hiatus", with the chances of a reunion looking much slimmer once it was revealed that Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon were splitting too (and the cause).

But, as it's turned out, they've ended up doing rather well out of Moore's inability to keep his trousers on. Not only have they already released both his Chelsea Light Moving debut and Coming Apart, the debut from Kim Gordon's new project with Bill Nace (Chicago Tribune interview with her here), but they're also putting out Last Night On Earth, the new album from Lee Ranaldo and his band The Dust, who also feature Steve Shelley. Judging by'Ambulancer', it won't be either as pedal-to-the-metal as Chelsea Light Moving or as abstract as Body/Head, but worthy of further investigation all the same.

I wonder what Mark Ibold's up to. Perhaps he just decided he didn't want to take sides...