Is there an audiobook of Girl in a Band: A Memoir?

Yes. Girl in a Band: A Memoir has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Kim Gordon and Rachel Kushner.

How long is the Girl in a Band: A Memoir audiobook?

The Girl in a Band: A Memoir audiobook runs 7 hr 14 min.

Is Girl in a Band: A Memoir on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Girl in a Band: A Memoir was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on September 3, 2026.

Girl in a Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon book cover for the Book of the Day memoir book review

Our score

4.2/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Girl in a Band: A Memoir free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

EDITION PUBLISHEDFebruary 2015

Genres

Non-Fiction Memoir Music

Themes

Being a woman in a man's sceneArt, image, and personaThe end of a marriage and a bandFemininity under scrutiny

Girl in a Band: A Memoir

Name: Girl in a Band: A Memoir
Price: 7.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band is a cool, clear-eyed memoir from a founder of Sonic Youth, as much about being a woman in a man's scene and an artist who fell into music as it is about the band. It opens with the breakup that ended both her marriage and the group.

The Review

Our take

Gordon writes the way she played bass — controlled, watchful, leaving space. The book is structured around loss: it begins with Sonic Youth's final show, a marriage to bandmate Thurston Moore disintegrating in real time, and that grief gives the memoir its spine and its chill. She isn't interested in the conventional rock arc of struggle to triumph. She's interested in art, image, and the long performance of being looked at, and she circles those subjects with a visual artist's eye.

That's the key to her: she came up in the art world, not the music one, and she never quite stopped being a conceptual artist who happened to pick up an instrument. Some of the book's sharpest passages are about looking — how she watched the downtown New York scene of the eighties, how she thought about persona and femininity and the cool blank surface she presented to the world. She's perceptive and a little merciless, on herself and others, and she's especially good on the strange labor of being one of the few women on a stage built for men, expected to be both tough and decorative.

The coolness is a strength and a limit. Gordon keeps the reader at a deliberate distance, and those hoping for warm, dishy band history or generous insider detail about the music may find her reserve frustrating; she'd rather analyze an image than narrate a tour. The settling of scores with Moore is restrained but unmistakable, and a few readers will want either more candor or more grace there. The chronology can feel impressionistic, more collage than narrative.

But the reserve is also the point, the same self-possession that made her a magnetic figure for decades. When she writes about specific records, or about motherhood inside a touring band, or about California versus New York as states of mind, the book opens up and lets you in. She's a genuinely interesting thinker about art and gender, and the memoir is strongest when it lets her be that rather than a rock chronicler.

Her account of the New York she came up in is one of the book's real rewards — the cheap-rent, pre-gentrification downtown where the lines between music, performance, and visual art barely existed, and where a band like Sonic Youth could be a kind of ongoing conceptual project as much as a rock group. Gordon writes about that world without the usual misty nostalgia; she's clear that it was also precarious, often unglamorous, and gone for good. She's just as sharp on the later disillusionment, on watching an underground get absorbed and sold back, and on what it means to keep making work as the ground shifts under it.

Why you should read

Sonic Youth and indie-rock fans
Readers drawn to art-world memoirs
Anyone interested in women in male-dominated scenes
Lovers of cool, restrained, analytical prose

What to expect

A controlled, watchful, somewhat distant voice
Structure built around a breakup and an ending
More art and image than backstage detail
An impressionistic, collage-like chronology

You come away with a portrait of an artist who treated a band as one medium among several, and who refused to perform vulnerability on command. It's a memoir about holding your own shape under a lot of scrutiny — quietly feminist, often bracing, and exactly as guarded as its author meant it to be.

Reviewed by Ellis · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.2/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Girl in a Band: A Memoir free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Girl in a Band: A Memoir?: Yes. Girl in a Band: A Memoir has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Kim Gordon and Rachel Kushner.
Listen to Girl in a Band: A Memoir free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Girl in a Band: A Memoir audiobook?: The Girl in a Band: A Memoir audiobook runs 7 hr 14 min.
Is Girl in a Band: A Memoir on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Girl in a Band: A Memoir was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on September 3, 2026.
How much does Girl in a Band: A Memoir cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $7.99, Paperback $13.60, Hardcover $33.14. Prices as of September 18, 2026 at 10:20 PM EDT and may change.

Filed underMemoir Music Browse the archive →

CollectionsShort Reads Browse collections →

On saleThis book’s price just dropped.See all current deals →

E-readersReading on your phone? See which e-reader to get.E-reader guide →

Common questions

What is Girl in a Band: A Memoir about?: Gordon writes the way she played bass — controlled, watchful, leaving space. The book is structured around loss: it begins with Sonic Youth's final show, a marriage to bandmate Thurston Moore disintegrating in real time, and that grief gives the memoir its spine and its chill. She isn't interested…
Is Girl in a Band: A Memoir worth reading?: We scored Girl in a Band: A Memoir 4.2 out of 5. Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band is a cool, clear-eyed memoir from a founder of Sonic Youth, as much about being a woman in a man's scene and an artist who fell into music as it is about the band. It opens with the breakup that ended both her marriage and the group.