Kim Gordon’s “Hungry Baby” Skewers Entitled Men in Music

It seems like nothing can slow Kim Gordon down. Following Sonic Youth’s disbandment in 2011, she’s formed experimental noise-guitar duos with Bill Nace (Body/Head) and Alex Knost (Glitterbust), releasing albums in 2013, 2016 and 2018, and she published her highly regarded memoir, Girl in a Band, in 2015. Her solo debut, No Home Record, comes this Friday, Oct. 11—and promises to be as bold and bracing as anything she’s produced over her nearly 40-year career.

“Hungry Baby,” her latest thundering single, follows last month’s ”Air BnB.” It’s an ode to the confusion-fueled male aggression that surrounds the looming new decade. “Green sky above, blue earth below,” she growls over thumping bass, pounding drums and buzzing guitar, “2020 is the blow.” As the track unfolds, Gordon takes aim at self-satisfied male lechery in today’s music industry. She channels musicians who harness their creative pursuits as little more than a veneer for aggressive, unwanted sexual conquests and who project their own desires onto the women they objectify. “Hungry baby, you’re out of time,” she snarls. “Lay down your limbs, you’ll feel fine / I’m just a man with a grazing palm / Let’s make music all day long / But not today, some other time / Touch your nipple, pretend you’re mine.” By the track’s blustering conclusion, it’s clear that men like these are the real “hungry babies.” Entitled men threatened by our changing times, Gordon suggests, are truly infantile: narcissistic, pathetic and terrifyingly unreflective.

Listen to “Hungry Baby” here and find 1991 Sonic Youth show audio pulled from the Paste archives below.