Thurston is really earnest. But if you've ever met him, or even just seen him perform live, you realize that the earnestness is both incredibly, geekily real, yet also somehow slyly ironic at the same time. Like he's acting in the alternative rock version of This is Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind, and he knows it.
And by the way, Sonic Youth totally rawk. Still. Despite all the "extreme noise improvisation" they also dink around with when they're not totally rocking out. A couple of years back, in Austin, I went to an in-store appearance and they set up a guitar against a wall and then took out rackets and made "music" by lobbing and rebounding tennis balls against it. Not much to listen to, but it was a fun afternoon. But not as good as the concert that night, where they, predictably, totally rocked out.
