Wow, wow, wow! After a tip from Mr. Thurston himself late August (TMT News), it looks like Sonic Youth have officially signed with Matador Records. According to a post on the label's Matablog:
After rampant speculation, Matador Records can confirm the label will be releasing a new studio album from Sonic Youth sometime in 2009. Having fulfilled their contractual obligations to the Universal Music Group, Sonic Youth recently reached an agreement with Matador to release the band’s 16th album of new material in all worldwide territories, save for Japan.
The band will head to the studio this fall to record the album, the follow-up to 2006's Rather Ripped. Read the rest of the post here, our recent story about the label change here, and how and why major labels and independent labels work together here.