THURSTON MOORE

'Thurston Joseph Moore' (born July 25, 1958 in Coral Gables, Florida) is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the band Sonic Youth. He has participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running a small record label.

Contents

Early years

Sonic Youth

Work outside of Sonic Youth

Record label and writings

References

External links

Early years

Moore was born in Coral Gables, Florida, but was raised in Bethel, Connecticut. Although he enrolled at Western Connecticut State University, he opted to move to New York City instead to join the burgeoning post-punk/no wave music scenes.^[1]
Once there, Moore was briefly in the hardcore punk band Even Worse, featuring future ''The Big Takeover'' editor (and future Springhouse drummer) Jack Rabid. After exiting the band, Moore and Lee Ranaldo learned experimental guitar techniques in Glenn Branca's "guitar orchestras."^[1]

Sonic Youth

Main articles: Sonic Youth

Moore and Ranaldo soon formed Sonic Youth, serving as the band's guitarists, with Moore on lead vocals. The band signed to Neutral Records, then to Homestead Records, and then to SST Records.

In 1984, Moore married Sonic Youth bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon; the pair have a daughter, Coco Hayley Gordon Moore.
He and Ranaldo make extensive use of unusual guitar tunings, and often heavily modify their instruments to provide unusual timbres and drones, and they are known for bringing upwards of fifty guitars to every live gig.^[1] (They use some guitars for one song only.) In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him and Ranaldo the 33rd and 34th best guitarists in music history.

Work outside of Sonic Youth

In addition to his work with Sonic Youth, Moore has also released albums as a solo artist (one under the moniker David Adelmen), including 1995's ''Psychic Hearts''. He and Gordon released a few songs as Mirror/Dash, a reference to their respective nicknames. ("Mirror" being an alliterative pun on "Moore," and "Dash" being a pun on Flash Gordon.)
Moore has collaborated with scores of musicians, including Lydia Lunch, DJ Spooky, William Hooker, Christian Marclay, Mike Watt, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Nels Cline, Cock E.S.P., Chris Corsano and My Cat is an Alien. Most of his solo/duo collaborations have been instrumental, and are generally improvised and/or noise based.
In the early 1990s, Moore formed the side band Dim Stars, featuring punk legend Richard Hell of the Voidoids. Moore performed solo on the side stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza tour.
In 1994, Moore teamed up with Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs, Don Fleming of Gumball, Mike Mills of R.E.M., and Dave Grohl of Nirvana/Foo Fighters, to form the Backbeat Band, which recorded the soundtrack album to the movie ''Backbeat''. Additionally, Moore also contributed guitar work and backing vocals on "Crush With Eyeliner," which appeared on R.E.M.'s Monster LP.
Since 2004, Moore has recorded and performed with the all-star noise collective To Live and Shave in L.A., the lineup of which also features Andrew W.K.. He recorded with the band at Sonic Youth's former studio in Manhattan, and later performed with them at the George W. Bush "anti-inaugural" Noise Against Fascism concert in Washington, D.C., named in reference to S.Y.'s 1992 song "Youth Against Fascism." Moore curated the "Nightmare Before Christmas" weekend of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, in December 2006.
Moore directed the music video for Pavement's song "Here," from ''Slanted and Enchanted''.
Moore is a member of director Jim Jarmusch's "secret club," The Sons Of Lee Marvin.
Moore also composed the score for the 2001 film "Manic," which starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Moore is said to be preparing a solo album for release in 2007.
On June 21, 2007, Moore revealed to ''Spin Magazine'' that his new album will be titled ''Trees Outside The Academy''. The album was recorded at J Mascis' studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. The album is made up of mostly acoustic material, it features Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and violinist Samara Lubelski. The album also features collaborations between Mascis and Charalambides' Christina Carter, who performs a duet with Moore on the track, "Honest James." The album will be released on September 18, 2007, on Moore's label Ecstatic Peace.

Record label and writings

Moore and other S.Y. members published the irreverent music zine ''Sonic Life''. Moore runs the independent record label Ecstatic Peace!. Beginning in 1993, this label jointly released records with rock critic Byron Coley's label, Father Yod, as Ecstatic Yod Records.
Moore reviewed new music in the recently-defunct (as of early 2007) ''Arthur Magazine''. He manages the website Protest Records, named for its protest against music piracy laws. Moore was the editor/overseer of the 2005 book ''.

References

1. Azerrad, Michael. ''Our Band Could Be Your Life''. New York: Little, Brown, 2001
2. Azerrad, Michael. ''Our Band Could Be Your Life''. New York: Little, Brown, 2001
3. Azerrad, Michael. ''Our Band Could Be Your Life''. New York: Little, Brown, 2001

Arthur Maagazine is officially back, as of August 28, 2007.

External links

★ Sonic Youth.com - Official website

★ Official Myspace page for "Llik your idols", a documentary about the Cinema of Transgression featuring Thurston Moore

★ Ecstatic Peace! Records.

★ ''Spike'' magazine interview.

★ .

★ Writings by Thurston on 2003 NYC power blackout.