if everything turn out as we plan we are going to have a special celebration on www.saucerlike.com for Thurston's album. Stay tuned.

Mojo

http://www.rollingstone.com:80/revie...de_the_academy

Man does not live by feedback alone, even Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The striking thing about the guitarist's first solo album since 1995's Psychic Hearts -- solo, as in, devoted to songs instead of prolonged amp death -- is not that he has shed the shredding for acoustic om folk. It is the melodic fiber in his writing and drone-tenor singing. Where there is voltage, it is evocative, not assaulting (the high wail of guitar and violin that opens “Frozen Gtr,” the raindrops of treble in “The Shape Is in a Trance”). Where there is none, as in the unplugged war of guitars that starts “Honest James,” Moore's duet with singer Christina Carter, his picking and their vocal blend is warm and full. There is high-speed dirt (“Wonderful Witches”) and driving psychedelia (the title instrumental), but the most avant-garde quality of this record is its gentle assertion of detail -- the way you can hear each leaf blowing on every tree.


DAVID FRICKE
(Posted: Sep 5, 2007)

2nd best album of the year! no doubt. this one id say could be big! well 12 inches anyway!

Wow I'm happy to read all these great reviews coming out but it better be as good as everyone is saying!. Next pay day (Friday) I shall be buying this record. Looking forward to it and hopefully I'll get to see him at ATP.

http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/s...-2969050.shtml

Thurston Moore
"Trees Outside the Academy"
4.5 stars

Sonic Youth leader Thurston Moore has built his career on the chaotic, consistently pushing the electric guitar's limits. That said, solo album "Trees Outside the Academy" comes as a bit of a surprise. It's a retreat from his band's post-punk fervor and a step toward slightly wistful folk rock. This move, however, is not as abrupt as it would seem. His complete disregard for listeners' wants is what makes "Trees Outside the Academy" the best Sonic Youth-related release since in 1990.

But the most interesting thing about Moore's approach on "Trees" is not the shift toward folk. It is the way he uses his typical alternate tunings and instrumental innovation to enhance the songs. On opener "Frozen Gtr," Moore makes a poppy melody sound menacing by matching distorted electric guitar lines with a clean rhythm, culminating in a blisteringly morose solo by Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis. On the enthusiastic "Fri/End," Moore uses a galloping drumbeat and strings to complement the vocal and guitar lines, and the combination is perfect for Moore's sentimental lyrics. "Trees" slips slightly on a couple of incongruous noise tracks, but it's not enough to derail its charm. Moore pulls off his folk record with incredible success, proving that despite the allure of chaos, it's OK to slow down sometimes.
- Alex Dorf

Holy crap, I haven't seen a single review that is under 4/5. I cannot fucking wait. Two days, eh eh!?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/ar...ts&oref=slogin

THURSTON MOORE
“Trees Outside the Academy”
(Ecstatic Peace)
At this point you might expect a new solo record by Thurston Moore to be a hard-hat research project: free improvisation, overdriven and dissonant blots of sound. He’s made a few of these over the last dozen years and performed as an improvising guitarist with an atlas of musicians, from Cecil Taylor to Yoko Ono. Looking at his list of collaborations is how you trace the arc of his record collection, his friendships and ultimately his down-time calendar between tours with Sonic Youth.
But “Trees Outside the Academy” is an album of songs, mellowly sung by Mr. Moore, sometimes harmonizing with Christina Carter, from the band Charalambides. His droning riffs, played mostly on acoustic guitar, make the songs mellowed-out cousins to Sonic Youth’s; Steve Shelley, also of Sonic Youth, is the drummer, and the violinist Samara Lubelski plays counterlines to the melodies. It’s all very organized, almost bucolic; there are only a few blasts of noise.
Its other collaborators include Mr. Moore’s old and new friends, from two different generations of experimental music and indie-rock; they include the young electronics improviser Leslie Keffer, who creates something that sounds like a hailstorm of glass, surging and then receding in Mr. Moore’s pleasant song “Off Work,” and the guitarist J Mascis of the 80’s band Dinosaur Jr., plugging in to play a few anachronistic rock-god solos. But you need no prior knowledge of any of them, because “Trees Outside the Academy” isn’t an insular record. It’s easy and open, almost transparent.
BEN RATLIFF

Can't wait.

The thing that surpises me about these reviews is that only two of them have mentioned Honest James, which, to me, is probably the most beautiful track on the album.

Horses for courses, I suppose...

cant believe there are some people on the forum who havent heard the album yet.
i tought i was the only one :D

What the hell? I thought it came out today?!?!? I went to the record store and he said nothing comes out on mondays... ERUERHGDF

i sware, i fucking bought the album today in ocean city. ITS FUCKIN TIGHT.

i

i sware, i just bought the fucking album today in ocean city! ITS FUCKIN TIGHT. i didnt even realize that it came out the 18th
(today is the 17th)

where is ocean city is there a music store that would sell that?, the last one i knew from there was music emporium in fenwick island and they closed 5 years

There's another review in the October issue of Uncut about Trees Outside the Academy.

There's also an extra "Uncut's 50 best gigs", where Thurston describes a gig he saw of The Clash at the Palladium in NYC, 1979 (not sure of the exact date). Interesting read.

[Dutch]
MOORE, THURSTON

Trees Outside The Academy (ECSTATIC PEACE!/KONKURRENT)

Een beroemdere Thurston dan de 49-jarige gitarist/zanger van Sonic Youth bestaat er natuurlijk niet, dus hij mag het: alleen zijn voornaam op de promo-editie van Trees Outside The Academy zetten. Los van alle improvisatie-samenwerkingsprojecten op de vluchtstrook van zijn SY-carrière is dit Moore’s eerste soloalbum sinds Psychic Hearts uit 1995. Die plaat had geen eeuwigheidswaarde en ook deze nieuwe zal, hoe fraai bij vlagen ook, in december vermoedelijk geen eindlijstjes bevolken.

Daarvoor vormen de semi-akoestische liedjes te vaak een dun doorslagje van bestaand SY-materiaal, zijn de instrumentaaltjes te vrijblijvend en is er toch weer teveel onbeduidende geluidsflauwekul (we noemen het valse-piano-tussendoortje American Coffin, de korte atmosferische storing Free Noise Among Friends en de opgeduikelde cassette-opnames van een dertienjarige Moore in Thurston@13). Nee, hij moet het hier vooral hebben van z’n muzikale secondanten. De viool van Samara Lubelski zorgt overal voor warmte, SY-drummer Steve Shelley begeleidt zoals alleen hij dat kan – gedienstig maar stuwend – en de incidentele gitaarsolo’s van Dinosaur Jr-voorman J Mascis (in wiens huisstudio de plaat werd opgenomen) zijn weldadig. En natuurlijk rolt hier en daar een pareltje uit Moore’s mouw, hij is niet voor niets de belangrijkste songschrijver in de belangrijkste noiserockband die Amerika ooit voortbracht. Met name Frozen Gtr, The Shape Is In A Trance (beide opmerkelijk dEUS-achtig, ‘t zal aan de viool liggen) en de ergens tussen Sonic Youth-light en Pavement inhangende songs Silver>Blue, Fri/end en Wonderful Witches laten horen dat het geen slecht idee zou zijn om ooit nog eens een hele cd met dit soort kleinoden te vullen. ERIK VAN DEN BERG
[/Dutch]

got mine today.
favourite track so far: Thurston@13

really digging the miscellaneous Thurston pics in the booklet as well

ocean city is in maryland. and it was wierd, it was the only one in the whole store