Stereogum Q&A: Thurston Moore
 

http://stereogum.com/archives/interv...re_062531.html

Stereogum Q&A: Thurston Moore

 

Tomorrow night (4/7) at 11PM, we offer a new installment of our ongoing Tuesday series Sessions at Santa's with Spencer Sweeney. This one's curated by Thurston Moore, who'll hop on the stage with cellist Okkyung Lee and downtown legend/DNA drummer Ikue Mori for what should be an intense performance. Load-affiliated crews Fat Worm Of Error and Noise Nomads are each doing a set as well. The Sonic Youth vocalist/guitarist clearly doesn't need an introduction, but we thought what he planned to do tomorrow night might, so we dropped him a line and, while in conversation, snuck in a question about The Eternal, Sonic Youth's upcoming No Fun festival appearance, and their Twitter.
STEREOGUM: When you were approached for the show at Santos, how'd you decide who to choose for your night? It could've obviously gone in a bunch of different directions. ([New York black metal trio] Malkuth would be fun in that bleak basement space, for instance....)
THURSTON MOORE: Yeah Malkuth would rule, they always do -- I decided by impulse -- I thought it would be cool to bring down the wild cats from western Massachusetts noise/outsider scene. First and foremost Noise Nomads which is basically one dude who plugs his shit in and takes it wherever it takes him -- it's as black metal as Malkuth but way more tweaked. Fat Worm Of Error have been killing in our valley for years, ex-members of Caroliner Rainbow and more local freaks -- a totally weird and off-the-map band -- who have progressed into a great live thing. And then me -- I wanted to do Northampton Wools which is me and Bill Nace playing prepared electric guitars through shitty amps, but he's going to be on tour with Daniel Higgs -- so I figured I would reach into NYC my real 1st home and ask a couple of people I totally love playing with: Okkyung Lee and Ikue Mori.
STEREOGUM: What can we expect from your set? Improvisational piece? How'd you decide on the pairing?
THURSTON MOORE: I put an Okkyung Lee LP out on Ecstatic Peace. I saw her early on when she started playing improvised music in NYC and was always enchanted -- we played together years ago way uptown at some show Dave Nuss (No Neck Blues Band) put on and it was heavy and I had her join the Dream-Aktion unit, which is a large ensemble I organize once in a great while, to play one of the Voctoriaville Festival years. She's academically trained and a formidable musician, and I like hearing someone like that investigate pure and free spontaneous composition focusing on action and energy. Ikue I've know since the '80s and I was always a great admirer of hers back to the '70s when she was drumming with DNA. I did a trio with her and Jim O'Rourke years ago in Austin, TX which I always wanted to revisit which is difficult since Jim O shunted off to Tokyo, the land where Ikue is from (!) --- But I always have Ikue on my mind when figuring a gig of improvised music., so yes it will be completely improvised. Maybe.
STEREOGUM: Any interplay between the three sets?
TM: No.
STEREOGUM: While I'm asking questions: How's it feel to be off Geffen/DGC and on Matador? The Eternal's out soon.
TM: I think the Matador record shows us in an excited and newly liberated state of play.
STEREOGUM: No Fun is coming up as well. Will you be playing material from the new album at that? Doing a noisier set?
TM: We're going to compose something distinct for No Fun -- it will be fucking insane...
STEREOGUM: Finally, who in Sonic Youth's the most active Tweeter?
TM: Lee and Steve tweet the hardest -- I live a secret life with many dark and magic walls of love and desire.
////
Remember, The Eternal is out 6/9 via Matador. Moore's not shitting you -- they do sound reinvigorated (and keep in mind, Rather Ripped was no slouch, just less noisy). As far as tomorrow, tickets are $10, with a $5 reduction if you RSVP. It's 21+, so bring your ID. You can grab tickets in advance at Ticketweb.
[Thurston photo by Michael Schmelling]

i saw a Fat Worm Of Error vid on youtube. i don't know what catergory of any i'd put them under

Mmmm! secret life with dark and magic walls of love and desire? what kind of fetish is that??

Ha ha, I remember buying a Fat Worm of Error album (actually I think they only have that one) on a lark when the local Tower Records was bailing. Spastic free-rock of the avant-mess variety. Unfortunately I found nothing hidden within and got rid of it. I could imagine it being fun to see them live, though.

Yeah, I never thought to get the album because it just seemed like the kind of thing you better appreciate live.

TM: We're going to compose something distinct for No Fun -- it will be fucking insane...

Yes.

thanks!

Fat Worm of Error remind me of Blowhole. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that style of spastic/neo-Minutemen rock tonight.

Thurston Moore trio was very interesting. Kind of Pillow Wand-y. Kind of SYR 5-y. Plus insane cello courtesy of Okkyung Lee.

Noise Nomads were terrific, too. Primitive. Avant. Yeah.

Fat Worm of Error is AMAZING! Even the Bromp Trem (the drummer from Fat Worm)'s solo records are great. Noise Nomads are also fairly sick (though not as much as the band he plays in Greyskull, probably the best no fi caveman punk noise band in the northeast right now).

anyone here going to the saturday and sunday dates of no fun. im going with my brother and were gonna be looking for places to party before and after.

thuston's the coolest.

let's see. who's cooler: thurston or president obama?

there's a name you don't hear too often.

Just curious what time this all ended - with doors@11pm it seemed like it wouldn't even start until until midnight...

oh and Thurston, Malkuth suck.

Obama's not cool.

I saw Fat Worm of Error live at an art museum/venue a few years ago. Pretty fun.

this ended at 2 AM. Doors opened a little bit past 11 and I think Noise Nomads went on around midnight.

Noise Nomads, in the beginning he kept on dropping his sticks and they would go flying in front of him, so the people who were standing there would try to hand him the sticks back, but I think he just didn't like those sticks or what was going on, because he just kept on playing, he had like a dozen sticks with him. Found that pretty funny.

Fat Worm of Error was also pretty funny, before the show started the drummer went out in the audience and started to dance around. I've seen them before and I guess they are allright, although quite a few people went to other areas of the space when they were on, so it was sort of mixed reaction.

And thurston, yeah, Okkyung Lee seen her few times before and she's fucking fantastic. The set she played with Giffoni earlier this year was probably one of my favorite pieces of music I heard this year.

Btw- Joly Punkcast was there, so keep an eye out for his stuff, he taped everything.

earlier than I expected but still too late on a school night for this old guy.

Okkyung Lee performs in a trio Friday at the Stone and leads an interesting group June 19 at Roulette. After seeing her play in Elliott Sharp's Acoustic Allstring Syndakit last week (I kept hearing really cool bits and my ears kept locating them as comign from her cello!), I was so impressed I picked up the EP lp at the new Downtown Music Gallery location Sunday. Its an interesting, challenging listen.

The new DMG is bigger than before but threw me off as its now in a basement and you have to be buzzed in. Its in a really fantastic section of Manhattan, other than all the signs in Chinese probably looks about the same as it did 125 years ago.

thurston thinks he so cool with his noise, and his fat worm of error and black metal and tall & white status

Obama has a creepy smile.

thurston could school Barack on obscure, barely-necessary ephemera and "poetry" zines, but barack could make Thurston his bitch when it comes to constitutional law.

who has stronger feelings for the usa? president obama studied the country's law and served as senator and community organizer and now in the nation's "highest" office. thurston has got high. he also organizd the community...around sonic youth. tough call? or obvious blowout?