Given that his new LP, out on Friday is called By The Fire, it made perfect sense for the Guardian to mark the occasion by arranging the modern-day equivalent of a fireside chat with Thurston Moore.
In response to fans' questions, he spoke about his love of live music and records as physical artefacts, and waxed characteristically lyrical about everyone from The Wipers and The Fall to Patti Smith and Jimi Hendrix, and everything from black metal to disco. (Incidentally, his comments on the latter connect neatly to the chapter on no wave in Simon Reynolds' superlative Rip It Up And Start Again, which describes punk's entrenched antipathy towards disco and consequently James Chance's eager embrace of it.)
There was a revelation, too: "I've also been writing a book, about music, and my own personal experience with it, and trying to talk about my discovering and inspirations and intrigues with being a musician and starting Sonic Youth in 1980. So I've been writing that, and I hope to publish it on the other side of the quarantine age. It's titled Sonic Life." They say "Write about what you know", and Moore certainly knows about music. He might have admitted to listening to fewer records these days, but his enthusiasm evidently remains undiminished.
That said, his claim that Venom were from Nottingham did hint that his musical knowledge, while encyclopaedic, does have its limits. Has he never heard Beastie Boys' 'Dedication'?
(Thanks to Kev for the link.)
No comments:
Post a Comment