Guitars – can’t live with ‘em, can’t stick a screwdriver up their arse and make ‘em sound like a Van Der Graaf Generator album played at half-speed over some nice Belgian reverse garage. Unless, that is, you happen to be Thurston Moore, axe-man with legendary US innovators Sonic Youth, who continue to release superb records nearly 30 years after first sending shockwaves through the New York underground.
The ‘Youth are currently playing a few European festival dates in support of Sonic Nurse, a typically magnificent collection of exhilaratingly abrasive guitar freak-outs and gorgeously atmospheric soundscapes released to strong reviews last year (including a rave from yours truly in this very publication).
The good news for fellow Youth fanatics is that the band are planning to include a liberal sprinkling of older material in their upcoming Marlay Park show with the Chemical Brothers.
Having already written the score for Richard Linklater’s superlative 1998 movie Suburbia, recent activities for Sonic Youth have included contributing music to Asia Argento’s adaptation of JT Leroy’s The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and a role for Moore as a consultant on Last Days, Gus Van Sant’s experimental riff on the final few days of Kurt Cobain’s life.
“My job on Last Days was really to spend time with Michael Pitt, who plays this Kurt-like character, and try and give him a sense what Kurt was actually like,” explains Moore. “ And my impression of Kurt was someone who was quiet, a little shy, but very sweet and also someone who was capable of being extremely funny.”
Had this been a standard Hollywood biopic, he would have passed. But, as Van Sant actually knew Cobain, Moore felt the project was in safe hands. “It’s a very interesting movie actually; quiet, atmospheric, kind of meditative.”
Sonic Youth were attracted to The Heart Is Deceitful as fans of the JT Leroy novel upon which it is based. “It’s a great book, so we said yes. Meeting JT Leroy for the first time was pretty intriguing. He was half in drag, a strange mixture of flamboyance and reticence. But very sweet and generous, and, you know, a fascinating guy to talk to.”
On the subject of literary connections, Moore also met the legendary William Burroughs on a few occasions before the author’s death in 1997.
“ I used to go see him do readings in CBGB’s back in the ‘70s, when I first came to New York,” recalls Moore. “He’d do some stuff from The Soft Machine and so on, and it was always incredible to watch. I remember around the time the Sex Pistols were public enemy number one in Britain for ‘God Save The Queen’, he heard about it, and he came onstage one night just raving about the fact these guys in the UK were pissing off the authorities so much. And he said, ‘I’ve written a song to mark the occasion. It’s called ‘God Bugger The Queen’. One time I went to his house with Michael Stipe when we were touring with REM, and that was a fantastic evening. I miss him.”
Having already turned Sofia Coppola onto the estimable talents of Jeffrey Eugenides (the guitarist originally gave Coppola a copy of The Virgin Suicides, which the director went on to make into a movie), Moore was highly impressed with Kevin Shields’ score for Coppola’s Oscar-winning Lost In Translation.
“Oh, that was fantastic,” he enthuses. “I actually see Kevin quite a bit here in New Hampshire. He and J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) are friends, and Kevin comes to visit from time to time.
Sonic Youth are huge fans of Shields' work with My Bloody Valentine, believing Loveless to be a ‘90s classic. “You’re talking top five guitar records-ever kind of territory.”
And so we come to the million euro question: is Thurston Moore a fan of the Chemical Brothers?
“The Chemical Brothers…the Chemical Brothers….well, let me see,” he responds, thinking hard. “Oh yeah, they’re the two dudes behind the banks of keyboards and stuff, right? Dig Your Own Hole and all that stuff. Yeah, I’ve seen them at a few festivals. They’re really good.”
Might we have to wait a little bit longer for the ‘Youth to introduce dance beats to their records?
“Well, we do make dance records,” says Thurston. “It’s just that the steps are a little different.”