Thurston Moore
By: Thomas Hannan
Touring this week:
The Scala, London - 6/12/07
Tickets: £15.00 face value, available HERE.
Why is this worthy of my time and money?: As part of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore has been one of the most important songwriters, guitar players and noiseniks of the past quarter of a century. Yet occasionally (well, twice in the space of 25 years as a member of SY), he also releases pretty gosh-darn great solo LPs too. The first of those, 1995's Psychic Hearts is a real treat for anyone au fait with his main employer's back catalogue, twisted pop and screwy noise combining in a record that, sonically if not chronologically, sits somewhere between Washing Machine and Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. The second of his records to be recorded on his lonesome comes in the shape of this year's Trees Outside the Academy, heralded as a startling effort not because of its achieving new levels of deafening squall, but in fact quite the opposite - rather a large portion of Trees... has Thurston at an acoustic guitar. This one off gig might just see you serenaded sweetly by a man who's only previously ever threatened to assault your eardrums, but we'd wager that there'll also be quite a few brilliant periods whereby Thurston's bent double on the floor, smacking a drumstick against his Fender Jazzmaster, summoning demos, looking like the happiest man on Earth.