the hum / By Bob Doran

alt. something

Thurston Moore gets ecstatic, plus Ghouls Gone Wild and other All Hallows happening

(Oct. 25, 2007)  Who is Thurston Moore ? As they put it semi-succinctly on the Ecstatic Peace! promo for his latest album, “Thurston Moore [above], for those of you just visiting planet Earth, has been playing music and liberating whatever ossifying standards rock ’n’ roll becomes threatened by since the late ’70s when he walked the downtown jungle of punk/post-punk/no wave NYC and started the band Sonic Youth. Ever since he and the band have consistently stayed true to the authenticity and creativity of radical rock ’n’ roll idealism.”

(For the uninitiated, we’ll point out that post-punk is just what it sounds like, while “no wave” is the polar opposite of new wave, the music you hear at those ubiquitous ’80s Night record parties.)

GALLERY >

Moore joined forces with guitarist Lee Renaldo early on. They both played with avant-garde composer Glenn Branca, whose drone symphonies with multiple guitars in unusual tunings are often cited as influential on the Sonic sound.

Branca’s influence and Moore’s creative/authentic ethic often spill over into side and solo projects. They are in also evidence in the work by a wild collection of artists released on Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label, among them MV & EE, The Magik Markers and Mouthus, all bands that have played locally this year alongside Humboldt’s droning Starving Weirdos. The February show with MV & EE and the Weirdos also included Charalambides, a husband and wife duo with Tom and Christina Carter . I mention this because Christina shows up singing harmony on Thurston’s latest album, Trees Outside The Academy , and she’s half of yet another E. Peace! duo, Scorces , with Heather Leigh Murray (another Charalambides associate). Scorces is the opening act for Moore’s show Friday, Oct. 26, at The Depot (downstairs in the University Center).

All of the bands/musicians above, the ever youthful Moore included, are operating outside the mainstream crafting idiosyncratic music that defies easy categorization. Let’s just say it’s alt. something.

It’s hard to say exactly what kind of music Thurston might play Friday, but one can guess he’ll draw material from Trees Outside The Academy, which is just a month old. It may surprise Sonic Youth fans in that it’s not loud, dissonant or shot through with electric guitar feedback. Recorded at the home of J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., it’s a collection of songs in the folk vein (well, alt. folk anyway) with violin ( Samara Lubelski from MV & EE), rather calm drums ( Steve Shelley from S. Youth) and Thurston on acoustic guitars, playing music that comes from a place he describes as “the new weird America.” Expect a touring outfit that includes Shelley and Lubelski plus Christopher Brokaw (from Codeine) and bassist Matt Heyner . The record has a screech here and there, but mostly it’s stuff you might describe as nice , not a word you typically ascribe to the Youth — and no, that’s not a bad thing.

Halloween proper doesn’t come until next Wednesday, but the costumed madness in the clubs and various Halloweeny events start early. There’s some sort of list in the calendar, but it seems de rigueu r to offer some of the highlights here too.

Sweet Melody Walker called to say, “ TheLuscious Ladies are doing a Halloween show at Muddy’s next Saturday (Oct. 27). We’re calling it ‘ Ghouls Gone Wild .’ It’ll be a costume party cabaret ball thing. Halloween repertoire. Of course we ladies will be in crazy sexy costumes; we’re encouraging the rest of the crowd to do so as well. We’ll have a contest with various categories with awesome prizes. We’ll have apple bobbing with organic apples from the Farmers’ Market, and we’ll have tricks and treats for all the ghouls and boy-eez. It’s going to be so spectacular.” I’m so glad she didn’t use the word spooktacular .

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE >SHARE