For this show, he’s leading a trio with exemplary avant garde percussionists William Winant and Tom Surgal. It’s an extension of his long-running practice of free-ranging experimentation, which is in constant dialogue with his more approachable songwriting. His career is too much to sum up in a single newsletter, but here are few fringe-ish moments of pure Thurston in advance of the show.

1991: The Year Punk Broke

For a generation of elder millennials raised on video rentals, grunge and the then-recently christened “alternative rock,” Dave Markey’s feverish, lo-fi tour film 1991: The Year Punk Broke was a point of initiation. Documenting a frankly historic run of European shows with Sonic Youth, a pre-celebrity Nirvana, Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr., The Ramones, Babes in Toyland and more, the film centers mainly on SY’s goofball antics and incendiary live shows. To discover it was to get a peek at something far beyond the vague disaffection promised by post-grunge industry plants on the radio.

But it’s also a kinda baffling watch. In between life-changing performances, Moore & co are clearly suffering from the delirium that inevitably accompanies life on the road. We’ve linked to a clip of a crew member named Keith describing “Thurstonidis,” where “you walk around in a dazed state… your bangs in your eyes, and you go deaf,” while Markey intercuts footage of a loopy Moore meandering through a European city center in search of a record store. The whole movie is on Youtube. If you haven’t seen it, stop whatever you’re doing right now and put it on. It’s funny, revealing, weird to a fault and electrifying.

Thurston interviews Beck on MTV

In 1994, Moore interviewed Beck on MTV’s 120 Minutes following the release of his breakout single “Loser.” Moore & Sonic Youth existed in a fascinating dance with the mainstream rock apparatus. They were on a major label - David Geffen Records - but maintained strict creative control. They shot countless music videos, toured relentlessly and generally sought as much exposure as was possible, while making generally oblique and confrontational music, always delivered with layers of reference, innuendo and their carefully-crafted sense of hazy remove. This resulted in a fascinating dynamic tension, which is perfectly encapsulated in this clip.

Here, on national cable TV, Moore and Beck fool around with pranksterish glee. Nothing could be less serious, and the whole interaction drips with calculated irony; listen to the way Moore sarcastically intones “smash hit,” as if mocking a record executive. Beck is all too happy to play along, likening his success to “surfing in some oil spillage.” They are thoroughly, as the British say, taking the piss, but it’s also a revealing watch with a few decades of distance and hindsight. Because, you know, they were both courting success. Having found it, they then act like it’s the lamest thing in the world. Perhaps it’s an adolescent take, but it’s charming too, and a reminder of how unkempt and odd people could be on camera before we all had photo and video technology in our pockets at all times. Honestly, imagine watching this as a 15-year-old at the time. If nothing else, it would have prompted such a wave of confusion and fascination… It might have cracked you wide open.

The SYR Series

In addition to their primary studio albums, in the mid ‘90s Sonic Youth founded their own SYR label and began issuing a series of releases documenting their improv sessions and freeform collaborations. The group was prone to jammy interludes live, and these elegantly-packed LPs are an excellent resource for anyone who left their shows wanting a lot more of whatever that was. Some moments, like the 2:55 of “Improvisation Ajoutee” on SYR1 feel like sketchpads for half-remembered Sonic Youth songs. Elsewhere, a live set with Merzbow and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson sees the group riding waves of full-on free jazz noise. The unifying ingredient is Moore and bandmate Lee Ranaldo’s exquisitely clanging guitars, which seem to emanate from the dreamlike depths of New York’s teeming, creative and consuming cauldron.

Psychic Hearts

Psychic Hearts is the 1995 solo debut from Moore, and it sounds like a Sonic Youth record mixed with the jaunty psychedelia of Britain’s underground prog scene of the early ‘70s. It’s intriguing that these songs didn’t make it to a proper Sonic Youth album; many of them are great. The title track in particular would feel right at home in that year’s landmark Washing Machine. But, whatever. The group was in a majorly fertile period, with each member working on side projects in addition to their primary concern, and Psychic Hearts fits right in with the deluge of material they were collectively springing forth.  “My prayer to you,” Moore sings, “Is that you do all the things you set out to do.” They were doing it.

“Piece for Jetsun Dolma (Part I)”
In 1996, Moore, Winant and Surgal released the live recording Piece for Jetsun Dolma. A tense and skronky session performed for an ecstatic audience, the record is one of Moore’s best pure-freak-out moments. Winant is a consummate musician, with a heavy list of modern composition credits to his name. He’s an esteemed performer of Lou Harrison’s works and has worked with Luc Ferrari, Fred Frith and many more. Surgal, meanwhile is an avant-jazz force, performing with Arthur Doyle in his quartet as well as in Blue Humans with Doyle and Alan Licht. It’s a rare moment where Moore is nearly overtaken by the power of his collaborators, but he holds the center, ripping unhinged anti-rock gestures and issuing howls of feedback amidst a masterful percussive frenzy.

The full lineup mirrors the scope and unerring commitment to radical possibility of Moore’s half-century of output. We are proud to present him at the first Outline of the year.