Sonic Life: a Memoir

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Sonic Life: A Memoir
Author Thurston Moore
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Autobiography
Publisher Faber & Faber
Publication date
October 23, 2023 [1]
Pages468
ISBN 978-0-571-37394-9

Sonic Life: A Memoir is a 2023 autobiography by former Sonic Youth guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Thurston Moore. [2] [3]

Contents

Publication

Sonic Life was first published in the UK by Faber & Faber on October 23, 2023. [1] It was published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House. The title is derived from a tattoo the author got to celebrate his marriage to his first wife and then-bandmate, Kim Gordon. [4]

Content

Sonic Life is an account of Moore's life up to the break up of Sonic Youth, focusing largely on his experiences of the punk and alternative rock scene in the 1970s and 1980s. [5] It contains accounts of Moore's own musical development, which began with hearing The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" aged five years old, [6] and of his relationships with other major acts of the period, including Glenn Branca, [6] Patti Smith, [7] and Nirvana. [8] The book also discusses the formation of Moore's most famous band, Sonic Youth, and their progress from no-wave outsiders to pillar of alternative music. [7]

Reception

The memoir received generally favourable reviews. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted that the book focuses on a "nerd's eye view" of the American music underground in lieu of "personal confession", [6] a theme also picked up in a more critical review by Pitchfork. [7] In a five-star review for Louder Sound, Paul Brannigan described the memoir as "an absolute joy" praising it as a "fascinating documentation of the genesis and growth of America's alternative rock scene, by one of its key players". [8]

Related Research Articles

No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene which emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and roll clichés, no wave musicians instead experimented with noise, dissonance, and atonality, as well as non-rock genres like free jazz, funk, and disco. The scene often reflected an abrasive, confrontational, and nihilistic world view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonic Youth</span> American rock band (1981–2011)

Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City and formed in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was also a member of the band from 1999 to 2005, and Mark Ibold was a member from 2006 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thurston Moore</span> American guitarist (born 1958)

Thurston Joseph Moore is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Gordon</span> American musician and artist (born 1953)

Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City to begin an art career. There, she formed Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981. She and Moore married in 1984, and the band released a total of six albums on independent labels before the end of the 1980s. They would subsequently release nine studio albums on the major label DGC Records, beginning with Goo in 1990. Gordon was also a founding member of the musical project Free Kitten, which she formed with Julia Cafritz in 1993.

<i>Daydream Nation</i> 1988 studio album by Sonic Youth

Daydream Nation is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on October 18, 1988. The band recorded the album between July and August 1988 at Greene St. Recording in New York City, and it was released by Enigma Records as a double album.

<i>Sister</i> (Sonic Youth album) 1987 album by Sonic Youth

Sister is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in June 1987 by SST Records. The album furthered the band's move away from the no wave genre towards more traditional song structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach.

<i>Sonic Youth</i> (EP) 1982 EP by Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is the debut EP by American rock band Sonic Youth. It was recorded between December 1981 and January 1982 and released in March 1982 by Glenn Branca's Neutral label. It is the only recording featuring the early Sonic Youth lineup with Richard Edson on drums. Sonic Youth differs stylistically from the band's later work in its greater incorporation of clean guitars, standard tuning, crisp production and a post-punk style.

<i>Evol</i> (Sonic Youth album) Album by Sonic Youth

EVOL is the third full-length studio album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Released in May 1986, EVOL was Sonic Youth’s first album on SST Records, and also the first album to feature then-new drummer Steve Shelley who had just replaced Bob Bert.

<i>SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century</i> 1999 studio album by Sonic Youth

SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century is an album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It is a double album of versions of pieces by avant-garde composers, performed by Sonic Youth and collaborators.

<i>NYC Ghosts & Flowers</i> 2000 studio album by Sonic Youth

NYC Ghosts & Flowers is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on May 16, 2000 by DGC Records. The highly experimental album is considered to be a reaction to the theft of the band's instruments in July 1999, when several irreplaceable guitars and effects pedals were stolen. NYC Ghosts & Flowers was the first album since Bad Moon Rising in which the band used prepared guitar.

<i>Murray Street</i> (album) 2002 studio album by Sonic Youth

Murray Street is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 25, 2002, by DGC Records. Murray Street is the first album by the band to feature Jim O'Rourke as an official fifth member to bolster the group's sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teen Age Riot</span> 1988 single by Sonic Youth

"Teen Age Riot" is a song by American rock band Sonic Youth, and the first single from their 1988 album, Daydream Nation. It received heavy airplay on modern rock stations and considerably expanded their audience.

<i>The Whitey Album</i> 1988 studio album by Ciccone Youth

The Whitey Album is an album by Ciccone Youth, a side project of Sonic Youth members Steve Shelley, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, featuring contributions from Minutemen/Firehose member Mike Watt and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.

<i>Rather Ripped</i> 2006 studio album by Sonic Youth

Rather Ripped is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 13, 2006, by Geffen Records. It was the band's first album following the departure of multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke, who had joined as a fifth member in 1999. Unlike its immediate predecessors, the album was produced by John Agnello and recorded at Sear Sound in New York City, the same studio where the band's 1994 album, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, was recorded. It also completed Sonic Youth's contract with Geffen, which released the band's previous eight records.

<i>Hits Are for Squares</i> 2008 greatest hits album by Sonic Youth

Hits Are for Squares is the first greatest hits album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 10, 2008, by Starbucks Entertainment. The album features 15 songs spanning Sonic Youth's career since the release of their debut studio album in 1983, Confusion Is Sex. It also includes one new song: "Slow Revolution". The band intended to create a compilation album that appealed to the casual consumer.

<i>Bad Moon Rising</i> (album) Album by Sonic Youth

Bad Moon Rising is the second studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on March 29, 1985, by Blast First and Homestead Records. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, including references to obsession, insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism, and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans.

<i>The Best Day</i> (Thurston Moore album) 2014 studio album by Thurston Moore

The Best Day is the fourth solo studio album by the American alternative rock musician Thurston Moore, released on October 20, 2014 on Matador Records. The album cover is a photograph of Moore's mother, Eleanor Moore, circa 1940 and a photograph of Moore's parents as artwork.

<i>Girl in a Band</i>

Girl in a Band: A Memoir is a 2015 autobiography written by former Sonic Youth bass guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Kim Gordon.

Ecstatic Peace Library is a book publishing imprint founded by Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz to release an exhibition catalogue by photographer Justine Kurland. The name is derived from Ecstatic Peace!,, and an expression found in a passage from Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The company publishes a range of photography and art-related books about the early Norwegian black metal scene, experimental jazz from the 1970s.

<i>By the Fire</i> 2020 studio album by Thurston Moore

By the Fire is the seventh solo album by Thurston Moore.

References

  1. 1 2 "Sonic Life: A Memoir by Thurston Moore". Faber & Faber. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  2. Garner, Dwight (October 23, 2023). "Thurston Moore Revisits His Sonic Youth". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  3. Simpson, Elliott (October 22, 2023). "Sonic Life: A Memoir by Thurston Moore". Louder Than War. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  4. Moore, Thurston (October 23, 2023). Sonic Life: A Memoir. London: Faber & Faber. p. 274. ISBN   978-0-571-37394-9.
  5. O'Hagan, Sean. "Interview: The band, the scene… I put it all in there': Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on his memoir of a rock'n'roll life". The Guardian. The Guardian Media Group. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Petridis, Alexis. "Sonic Life: A Memoir by Thurston Moore review – nerd's eye view". The Guardian. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Hyland, Samuel. "Thurston Moore's Memoir Gets Lost in a Punk Neverland". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
  8. 1 2 Brannigan, Paul. ""The feeling that chaos was about to erupt was palpable": Thurston Moore's memoir Sonic Life is a fascinating insider account of life-changing outsider art, and one music geek's insatiable lust for the loud". Louder. Retrieved November 27, 2023.