Thurston Moore

Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) 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 born July 25, 1958, at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Florida, to George E. Moore, a professor of music, and Eleanor Nann Moore.

In 1967, he and his family (including brother Frederick Eugene Moore, born 1953, and sister Susan Dorothy Moore, born 1956) moved to Bethel, Connecticut.

Moore invited Ranaldo, who he had known when The Coachmen shared a CBGB stage with Ranaldo's 1970s band The Flux, to join the band.

The new trio played three songs at the festival later in the week without a drummer.

Each band member took turns playing the drums, until they met drummer Richard Edson.

The band signed to Neutral Records, then to Homestead Records, and then to SST Records.

Moore and Ranaldo make extensive use of unusual guitar tunings, often heavily modifying their instruments to provide unusual timbres and drones.

They are known for bringing upwards of fifty guitars to every gig, using some guitars for one song only.

Raised Catholic, he attended St. Joseph's School in Danbury, CT followed by St. Mary's School in Bethel and attended Bethel High School from 1973 to 1976.

He enrolled at Western Connecticut State University in fall 1976, but left after one quarter and moved to East 13th Street between Aves A and B in New York City to join the burgeoning post-punk and no wave music scenes.

It was there that he was able to watch shows by the likes of Patti Smith and spoken-word performances by William S. Burroughs.

At that time, the arrival of new groups changed his view on music and all of his records "got kind of put into the basement. And they were supplanted by [...] the Sex Pistols and Blondie and Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was a completely new world, a new identity of music that was an option for youth culture."

In 1980 he moved in with Kim Gordon to an apartment at 84 Eldridge St. below artist Dan Graham, eventually befriending him, sometimes using records from Graham's collection for mix tapes.

Once in the city, Moore was briefly a member of the hardcore punk band Even Worse, featuring future The Big Takeover editor (and future Springhouse drummer) Jack Rabid.

After exiting the band, Moore and Lee Ranaldo learned experimental guitar techniques in Glenn Branca's "guitar orchestras".

Moore has spoken about influences on his music tastes at this time, including British bands Wire, the Pop Group, the Raincoats, the Slits, and Public Image Ltd ("I used to have these fantasies in the 70s about leaving New York and coming to London to hang out with Public Image").

Moore met Kim Gordon in 1980 at the final gig of The Coachmen, the band he was in with J.D. King, Daniel Walworth (replaced by Dave Keay), and Bob Pullin.

Moore, with Gordon, Anne Demarinis and Dave Keay formed a band, appearing under names like Male Bonding, Red Milk, and the Arcadians, before settling on Moore's choice of Sonic Youth just before June 1981.

The band played Noise Fest in June 1981 at New York's White Columns gallery, where Lee Ranaldo was playing as a member of Glenn Branca's electric guitar ensemble as well as in duo with David Linton as Avoidance Behavior.

Moore was a member of the earliest incarnations of Swans in 1982 and '83, playing bass guitar.

In the early 1990s, Moore formed the side band Dim Stars, with Richard Hell, Don Fleming, Steve Shelley with a guest appearance by Robert Quine.

Moore performed solo on the side stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza tour.

Additionally, Moore also contributed guitar work and backing vocals on "Crush with Eyeliner", which appeared on R.E.M.'s Monster.

Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Moore and Ranaldo the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Thurston Moore has explained the band's decision to sign with DGC Records at a time when many were fiercely dedicated to independent record labels like SST, Dischord and Sub Pop:

"'We noticed Hüsker Dü's music hadn't changed when they signed to Warner. On the independent labels we dealt with, SST Records, Blast First Records and Neutral Records, if there was accounting, it was always somewhat suspect. With Geffen, we would get an advance that would allow us to be able to pay our rents, get health insurance, have a slightly better lifestyle, and maybe, just maybe, not have to work day jobs. We felt like we could negotiate a contract that would make sense.'"

When Steve Albini accused corporate labels of ripping off artists, Moore wrote in response that a band "getting butt fucked by corporate labels [must] be really stupid".

He defended the band's decision to sign with DGC Records explaining that they knew what they were getting into and viewed it more as "buying in" than "selling out".

In 2011, Moore and his wife, Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon, separated; shortly afterward, Sonic Youth went on indefinite hiatus.

Though his marriage was ending Moore never claimed that Sonic Youth was finished.

In addition to his work with Sonic Youth, Moore has also released albums as a solo artist.

He and Gordon released a few songs as Mirror/Dash.

Moore established Protest Records as an online gesture of activism but the project has since lapsed.

Moore has collaborated with scores of musicians, including Maryanne Amacher, Lydia Lunch, Don Dietrich and Jim Sauter of Borbetomagus, DJ Spooky, William Hooker, Daniel Carter, Christian Marclay, Mike Watt, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Dredd Foole, William Winant, The Thing, Nels Cline, Cock E.S.P., John Moloney, Glenn Branca, Yamantaka Eye, Beck, My Cat is an Alien, John Russell, Steve Noble, John Edwards, Haino Keiji, John Zorn, Yoko Ono, Takehisa Kosugi, and others.

In 2012, Moore started a new band Chelsea Light Moving, whose eponymous debut was released on March 5, 2013.

In 2015, Chelsea Light Moving disbanded after one studio album release.

Moore and the other members of the band continue to make music under his solo project and other bands.