Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Thurston MooreEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-09-18
Music Label: Ecstatic Peace
Soundtracks:
- Frozen Gtr
- The Shape Is in a Trance
- Honest James
- Silver>Blue
- Fri/End
- American Coffin
- Wonderful Witches + Language Meanies
- Off Work
- Never Day
- Free Noise Among Friends
- Trees Outside the Academy
- Thurston @13
Free Music Notes for Trees Outside the Academy
Free Music Review: Academy Fight Songs
Hit: 5 Stars
("Trees Outside the Academy" by Thurston Moore)
Although Sonic Youth's eternally mopheaded guitar hero has been involved in numerous solo and collaborative projects since his last "major" solo effort, 1995's Psychic Hearts, much of that output hasn't been easy to come by, and usually involving torrents of free guitar noise. This is what some casual listeners would expect, but even many fans would be surprised by Thurston's latest effort, "Trees Outside the Academy," which is anchored by torrents of tightly composed acoustic guitar playing, often resulting in some of the most lovely songs he's ever composed.
Working from longtime friend J. Mascis' (of Dinosaur Jr.) home studio, and featuring a small group of collaborators including Mascis, SY's Steve Shelley on drums and violinist/solo artist Samara Lubelski, this certainly isn't the Thurston solo effort fans would hope for, but it's the one we get, and we should love it as such. "Psychic Hearts" was a spotty effort, featuring one of Thurston's best ever songs (the title track), and a lot of half baked efforts that grew out of the kind of songs the mothership band were doing at the time. The new album, therefore, will appeal to fans of recent SY albums such as Rather Ripped: that is, song-based rather than jammy, with strong melodies. Here Thurston is mainly playing acoustic guitar, but the songwriting is still clearly his, right down to the time changes. On a number of songs, J. Mascis does step in with his usual fiery electric guitar playing, so noise hasn't been abandoned altogether. There are moments here as bracing as anything in SY's cataologue, but they're balanced against moments of equal beauty and delicacy. The instrumental "Off Work" is case in point--Thurston plays the melody lines on acoustic, Mascis plays noisy counterpoint on electric, while Lubelski's violin adds in plenty of color. Much of the rest of the album, in particular the soft, straightforward "Never Day," establish Thurston as a singer-songwriter trapped in an indie rocker's body. This is again balanced with occasional outbursts of white noise, such as the 37-second "Free Noise Among Friends," and the closing instrumental of the title track, which uses the full band dynamic to build into a compressed (despite a 6 minute running time) head of steam. It should also be noted that Shelley's drumming on the album differs a bit from his SY work--an often motorik method cleary taken from so-called Krautrock bands like Can. The end result of the album is thrilling--even if one were to ignore Moore's long resume, this would still be one of the best of the year.
The closer, allegedly "hidden" track, "Thurston @ 13," is an old tape recovered from his parent's house featuring a young Thurston (though his voice had obviously changed by this point) playing around with various sounds--"What you are about to hear is me dropping a quarter on the table...there." What should be a somewhat embarrassing bit of juvenalia is, in the context of the album and Thurston's career in general, a curious and playful sxploration of sound itself. "Trees,,," shows him at the current summit of his exploring, and proves that he's far from finished yet.
Trees Outside the Academy Poster
2007 album from the Sonic Youth mainman. It?s Thurston?s first solo outing since 1995?s Psychic Hearts. Of course, Thurston?s been releasing records here, there and everywhere mostly in the context of rowdy and rambunctious noise/improv escapades but this new one is killer diller songs! Unlike Psychic Hearts? skeletal trio rock, this new jammer, 12 years post, has a far fuller bouquet of sonic depth and proves this Sonic dude to have a very real songwriting life outside of the legendary Sonic Youth. This newborn disc is 12 songs long. Thurston recorded primarily on acoustic guitar and bass, laying down the core of the tunes with drummer compatriot Sonic Youth?s Steve Shelly and violinist Samara Lubelski, a noted player from MV/EE and The Golden Road, Hall of Fame and other awesome gatherings as well as solo artiste.For the most part, Thurston Moore's first solo endeavor since 1995's Psychic Hearts will allow the noise police to stay away. The Sonic Youth ringleader goes at it acoustically, far from his customary cacophonic experimentation, forming a venturesome trio with the Fleeting Skies' Samara Lubelski (violin) and SY's Steve Shelly (drums) and giving his lyrical verve the latitude it deserves. There's a euphonious, near pop-like palpability to tracks like "Frozen Guitar," "Fri/end," and "Honest James," the latter spurred on by the vocals of Christina Carter (The Charalambides) and a guitar intro pawned from the Byrds' "Feel a Whole Lot Better." The isolation of the quieter songs allows Moore's voice to flicker on lines such as "The pearl meets light/And the light gets lost" in the numbing "Silver Blue," or in "The Shape Is in a Trance," where he reveals "I'm not the one they called/But I showed up anyway." So did Dinosaur Jr's J. Mascis, whose notorious guitar heightens the volume on matching instrumentals: the daunting "American Coffin" and the six-minute title song, which ends bluntly before a final hidden track featuring a 13-year-old Moore making inordinate sounds with scissors, coins, and an aerosol can. --Scott Holter
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