Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore is the frontman and guitarist for Sonic Youth.

Early years
Thurston was born Thurston Joseph Moore in Coral Gables, Florida. He was raised in Bethel, Connecticut. Although he enrolled at Western Connecticut State University, he opted to move to New York City instead to join the burgeoning post-punk/no wave music scenes.

Once there, Moore was briefly in the hardcore punk band Even Worse, featuring future The Big Takeover editor (and future Springhouse drummer) Jack Rabid. After exiting the band, Moore and friend Lee Ranaldo learned experimental guitar techniques in Glenn Branca's "guitar orchestras".

Sonic Youth
Moore and Ranaldo soon formed Sonic Youth, serving as the band's guitarists, with Moore on lead vocals. The band signed to Neutral Records, then to Homestead Records, and then to SST Records.

In 1984, Moore married Sonic Youth bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon; the pair have a daughter, Coco Hayley Gordon Moore.

He and Ranaldo make extensive use of unusual guitar tunings, and often heavily modify their instruments to provide unusual timbres and drones, and they are known for bringing upwards of fifty guitars to every live gig. (They use some guitars for one song only.) In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him and Ranaldo the 33rd and 34th best guitarists in music history.

Other projects
Thurston has also released various material as a solo artist (including one under the pseudonym "David Adelman"), including Psychic Hearts, released in 1995. His upcoming album, Trees Outside The Academy, will be released on September 18, 2007.

Thurston runs a small independent record label, Ecstatic Peace!. It was founded in 1981, and is based in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Artists currently on Ecstatic Peace! include be your own PET, Awesome Color, Black Helicopter, Tam, Notekillers, Magik Markers, Poor School, Tall firs, Pagoda, Monotract, and Mouthus.

Discography

 * Psychic Hearts (1995)
 * Trees Outside The Academy (2007)

SY Biography
(From a booklet that included an extremely detailed discography that was distributed at a special show in June 1999)

"Currently standing almost nine-feet-tall, guitarist Thurston Moore leads w/ his teeth. Mr. Moore's musical baptism was at the hands of Connecticut's "tough love" glam bands of the early 1970s. After abandoning platform shoes for a wardrobe patterned upon guitarist Grant Green's threads on the covers of his Blue Note lps, Mr. Moore was shocked to discover that club sweaters were not considered "cool" when he began attending shows in NYC later in the 1970s. He became a "weekend punk" tout de suite and has barely looked over his shoulder since. Early Max's gigs w/ Gina Harlow & the Cut-Throats led to lucrative work at a copy shop on the Lower East Side. Sonic Youth came soon after. Go figure."

Equipment
See Sonic Youth equipment.