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r 5onec- Icufh hehjm&! Thurston [Ducire hpeuhs! Thurston Moore: Are you taping this? Flagpole: Yeah, it's prob ably too loud. TM: Sonic grind... he's making a Quix-o-Tic live bootleg. He's taping this right now! FP: Yeah, tomorrow morning, this will be the hottest thing selling out of K- mart. [crazy loud incoherent noise babble] Okay, this is going. So how's the new equipment working out? [A van filled with x all of the band's gear was o ripped off last year.] ® TM: New equipment? Well % its not really new, its kinda old > equipment that was lying ^ around the studio. So I really | haven't bought anything new, I n guess; no I didn't even buy any new guitijs. I replaced a couple pedals and there's one new Jazzmaster guitar that I have, but its not new, its sort of an old Jazzmaster that I bought, but I guess it is new. The amp that I'm using was something that was in the studio that I hadn't seen in a long time. The gui tars were guitars that were sort of there but we weren't using, so they're kinda junked-up gui TM: A lot of it has to do with our budge* We can't really afford to have name bands play with us, even if we like them. And we're not really interested in having name bands play with us 'cause they already have something going, but a lot people have never heard of a lot of bands we're into and different musicians that we know. These bands are so used to playing in front of just ten people, and to get them in front of like hundreds of people is really great. Because I think most audiences completely respond to new music that they hear, especially when its really interesting experimental music. Like Quix-O-Tic. FP: There a lot of duets on the new album; I know when the crew cuts a new song the music comes first... TM: What about it? FP: But on the duets... TM: Duets?! FP: Yeah. Like on some of the songs you and [bassist] Kim Gordon are both singing. TM: Right. FP: Is that like a joint effort in writing that material? TM: Well... not so much. The four of us really write a lot of it together, and who ever writes the lyrics is the one who's singing. On this record, we got more involved two or three of us singing certain sections together. That's something we've always wanted to do. I mean, weie not profes sional singers, so it's not like we can do that with any real learned ability, but we ve been getting into doing that more lately. But the ones that we sing together, the main singer is the lyric writer, and it just sort of works out that way; its kinda fun. FP: As far as the new album being called NYC Ghost & Flowers and a lot of folks comparing its style to the beat generation -free formed lyrics and all—was there a conscious effort to go in that direction? TM: Well, I definitely think we were reflecting on our experience in that environment for the last 20 years, and we felt a certain kin ship with that history. Especially after 20 years and reflecting on it. I think a lot of our inspira tions come horn our literary inspirations, and lot of the literature that we're interested in is sub Q * forming in 1981, New York's OilLLt: Sonic Youth has plowed the underground American rock world with its glo rious din of free-form noise experimentalism, performance-art freak show and punk-spirited wall of guitar sound. On June 23, just after performing in Atlanta at the Tabernacle with Stereolab and Quix-O-Tic, guitarist-vocalist Thurston Moore took time to speak briefly backstage with Flagpole corespon dent Simon Dasher. The pair sat in a * dressing room which included a 1940's full size radio that was con tinuously manipulated by members of Quix-O-Tic and most definitely fueled the energy of the entire interview. Here goes: tars. But I made 'em work. Making old new. FP: You guys do a really good job of bringing experimental bands on tour with you, and it gives audiences a look at more bizarre work, and that's good, but how do you think it affects these artists performing in front of a rock audi ence? underground beat literature that is primarily New York-centric. And we did sort of consciously tap into that. FP: A couple miles down the road at an amphitheater, Phish is putting on a show. Do you feel akin to that band whatsoever? TM: Not necessarily. I'm not really that well versed in Phish's music so much. But in a way, a lot of the music we have a association vrith, be it Loren Mazzacane-Connors or even something like the No Neck Blues Band [is] underground music We realize our profile has a history to it, so we are more well known to some degree, but I always thought that genre of underground music lends itself more towards what Phish has tapped into. FP: You've been performing for 20 years: have you noticed a change in audiences over the years? Maybe tamer? [Some Bouncer Guy: "Folks, Its two o'clock; thanks for coming, everybody's gotta leave."] TM: I don't think they've gotten tamer. I think it's a broad awareness of more disparate musical styles that go on with the underground bands. The audience is always changing after a few years. When people get older, they tend to go out less and see concerts because it is more of a youth scene. People get older and get domestic, or they get burnt out on the whole club thing. It's like you always will see a new influx of young people, and it does change. I find more generally that the audiences have more acceptance of broader stylings of music than just wanting to hear specific punk rock or specific whatever, and that's kinda of interesting right now. [Some Bouncer Guy: "Okay, you kids gotta go now."] FP: Okay, Mr. Me ore. It looks like we gotta vacate the premises. Thanks a lot. That's all. Correspondent's note: All in all, everything ended nicely. The Tabernacle staff let us mull around a few minutes longer before shutting it all down. Unfortunately Quix-O-Tic and the radio had to be separated, but no one was hurt. Outside in the lots some kids were hanging out, talking up the show that had blazed on a few hours earlier, and the Atlanta heat was subdued by night and forgotten. Goodnight. Simon Dasher Sonic Youth opens for Pearl Jam at the Philips Arena in Atlanta on Monday, August 7. Do you want to learn more about your local music scene, what the bands sound like and where they're playing next? Do you want your band to be involved? We thought so localmusic.com your bands, your fans, your city m FLAGPOLE AUGUST 2, 2000